How to Make a CRA Tax Instalment Payment and What to Do After a Missed Due Date

You can make a CRA tax instalment payment online, by phone or at your bank by each quarterly due date. Miss one and CRA interest plus a penalty may apply.

By Promissory.ca Editorial Team Reviewed against official Canadian sources Last updated: 2026-09-16

What a Tax Instalment Payment Is

Most Canadian income has tax withheld at the source, but not all of it. Self-employment income, rental income, many types of investment income and pensions paid from outside Canada often arrive with nothing deducted. When that happens, the CRA expects you to prepay part of the tax you will eventually owe instead of waiting until you file. Each quarterly remittance you send is a tax instalment payment credited to your personal income tax account.

An instalment is not a separate tax and it is not a penalty. It is a prepayment. When your return is assessed, the instalments you made are subtracted from the tax you owe, and the difference is either a balance due or a refund.

Who Has to Make a CRA Tax Instalment Payment

The CRA generally expects instalments when your net tax owing is more than $3,000 — or more than $1,800 if you live in Quebec — for the current year, and also exceeded that threshold in either of the two previous years. Because the test looks at more than one year, a single unusual year of extra income may not be enough on its own to pull you into the instalment system.

Residents of Quebec generally send their instalment payments to Revenu Québec rather than to the CRA. The lower federal threshold for Quebec reflects the provincial abatement.

Farmers and fishers

If farming or fishing is your main source of income, the four quarterly dates do not apply. You have a single due date of 31 December. That helps cash flow during the growing or fishing season, but it also means the full amount has to be available at once.

Why the CRA asks for prepayment

Instalments keep tax collection roughly in step with the income that generates it. Four smaller payments through the year are usually easier to absorb than one large balance at filing time.

Tax Instalment Payment Due Dates

When a due date falls on a weekend or a public holiday, a payment received on the next business day is treated as on time. Payments sent through a financial institution's bill payment service can take a few business days to reach the CRA, so schedule them ahead of the deadline rather than on the day itself.

How to Make a Tax Instalment Payment

• CRA My Account or My Payment: sign in and pay directly from a bank account, selecting the instalment period you are paying.
• Online banking: add the CRA as a bill payee at your financial institution and use your social insurance number as the account number. Check the payee name and account format before sending.
• Pre-authorized debit: arrange recurring withdrawals so each quarterly date arrives with the money already committed.
• Credit or debit card through a third-party provider: the CRA accepts card payments only through service providers that add their own fee, so more leaves your account than the instalment itself.
• Cheque or money order: mailed with a completed remittance voucher, allowing time for delivery.

Directing the payment to the right period

An instalment payment should be identified as an instalment. If a payment is not directed to a specific period, it is generally applied to older balances first, which can leave the instalment you meant to pay still showing as outstanding. Use the instalment remittance voucher or the period field in My Account, and keep the confirmation number.

Proving the payment was made

Keep the bank confirmation, the reference number and a copy of the payment record. If the CRA later assesses instalment interest, the date the payment was received is what determines whether it arrived on time.

What Happens If You Miss a Tax Instalment Payment Due Date

A missed instalment does not trigger an immediate demand, but it starts two clocks: interest on the shortfall, and the possibility of an instalment penalty if that interest grows large enough. Both are calculated by the CRA when your return is assessed, so the cost of a missed payment often appears months after the date itself.

Instalment interest

The CRA charges interest on instalments that were late or too small, running from each due date until the amount is paid, at a prescribed rate that changes periodically. Interest also applies to any balance still unpaid after the filing due date, so a shortfall in instalments does not remove the final bill — it adds to it.

There is a partial offset built into the system. If you paid more than was required earlier in the year, the interest the CRA credits on that excess reduces the interest charged on a later shortfall. Overpaying early, or paying a later instalment ahead of its date, can therefore shrink what you owe in interest.

Instalment penalty

If instalment interest passes the threshold set out in the CRA's guidance, a penalty is added on top of the interest. Because the penalty is calculated by reference to the interest, it grows the longer a significant shortfall is left alone. Paying a missed instalment promptly, or building a credit toward the next quarter, is the most practical way to limit both charges.

Reassessment can change the picture

Instalment interest and penalties are usually not final until the return is assessed. If the CRA later reassesses your return and your net tax owing changes, the instalment calculation can change with it. Check the instalment section of your notice of assessment rather than assuming the original figures still stand.

Steps to Take When You Have Missed a Due Date

1. Pay what you can now. Interest stops accumulating on the amount you pay, so a partial payment made today costs less than the same payment made later.
2. Recheck your calculation option. If your income has fallen, a current-year estimate may set a lower required amount; if it has risen, paying at the prior-year level avoids a further shortfall.
3. Plan the next instalment. Paying a little extra on the next date builds a credit that offsets interest on the missed one.
4. Contact the CRA if you cannot pay. A payment arrangement can be discussed, and taxpayer relief is sometimes considered where circumstances were beyond your control. Neither is automatic.
5. Keep your records. Retain confirmations for every instalment so any interest assessment can be checked against your payment dates.

If the shortfall is genuinely unaffordable

Some people bridge a tax instalment with short-term credit and then struggle with the cost of that credit. In Canada the criminal rate of interest is 35% APR, reduced from 48% under section 347 of the Criminal Code. Payday loans, in provinces that permit them, are capped at $14 per $100 borrowed, with a maximum loan of $1,500 and a dishonoured-payment fee capped at $20, and Quebec does not permit payday lending at all. The FCAC illustrates a 14-day $500 payday loan at $14 per $100 as costing $70, roughly 365% APR. That kind of borrowing is built for short emergencies, not a recurring quarterly obligation, so it is worth comparing a CRA payment arrangement before taking on high-cost credit.

Reducing Instalments Over Time

Instalments follow income. If the income behind them changes, the requirement usually changes too, though the adjustment can lag. Practical steps include:

• Request additional withholding on salary or pension income so less tax is owed at filing.
• Review your instalment calculation option regularly, since the required amount is recalculated as your situation changes.
• Move a set share of every irregular payment you receive into a separate account so the quarterly dates are already funded.
• Keep your address, banking details and contact information current with the CRA so notices and pre-authorized debits are not missed.

Records, Privacy and Staying Organised

Keep instalment confirmations with your tax records for the retention period the CRA sets. Third-party payment providers that process instalment payments are private-sector organisations, so PIPEDA governs how they handle your personal information.

Many people assume a missed instalment damages a credit file the way a missed loan payment would. In general, the CRA does not report personal tax balances to Equifax Canada or TransUnion Canada the way a lender reports a consumer account, so the larger risks are interest, penalty and collection activity. That is not a reason to treat a missed instalment casually — a steady pattern of shortfalls is expensive and hard to unwind.