Corporate Tax Rates and Legislation: Q4 2024 Accounting status

January 06, 2025

Issue 4 – Q4 2024 Accounting status

Legislative changes—October 1 to December 31, 2024
Accounting updates—October 1 to December 31, 2024
Federal and provincial/territorial bills—tabled or received royal assent in 2024
Corporate income tax rates—accounting status (January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2024)

Legislative changes — October 1 to December 31, 2024

Legislative developments from October 1 to December 31, 2024, that affect income taxes, are outlined below.

2024 Federal Fall Economic Statement

On December 16, 2024, the federal government presented its 2024 Fall Economic Statement (economic statement). Key tax measures proposed in the economic statement include:

reinstating:
- the Accelerated Investment Incentive (which provides an enhanced first‑year capital cost allowance [CCA] deduction) for certain qualifying property acquired after December 31, 2024 and available for use before 2034
- the immediate write-off (i.e. 100% CCA deduction) for newly acquired manufacturing and processing (M&P) and specified clean energy equipment and zero‑emission vehicles acquired after December 31, 2024 and available for use before 2030 (generally phased out if available for use after 2029 and before 2034)
enhancing the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) tax incentive program, effective for taxation years that begin after December 15, 2024 (unless otherwise specified) by, among other measures:
- expanding SR&ED investment tax credit (ITC) refundability
- restoring eligibility for capital expenditures for both the deduction against income and the ITC components of the SR&ED program, effective for property acquired (or for lease costs, to amounts that first become payable) after December 15, 2024
expanding eligibility for the Clean Electricity and Clean Hydrogen ITCs and providing design and implementation details of the Electric Vehicle Supply Chain ITC

For more information, see our Tax Insights “2024 Federal Fall Economic Statement: Tax highlightsOpens in a new window.”

Status: As at December 31, 2024, these proposed measures have not been tabled as a bill in the House of Commons and therefore are not considered substantively enacted for Canadian GAAP or enacted for US GAAP

Charitable donations

On December 30, 2024, the Minister of Finance, Dominic LeBlanc, announced that the federal government “intends to amend the Income Tax Act to extend the deadline for making donations eligible for tax support in the 2024 tax year, until February 28, 2025.” This extension is intended to mitigate the impacts of the four‑week Canada Post mail stoppage. Specifics on this proposal are not yet available.

Status: As at December 31, 2024, this proposed measure has not been tabled as a bill in the House of Commons and therefore is not considered substantively enacted for Canadian GAAP or enacted for US GAAP.

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Accounting updates — October 1 to December 31, 2024

There were no significant updates relating to the accounting for income tax.

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Federal and provincial/territorial bills

Table 1 lists key bills that include corporate income tax rate changes or other income tax changes (e.g. for research and development) that were:

tabled or received royal assent during 2024, or
tabled before 2024, but did not receive royal assent before 2024

Table 1: Federal and provincial/territorial bills
Bolded rows indicate a change in status from October 1 to December 31, 2024.

	Legislation		Recognized for accounting purposes
	Bill #	Bill name	Canada		US GAAP
Federal	C-59¹	An Act to implement certain provisions of the fall economic statement tabled in Parliament on November 21, 2023 and certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 28, 2023	May 28/24²	June 20/24
Federal	C-69	An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 16, 2024	June 19/24²		June 20/24
Alberta	10	Financial Statutes Amendment Act, 2024	March 12/24		May 16/24
British Columbia	3	Budget Measures Implementation Act, 2024	February 22/24		April 25/24
Manitoba	37	*The Budget Implementation and Tax Statutes Amendment Act, 2024*	May 6/24		November 7/24
Nova Scotia	419	Financial Measures (2024) Act	March 5/24		April 5/24
Ontario	180	An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various statutes	March 26/24		May 16/24
Québec	49	An Act to give effect to fiscal measures announced in the Budget Speech delivered on 21 March 2023 and to certain other measures	February 8/24		May 7/24
Québec	75	*An Act to give effect to fiscal measures announced in the Budget Speech delivered on 12 March 2024 and to certain other measures*	November 7/24		December 5/24
Saskatchewan	158	The Saskatchewan Commercial Innovation Incentive (Patent Box) Amendment Act, 2024	March 27/24		May 8/24
Bill C-59 includes the legislation to implement the Digital Services Tax Act (DSTA); however, the coming into force of the DSTA required the additional step of an order of the Governor in Council, which was issued on June 28, 2024. The order fixed June 28, 2024 as the date that the DSTA comes into force. For more information, see our Tax Insights “Canada’s Digital Services Tax Act is now law: What is next and how can you prepare?Opens in a new window” (July 5, 2024 update). Because Canada has a minority government, a federal bill is only considered substantively enacted for Canadian GAAP once it passes third reading in the House of Commons.

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Corporate income tax rates—accounting status (January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2024)

The following information excludes Canadian-controlled private corporation small business rates and thresholds.

Table 2: Corporate income tax rates—accounting status
There were no changes in status from October 1 to December 31, 2024.

		Effective date	Rate	Recognized for accounting purposes		Bill #
				Canada	US GAAP
Federal	General and manufacturing and processing (M&P)	Before January 1/21	15%¹	Before January 1/21		N/A
	Provincial SIFT tax factor/rate²	Before January 1/21	Varies²	Before January 1/21		N/A
	Additional tax on banks and life insurers	For taxation years ending after April 7, 2022³	1.5%	December 8/22⁴	December 15/22	C-32
Alberta	General and M&P	Before January 1/21	8%	Before January 1/21		N/A
British Columbia	General and M&P	Before January 1/21	12%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Manitoba	General and M&P	Before January 1/21	12%	Before January 1/21		N/A
New Brunswick	General and M&P	Before January 1/21	14%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Newfoundland and Labrador	General and M&P	Before January 1/21	15%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Northwest Territories	General and M&P	Before January 1/21	11.5%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Nova Scotia	General and M&P	Before January 1/21	14%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Nunavut	General and M&P	Before January 1/21	12%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Ontario	General	Before January 1/21	11.5%	Before January 1/21		N/A
	M&P		10%
	Corporate Minimum Tax (CMT)		2.7%
Prince Edward Island	General and M&P	Before January 1/21	16%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Québec	General and M&P	Before January 1/21	11.5%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Québec	SIFT Distribution Tax	Before January 1/21	Varies⁵	Before January 1/21		N/A
Saskatchewan	General	Before January 1/21	12%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Saskatchewan	M&P	Before January 1/21	10%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Yukon	General	Before January 1/21	12%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Yukon	M&P	Before January 1/21	2.5%	Before January 1/21		N/A
Starting taxation years beginning after 2021, federal Bill C-19 (royal assent: June 23, 2022) temporarily reduces corporate income tax rates for qualified zero‑emission technology manufacturing income by 50% until 2028, with the rate reduction gradually phased out until it is eliminated for taxation years beginning after 2031; these rate reductions are substantively enacted for Canadian GAAP and enacted for US GAAP as at June 23, 2022. Federal Bill C-59 (see Table 1 above): (i) extends the availability of these reduced rates by three years, to 2031, with the rate reduction gradually phased out until it is eliminated for taxation years beginning after 2034; and (ii) expands these reduced rates to income from certain nuclear manufacturing and processing activities, for taxation years beginning after 2023; these measures are considered substantively enacted for Canadian GAAP as at May 28, 2024, and enacted for US GAAP as at June 20, 2024. Except for Québec, the “provincial Specified Investment Flow-Through (SIFT) tax rate” is: ● based on the general provincial corporate income tax rate for each province in which the SIFT has a permanent establishment ● 10% for SIFTs that do not have a permanent establishment in a province The additional tax on banks and life insurers applies on taxable income over $100 million; the exemption is shared by related corporations. For a taxation year that includes April 7, 2022, the additional tax is prorated based on the number of days in the taxation year after April 7, 2022. Because Canada has a minority government, a federal bill is only considered substantively enacted for Canadian GAAP once it passes third reading in the House of Commons. Québec’s SIFT Distribution Tax equals the Québec corporate income tax rate that would apply if the SIFT were a corporation.