Before you start

Social Insurance Number
T4 slips from employers
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, then secondary ties such as bank accounts and a driving licence — rather than on a day count. Your first return covers only the part of the year after that date.
OnlineWho: You
2
File one return by 30 April, covering both governments
BC tax is calculated on the federal return and collected by the CRA. Certified software is free for most situations and free volunteer clinics exist for modest incomes, which many newcomers qualify for in their first year. File even for a short part-year, because the assessed return is what triggers the GST/HST credit, the Canada Child Benefit and the BC climate action tax credit.
OnlineWho: YouBy 30 April
3
File the Speculation and Vacancy Tax declaration by 31 March if you own
Every residential property owner in a designated taxable area must declare each year, even with nothing to report. The whole capital region is designated. Failing to declare is treated as though the property were vacant, and the tax is charged on assessed value — which on a Victoria house is a very large number to lose to an unopened letter.
OnlineWho: YouBy 31 March every year
4
Understand that PST and GST are separate taxes on different things
There is no harmonised rate here. GST is 5% on most goods and services; PST is a separate 7% that applies to some things and not others, with different rates again on alcohol and accommodation. Restaurant meals attract GST but not PST. If you are used to Ontario's single 13%, the arithmetic at the till will surprise you for a month.
OnlineWho: You
5
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 each year. Penalties for non-filing are severe and applied per year, and a property you still own abroad is the usual trigger.
OnlineWho: You
6
Register for CRA My Account once you have filed
This is where tax slips, benefit payments and refunds live. Registration requires information from a filed return, so most newcomers complete it after the first filing rather than before.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Social Insurance Number
T4 and other information slips
Records of foreign income, accounts and property
Property assessment notice and speculation tax declaration letter, if you own
Receipts for medical expenses, childcare and tuition

Things most newcomers don’t know

The speculation tax rates doubled for 2026 and rise again in 2027, and the capital region is fully inside it.

For 2019 to 2025 the rate was 0.5% for Canadian citizens and permanent residents and 2% for foreign owners and untaxed worldwide earners. For 2026 those became 1% and 3%, and for 2027 the foreign rate goes to 4%. All thirteen capital-region municipalities are designated taxable areas. Anyone modelling the cost of holding a second property here on figures published before 2026 is out by a factor of two.

Source: BC — speculation and vacancy tax rates

BC's bracket indexation is paused from 2027 to 2030, which is a tax rise nobody announced as one.

For 2026 the brackets rose 2.2% with inflation. From 2027 through 2030 that indexation stops, so inflation will quietly push income into higher brackets without any rate ever changing — bracket creep as deliberate policy, exactly the thing Nova Scotia was criticised for and stopped doing in 2025. If you are modelling take-home pay over a five-year posting, do not assume the thresholds move.

Source: BC — personal income tax rates

PST is not GST with a different name, and the two do not apply to the same things.

Ontario and the Atlantic provinces harmonised; BC did not. That means 5% federal on most things and a separate 7% provincial tax with its own list of what it applies to, plus different rates on alcohol and accommodation and a set of exemptions that make no intuitive sense. Restaurant food attracts GST only. Budgeting on '12% on everything' is wrong in both directions.

Source: BC — provincial sales tax

Residency for tax is about ties, not about 183 days.

The 183-day rule is the most confidently repeated wrong answer in Canadian tax. Residency is determined by residential ties: a home available to you, a spouse or dependants here, then secondary ties. Someone arriving in November with a lease, a family and a job is a resident from November regardless of the day count, and someone spending 200 days here without ties may not be.

Source: CRA — determining residency status

Common mistakes to avoid

Missing the 31 March speculation tax declaration and being taxed as though the home were empty.
Using pre-2026 speculation tax rates, which were half the current ones.
Assuming BC brackets will keep rising with inflation — indexation is paused for 2027 through 2030.
Budgeting sales tax as a single harmonised rate.
Skipping the first part-year return and forfeiting the benefit entitlements it triggers.
Missing form T1135 on foreign property costing more than CAD 100,000.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.

Make it your personal checklist

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Sources

CRA — Newcomers to Canada — official, Verified August 2026
BC — personal income tax rates — official, Verified August 2026 — records the 2026 brackets and the 2027–2030 indexation pause
BC — provincial sales tax — official, Verified August 2026
BC — speculation and vacancy tax rates — official, Verified August 2026
BC — speculation and vacancy tax taxable areas — official, Verified August 2026 — lists all thirteen capital region municipalities