Updated Checked by the Tax-Services.ca editorial team How we check
Corporate tax by country is a comparison of headline rates, and we can’t give you a checked world table here. What we can check is Canada: the federal general rate is 15%, the federal small business rate is 9% on the first $500,000, and each province or territory adds its own rate on top.
Why a country rate is never the whole answer
Ask two people for a country’s corporate rate and you’ll get two numbers. One is the statutory rate, the one written in the law. The other is what companies actually pay after deductions, credits and timing rules, and it can sit well below the first. Neither one tells you what a small firm keeps.
Canada shows why. There’s no single rate, because the federal tax and a provincial or territorial tax are stacked. A company in Manitoba and a company in New Brunswick pay the same federal rate and very different totals. Comparing “Canada” with another country means picking a province first.
What does Canada charge?
Here are the combined federal and provincial rates for a Canadian-controlled private corporation in 2026, from the CRA rate pages. The small rate applies to active business income up to the business limit, and the general rate applies to the rest.
| Province or territory | Combined small business rate | Combined general rate |
|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | 11.0% | 27.0% |
| Manitoba | 9.0% | 27.0% |
| New Brunswick | 11.5% | 29.0% |
| Nova Scotia (limit $700,000) | 10.5% | 29.0% |
| Yukon | 9.0% | 27.0% |
| Northwest Territories | 11.0% | 26.5% |
| Nunavut | 12.0% | 27.0% |
We left out Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and a few others on purpose. Ontario cut its small business rate on July 1, 2026, so a calendar-year figure is a blend that we derived ourselves, and the 2027 combined rate should be 11.2%. Quebec has its own return and rules. For those, use the corporate tax calculator and check the result against the provincial page.
How much does the same income cost in two places?
Take $300,000 of active business income in a qualifying CCPC. In Manitoba the total is $27,000, or 9.0%. In New Brunswick it’s $34,500, or 11.5%. That gap is $7,500 a year inside one country, and it comes from the province alone.
Now drop the CCPC status. The same $300,000 in New Brunswick with no small business rate costs $87,000, which is 29.0%. The rate you get depends on who owns the company and what it does much more than on its address.
Smaller numbers tell the same story. On $100,000 of small-business income, a Yukon company pays $9,000, a Northwest Territories one pays $11,000 and a Nunavut one pays $12,000. From coast to coast the federal piece is identical, and the few thousand bucks of difference is all territorial.
What changes when a company works abroad?
Once a company earns money in another country, two tax systems can be involved. Canada publishes a list of its tax treaties, but we haven’t checked any single treaty for this page, so we can’t say what any of them does. Rates, withholding on dividends and what counts as a taxable presence differ by country, so a foreign rate from a chart isn’t enough to plan on.
We also haven’t verified any other country’s corporate rate. If you need one, take it from that country’s own tax authority, and check which year it applies to. Do you have foreign income? That’s one of the few cases where an accountant who knows the treaty earns their fee.
Is Canada’s rate high or low compared with other countries?
Nobody can answer that with one number, which is the point of this page. A fair comparison needs the same year, the same kind of company and the same definition of “rate” on both sides. A headline figure from a news chart usually fails all three tests. If a ranking matters to a decision, go to the source behind it and read what it actually measured.
Mistakes when comparing rates
Comparing a foreign headline rate with Canada’s 9% small rate is the classic one. That 9% is federal only and needs a provincial rate added. Another is ignoring the second layer: profit in the company is taxed once, and paying it out as a dividend is taxed again in your hands, which you can model with the dividend tax calculator.
The calculator also skips associated corporations and the passive income and taxable capital limits, so large or connected groups can pay more than it shows. To see how a rate plays out on margins, try the profit margin calculator.
What this page is based on
Canadian rates come from the Canada Revenue Agency corporation tax rate page and its provincial and territorial pages, read in September 2026. This site has no link with the CRA or any government, and it doesn’t publish other countries’ rates.
Frequently asked questions
What is the corporate tax rate in Canada?
The federal general rate is 15% and the small business rate is 9% on the first $500,000. Provinces add their own rate, so the combined figure differs by province.
Why is there no single Canadian rate?
Federal and provincial taxes are added together. Manitoba's small business total is 9.0% and New Brunswick's is 11.5%.
Can I use another country's headline rate to compare?
Only with care. Statutory rates ignore deductions, credits and withholding, and we haven't verified other countries' rates.
Do tax treaties lower Canadian corporate tax?
They set which country taxes certain income. We haven't checked any individual treaty, so read the text for the country you deal with.
Does a foreign company pay the same rate as a Canadian one?
Not necessarily. The small business rate is only for Canadian-controlled private corporations.
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