If you recall last year tax time hit right at the beginning of the pandemic. The official file by date was June1,2020 but late filing fees and penalties were waved until September. That meant that many people waited longer to get their taxes filed. DO NOT make that mistake this year. Last Day to file your income tax is April 30, 2021. This is particularly important if you have filed late in the past and have typically owed money. If you still owe a balance from last year you will want to pay very close attention to what the CRA is saying. Remember that Interest and penalties start compounding daily as of May 1, 2021! That means if you file April 30 and owe you will have interest starting May 1.
This is what CRA has is saying:
Late-filing penalty
The CRA will charge you a late-filing penalty if you file your 2020 tax return after April 30, 2021 and you owe tax that remains unpaid at that time. The penalty is 5% of your 2020 balance owing, plus 1% of your balance owing for each full month your return was filed after April 30, 2021, to a maximum of 12 months.
If the CRA charged a late-filing penalty on your return for 2017, 2018, or 2019 your late-filing penalty for 2020 may be 10% of your 2020 balance owing, plus 2% of your 2020 balance owing for each full month your return was filed after April 30, 2021, to a maximum of 20 months.
So, if you file late and owe there is a good chance that you will owe even more with extra penalties then you would have seen in previous years.