Your paycheque stubs from last year show $600 in income tax deductions. Maybe more.
That money is probably coming back to you. But only if you ask for it.
Most teens never do. Nobody walks you through this when you start a job. Your employer hands you a pay stub, explains nothing, and by February you get a T4 slip in the mail that looks like it was designed to confuse you. So it gets shuffled to the bottom of a pile.
Filing a tax return as a teen is not complicated. It takes about 30 minutes if you have the right slip. And in most cases, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will send money back to you, deposited straight into your bank account rather than a cheque three months later that you might forget about.
Here is the full picture.
Do You Actually Have to File?
Probably not.
CRA requires you to file a return if you owe taxes, if CRA has formally asked you to file, or if you want to apply for specific benefits. For most teens with part-time income, none of those situations apply.
But "not required" and "should not bother" are two very different things.
Filing when you don't legally have to is how you access a refund, build up RRSP contribution room, and eventually qualify for the GST/HST credit. Miss a few years and you don't just lose this year's refund. You lose the compounding effect of room you should have been building.
The short rule: if you earned any employment income last year, you should file.
What Is a T4 and How Do You Get One?
Your T4 is a tax slip your employer is legally required to send you by the end of February each year. It is a summary of what you earned and what was deducted from your pay.
The boxes you care about most:
- Box 14: Employment income. Total gross pay before deductions.
- Box 22: Income tax deducted. This is the number that could come back to you.
- Box 18: Employee's EI premiums. Employment insurance deducted from each cheque.
- Box 16: Employee's CPP contributions. Only deducted if you were 18 or older during the year. Under 18, this box is typically blank.
Most employers mail the T4 to your address on file. Many also post it through an online payroll portal (Dayforce, ADP, Ceridian). If you worked two jobs, you get two T4 slips. Both go on your return.
If February ends and you haven't received it, contact your employer directly. They are legally obligated to send it.
The Refund: Why You Probably Overpaid
Here is the math.
Federally, the first $16,129 you earn in 2025 is completely sheltered from income tax. This is called the basic personal amount. Earn less than that, and you owe zero federal income tax.
Most teens with part-time jobs earn well under this threshold. But your employer does not know that at the start of the year. They estimate your annual earnings and withhold income tax from every cheque based on that estimate. If you only worked summers, or switched jobs, or started mid-year, there is a good chance they over-withheld.
That extra income tax sits with CRA until you file a return and claim it back.
For a teen who earned $12,000 in the year, the income tax refund can easily be $300 to $700. Sometimes more, depending on the province.
One thing to know: EI premiums and CPP contributions are not refunded the same way. If you had EI deducted and earned under the basic personal amount, the premium creates a non-refundable tax credit. It reduces what you owe, but it does not come back to you directly as cash if you already owe zero. CPP works similarly. The income tax overpayment, though? That comes back dollar for dollar.
Building RRSP Contribution Room (Even If You're 17)
You are not going to open an RRSP today, and nobody expects you to.
But here is something worth understanding: the RRSP room you build now does not expire. It carries forward forever, waiting for the day you actually have money to invest.
A Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) is a savings account where you can invest and not pay tax on the growth until you withdraw it in retirement. The amount you are allowed to contribute each year is based on your earned income from the previous year. The formula is 18% of earned income.
Earn $13,000 this year, and you build $2,340 in RRSP room for next year. That room sits in your CRA account even if you never contribute to it until you're 28.
Filing a tax return is what tells CRA your earned income, which is what triggers the room to accumulate. Skip a year of filing and that year's room never gets added.
At 17 this feels theoretical. At 27, when you land your first real job and want to start investing, you will be glad your room has been building since you were a teenager.
The GST/HST Credit: Money Every Quarter
The GST/HST credit is a quarterly payment from the federal government. It exists to help lower-income Canadians offset the sales tax they pay on everyday purchases.
You have to be 19 or older to receive it. But here is the part that trips people up: if you file a return in the year you turn 18, CRA automatically assesses your eligibility when you hit 19. You do not fill out a separate application. You just file, and CRA does the math.
The amount depends on your income and family situation. For a single person with low income and no dependents, it is worth a few hundred dollars a year, paid in four installments (usually January, April, July, and October).
That money does not show up unless you have a return on file.
If you turned 18 last year and filed, you could start receiving quarterly GST credit payments this year without doing anything extra.
How to File for Free
There is no good reason to pay anyone to file a simple teen return.
Wealthsimple Tax is the easiest option. It is free, fully online, and walks you through every field in plain language. Most teens with a single T4 can finish in under 30 minutes. It tells you your refund amount before you submit, so there are no surprises.
NETFILE-certified software. CRA maintains a list of free certified programs. Several are zero-cost for simple returns. Search "CRA NETFILE certified software" to see the full list.
Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP). Free tax clinics run by volunteers trained by CRA. Available in most communities each spring. If you search "free tax clinic" plus your city name, you will likely find one nearby. You bring your T4 and ID, they file it for you at no charge. Completely legitimate.
If your return is simple (one or two T4 slips, no self-employment income, no investments), choose one of these and do it yourself. It is not as complicated as it looks.
Your CRA My Account
Before or after you file, set up a CRA My Account at canada.ca. You'll need your Social Insurance Number (SIN) and some basic personal information.
Your CRA My Account shows you:
- Your RRSP contribution room (updated after each filed return)
- Whether you qualify for GST/HST credit payments and how much
- Your filed returns and Notices of Assessment
- Any refunds or amounts owing
It takes about 10 minutes to register. Once you have it, you can check in any time and see your actual numbers.
One Next Step
Find your T4.
If you worked last year and the slip hasn't arrived, contact your employer or check your online payroll portal. Once you have it, go to Wealthsimple Tax, create a free account, and enter the information from your slip. It walks you through the rest.
At the end, before you submit, you will see your refund estimate. For most teens doing this for the first time, that number is higher than expected.
The refund was always yours to begin with. Filing is simply how you go and collect it.