If you carried on a business in 2023, use Schedule L to report your gross income and your net income (or net loss), calculated according to the accrual method. However, if you are a farmer, a fisher or a person who earns commissions, you can use the cash method to calculate your net income.

Supporting documents

With your return, enclose either form TP-80-V, Business or Professional Income and Expenses, or your financial statements. If you carried on more than one business, you must submit a separate form or separate statements for each business. If your income was derived from farming or fishing, enclose your financial statements.

Fiscal period

All sole proprietorships and partnerships are required to report their income on the basis of a fiscal period ending either on December 31 or on a date other than December 31, which must be the same as the date chosen for federal purposes. If the fiscal period ends on a date other than December 31, the business must add to its income the estimated income for the period between the end date of the fiscal period and January 1 of the following year. To calculate this estimated income, complete form TP-80.1-V, Calculation of Business or Professional Income, Adjusted to December 31. Enclose the form with your return.

Revocation of an election to end your fiscal period on a date other than December 31

If your fiscal period ended on a date other than December 31, 2023, but you have elected to adopt an end date of December 31, you are required to submit two copies of form TP-80-V or two sets of financial statements: one for the fiscal period ended before December 31, 2023, and the other for the fiscal period ended on December 31, 2023.

Once you have adopted December 31 as the end date of your fiscal period, you cannot revert to a fiscal period ending on a date other than December 31.

For more information, see guide IN-155-V, Business and Professional Income.

Business loss

If your business sustained a loss, enter the amount of the loss, preceded by a minus sign (−), on the appropriate line of Schedule L. As a rule, if this amount is more than the total of your income from other sources, you can use the excess to reduce your income for the previous three years or (in most cases) your income for the next twenty years. If you want to use a loss to reduce your income from previous years, complete form TP-1012.A-V, Carry-Back of a Loss, and file it separately from your return.

Virtual currency (lines 12 and 22 of Schedule L)

There may be tax consequences if, as part of your business activities, you:

• exchange or sell virtual currency on a regular basis by speculating on its value; or
• accept it as payment for the sale of goods or services.

Likewise, there may also be tax consequences if you operate a cryptocurrency mining business and receive a reward for your services.

For more information, see guide IN-155-V, Business and Professional Income.

Property flipping (home or rental property) [lines 12 and 22 of Schedule L]

If, in 2023, you disposed of (sold, transferred, exchanged, gave, etc.) a residential property (including rental property or a right to purchase) that you owned for less than 365 consecutive days and no life event justified the disposition, we consider that you flipped the property. The profit on the sale is therefore fully taxable as business income.

For more information, go to Flipping Your Property (Home or Residential Complex).

Farming (lines 13 and 23 of Schedule L)

On line 13 of Schedule L, enter the gross income resulting from the operation of a farming business. If you were a member of a partnership, enter the partnership's gross income.

On line 23 of Schedule L, enter the net income (or net loss) resulting from the operation of a farming business. If you were a member of a partnership, enter your share of the net income (or of the net loss). If you were a specified member of a partnership, see “Income from a partnership of which you were a specified member” below.

If you sustained a farm loss, contact us to find out how to calculate it.

End-of-career allowance received by a physician (line 28 of Schedule L)

If you are a physician and you received an allowance as part of a program providing end-of-career allowances (provided you did not practise medicine as a self-employed person in 2023), enter the allowance on line 28 of Schedule L. If you received the allowance as a salaried physician, enter it on line 154 instead.

Member of a partnership

If you were a member of a partnership, enter the partnership's gross income and your share of the net income (or of the net loss). If you were a specified member of a partnership, see “Income from a partnership of which you were a specified member” below.

If you did not receive an RL-15 slip, enclose a copy of the partnership's financial statements or form TP-80-V, Business or Professional Income and Expenses.

Income from a partnership of which you were a retiring partner (line 28 of Schedule L)

Enter the share of a partnership's income or losses that the partnership allocated to you:

• as a retiring partner, for the period in which you were not a member of the partnership; or 
• as the surviving spouse of a deceased member of the partnership (provided you were not a member or employee of the partnership and did not carry out any activities on behalf of the partnership). This amount may be shown in box 1-10 of your RL-15 slip.

Income from a partnership of which you were a specified member (line 29 of Schedule L)

Enter your share of the income or losses of a partnership of which you were a specified member. This amount is shown in box 1 of your RL-15 slip if the code “0” or “1” appears in box 40 of the slip.

If, on line 29 of Schedule L, you enter a loss from a partnership of which you were a specified member, see the instructions for line 260 and complete Schedule N.

If you did not receive an RL-15 slip, enclose a copy of the partnership's financial statements. Enter your share of the partnership's income, excluding any amounts you can report elsewhere in your income tax return.

Commissions you received from a business in the years following the end of its operations (line 30 of Schedule L)

Enter commissions you received from a business in the years following the end of its operations on line 30 of Schedule L, instead of on line 26. You are not required to pay the Québec Pension Plan (QPP) contribution or the Québec parental insurance plan (QPIP) premium on this amount.

Note that any commissions owed to you while you operated your business that were not paid in the year you ceased operations must be entered on line 26 of Schedule L.

Insurable earnings (QPIP) and pensionable earnings (QPP) of a person responsible for a family-type resource or an intermediate resource (line 40 of Schedule L)

If you received an RL-29 slip, enter on line 40 of Schedule L the amount of your insurable earnings and pensionable earnings (calculated on form LM-53-V, Insurable Earnings Under the QPIP and Pensionable Earnings Under the QPP of a Person Responsible for a Family-Type Resource or an Intermediate Resource, which you must enclose with your return). This amount will be used to determine your Québec Pension Plan (QPP) contribution and Québec parental insurance plan (QPIP) premium on income from self-employment. For more information, see the instructions for lines 439 and 445.

Foreign business income

You must report your foreign business income (in Canadian dollars). See "Foreign currency" under Total Income.

Financial assistance received as a result of a disaster

If you received financial assistance as a result of a disaster, see guide IN-125-V, The Tax Effects of Financial Assistance Received as a Result of a Disaster.

Government payments (RL-27 slip)

If you received an RL-27 slip, the amounts shown on the slip must be included in the calculation of your business income.

Income averaging for forest producers

If, under the Sustainable Forest Development Act, you are a certified forest producer (or a member of a partnership that is a certified forest producer) regarding a private forest, you may be able to request that a portion of the income generated by the non-retail sale of timber produced in the private forest be averaged. See point 21 in the instructions for line 297.

Professional dues

In calculating your business income, do not take into account professional dues paid to maintain your professional status, dues paid to a recognized artists' association or the contribution paid to the Office des professions du Québec. However, these amounts entitle you to a tax credit. See the instructions for line 397.

Filing deadline

If, in 2023, you or your spouse carried on a business or earned income as a person responsible for a family-type resource or an intermediate resource, the deadline for filing your 2023 income tax return is extended to June 15, 2024. Regardless of the date on which you file your return, any balance due for 2023 must be paid by April 30, 2024. After that date, we will calculate interest on the unpaid balance.

If the expenditures you incurred in carrying on your business relate principally to tax shelters, the filing deadline cannot be extended to June 15, 2024.

Labour costs

If you incurred labour costs (other than salaries and wages paid to your employees), you must provide information about every person or business that carried out work for any of the following purposes:

• maintaining, repairing or renovating a building from which you earned rental income, or a building that you owned and where you operated a business;
• maintaining, repairing or renovating commercial premises you rented; or
• maintaining land from which you earned rental income.

Complete form TP-1086.R.23.12-V, Costs Incurred for Work on an Immovable, and enclose it with your return. If you do not provide the required information, you are liable to a penalty.

Copyright income

If your total income from copyrights or public lending rights was less than $60,000, and you are the first owner of the rights, you can claim a deduction on line 297. See point 16 in the instructions for line 297.

Investments entitling you to certain tax benefits

If you invested in a business, enter your share of the income or losses resulting from the investment.

If you invested in a tax shelter and you want to claim a deduction for or a loss on your investment, enclose a copy of form TP-1079.6-V, Statement of Losses, Deductions and Tax Credits Respecting a Tax Shelter, with your return. Contact us for the definition of “tax shelter” under the Taxation Act.

Interest paid after you ceased to carry on a business

You may be able to deduct all or part of the interest you paid on loans that you took out in order to earn income from a business if you paid the interest after ceasing to carry on the business. Contact us to determine the deduction to which you are entitled.

For more information, see guide IN-155-V, Business and Professional Income.