Before you start

Social Insurance Number
T4 and Relevé 1 slips from employers — you receive both
Records of foreign income and foreign property
A determination of the date you became a tax resident

Step-by-step

1
Establish the date you became a tax resident
Canadian tax residency turns on residential ties — a home, a spouse, dependants, and secondary ties like bank accounts and a driving licence — rather than a day count. Your first return covers only the part of the year after that date.
OnlineWho: You
2
File two returns, federal and Quebec, every year
A federal return to the Canada Revenue Agency and a separate provincial return to Revenu Québec, with different forms and different credits. Certified software handles both from one set of inputs. The deadline for both is 30 April for most people.
OnlineWho: YouBy 30 April
3
Expect two slips for the same employment
Quebec employers issue a federal T4 and a provincial Relevé 1 for the same income. Missing the Relevé 1 means the Quebec return cannot be completed. The same doubling applies to investment and tuition slips.
Via employerWho: YouFebruary–March
4
Report foreign property above the threshold on form T1135
Residents holding specified foreign property costing more than CAD 100,000 in total must file this federally each year. Penalties for non-filing are severe and applied per year.
OnlineWho: You
5
Check the Quebec-specific credits you are entitled to
The solidarity tax credit, the work premium, childcare credits and the drug plan premium are all handled on the Quebec return and have no federal equivalent. The solidarity credit in particular requires a schedule most newcomers do not know to complete.
OnlineWho: You
6
Understand that your first year gives you no RRSP room
RRSP contribution room is based on the previous year's Canadian earned income, so a newcomer has none in year one. TFSA room starts from the year you became a resident.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Social Insurance Number
T4 and Relevé 1 slips
Records of foreign income, accounts and property
Rent receipts or the RL-31 slip from your landlord, for the solidarity credit
Receipts for medical expenses, childcare and tuition

Things most newcomers don’t know

Quebec is the only province where you file two income tax returns.

Every other province has its tax calculated on the federal return and collected by the Canada Revenue Agency. Quebec administers its own, so residents file separately with Revenu Québec using different forms and a different set of credits. Certified software carries the data across so it is not double the work, but it is double the deadlines, double the slips and double the correspondence — and every piece of Canadian tax advice written for a general audience quietly assumes one return.

Source: Revenu Québec

You get two slips for the same job, and the provincial one is the easy one to lose.

Quebec employers issue a federal T4 and a provincial Relevé 1 covering the same employment income, and banks and universities issue matching pairs too. The Quebec return cannot be completed without the RL slips, and they often arrive separately and later. Newcomers who file the federal return first and assume they are finished discover the gap in April.

Source: Revenu Québec

The solidarity tax credit needs an RL-31 from your landlord, and tenants routinely miss it.

Quebec's solidarity credit has a housing component, and claiming it requires the RL-31 slip that landlords must issue to tenants each year. A great many tenants never receive one, never ask, and quietly forgo a credit they are entitled to. Ask the landlord in February — the obligation is theirs and most will produce it once prompted.

Source: Revenu Québec

Canadian tax residency is decided by ties, not by counting days.

People arrive expecting a 183-day rule; there is one, but it is a secondary test. The primary test is residential ties — where your home is, where your spouse and dependants are, then secondary ties like bank accounts and a driving licence. You can become a Canadian tax resident well before 183 days, and worldwide income is taxable from that date.

Source: Canada Revenue Agency