Updated Checked by the Tax-Services.ca editorial team How we check
QuickBooks self employment is a bookkeeping product, and no bookkeeping tool decides your tax. The CRA cares that you can prove every dollar of income and expense for six years, in any format that’s clear and easy to read. On $80,000 of net business income in Ontario, the bill is $22,126, so the records behind that number are worth getting right.
What does QuickBooks self employment have to do for you?
QuickBooks gets named once here, as an example of a product people search for. We couldn’t confirm what any version costs, which features it has or how it compares with rivals, and those details change. Check the vendor’s own page before you pay.
So judge any tool against what the CRA asks of a sole proprietor. Your records must show each sale with a date, an amount and a source. Each expense needs a receipt showing the date, the seller’s name and address, and what you bought. When a receipt is missing, write down the same details in your expense log.
The CRA doesn’t recommend any set of books. Its keeping records page says records can be paper, electronic or a mix of the two, and that they must be kept organized. You don’t send them in with your return. You keep them ready in case the CRA asks.
How long do you keep the records?
Six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to. That’s the general rule, and there are exceptions. Papers about property you still own, for instance, should stay until you’ve sold it and then for the six years.
This is where software earns its money, because a cloud tool keeps your file even when your laptop dies, your phone goes in a lake or you change accountants in year four. Check that you can export everything. A tool that traps your data after you cancel is a poor bargain when you need six years of history.
What does self-employment cost in tax?
More than the same pay as an employee, because you pay both halves of CPP. The rate is 11.9% on earnings between $3,500 and $74,600, up to a maximum of $8,460.90, and a second CPP band applies above that.
| Net business income, Ontario | Income tax | CPP, both halves | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | $4,221.13 | $4,343.50 | $8,564.63 |
| $80,000 | $13,233.57 | $8,892.90 | $22,126.47 |
Those come from the self-employed tax calculator. It leaves out EI and GST/HST, and business costs must be taken off before you enter your income. The same $80,000 in Alberta comes to $21,726.92, because the provincial tax is lower.
What does a simple monthly routine look like?
Take Sam, a freelance designer in Calgary. Once a month, usually the first Sunday, he sits down for twenty minutes. He matches every deposit to an invoice, tags each expense with a category, snaps any receipt he hasn’t scanned, and checks his running total of sales. Nothing fancy.
At tax time, Sam’s accountant gets one tidy export instead of a year of guesswork. That matters whichever tool you use, whether it’s QuickBooks, another app or a plain spreadsheet. The habit does the work, not the logo.
What should be ready at year end?
Four things: total sales for the year, expenses by category, a list of any equipment you bought that lasts longer than a year, and a note of the business share of home and phone costs. With those in hand, filling in form T2125 is an hour’s work instead of a weekend.
Also pull the year’s bank and card statements and check that the totals agree with your books. If they don’t, hunt down the gap now. A mismatch of a few bucks is usually a missed fee, but a mismatch of hundreds is a missing invoice.
When do you need to register for GST/HST?
When your taxable sales pass $30,000. The CRA counts this over four consecutive calendar quarters, so a rolling year, not the calendar year. If one quarter alone goes over $30,000, you must register at once and start charging the tax on the sale that crossed the line.
Good software flags this as invoices go out, and a spreadsheet does the job too if you actually watch the running total, which most people forget to do until a client asks for a GST number. To see what the tax does to a price, the GST/HST calculator turns $100 into $113.00 at 13%, which is Ontario’s rate.
What mistakes cost self-employed people money?
Mixing personal and business spending is the big one.
A separate account for the business turns bookkeeping into a matching job instead of a detective story.
Next comes tax that catches you out in April. Nothing is withheld from your income, so the whole bill lands at once. The instalments calculator uses a $3,000 threshold and shows four quarterly dates when payments are needed. The filing deadline for self-employed people is June 15, but any tax owing is still due April 30.
And there’s the feature trap. A polished app with mileage tracking and invoice reminders is nice, but it won’t tell you what’s deductible. That is a tax question, and the CRA’s own pages answer it.
Where this information comes from
Record rules come from the Canada Revenue Agency‘s guidance on business records and record keeping. Tax and CPP figures use the 2026 federal and provincial data we checked in September 2026. The self-employed CPP maximum for the second band is twice the employee amount, which we could not read directly on a CRA page. We’re an independent site, and no government body is behind it.
Frequently asked questions
How long must a sole proprietor keep records?
Generally six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to. Some records, such as those for property you still hold, stay longer.
Does the CRA approve a bookkeeping app?
The CRA says it doesn't recommend any set of books. Computer records only need to be clear and easy to read.
When must a freelancer register for GST/HST?
When taxable sales pass $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters. If one quarter alone passes it, you register at once.
When is the self-employed tax deadline?
You file by June 15, but any tax owing is still due April 30.
How much tax does $80,000 of self-employment income cost?
In Ontario it's $22,126.47 for 2026: $13,233.57 of income tax and $8,892.90 of CPP. It leaves out EI, GST/HST and business costs.
- Self-employed taxes in Canada: income, CPP and GST
How tax works when you are self-employed in Canada: reporting income and expenses, paying both halves of CPP, instalments and when to register for GST