Starting a business in Ontario in 2026: the legal checklist

Setting up an Ontario business legally takes seven steps in a fixed order, and the main government registration fees run $300 or less. Here is the order, what each step costs (fees checked September 28, 2026), and where founders trip, including the records and filings a corporation owes after the day it is created.

Sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation. The choice drives liability, tax, and everything else on this list, and we covered it in detail in our guide to choosing an Ontario business structure. The short version: incorporate if the business carries real risk or earns more than you spend; start simple if it does not, and revisit as revenue grows.

Before you fall in love with a name, search it. The Ontario Business Registry↗ checks registered business names in the province, and a named corporation needs a NUANS (Newly Upgraded Automated Name Search) report, a broader search of corporate names and trademarks across Canada. Two cautions. First, registering a business name gives you almost no exclusive right to it; it is a public record, and it gives you no brand protection. Second, a name that clears the registry can still infringe someone's trademark. Search the Canadian trademarks database↗ too, before the signage and the domain are paid for.

Fees below come from the province's cost and time table for registrations↗, updated April 1, 2026, and we checked them on September 28, 2026.

• Sole proprietorship or partnership: If you trade under any name other than your own, the Business Names Act↗ requires you to register it through the Ontario Business Registry. It costs $60 online and the registration is effective for five years. Renewal costs $60, and the Act gives you 60 days after expiry to renew for a late fee. The five-year expiry is the part founders forget.
• Ontario corporation: File articles of incorporation online for $300, plus the NUANS report for a named corporation. A numbered corporation skips the name search. A corporation that trades under a name other than its corporate name registers that name too.
• Federal corporation: Incorporate through Corporations Canada↗ for $200 online. Federal incorporation gives you the right to use your corporate name across Canada. A federal corporation that begins to carry on business in Ontario also files an initial return with the Ontario Business Registry within 60 days ($0), and registers in each other province where it carries on business.

Ontario or federal: the OBCA and the CBCA

Ontario corporations are created under the Business Corporations Act (OBCA) and federal ones under the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA). Both give you limited liability, and for a business that operates only in Ontario the OBCA is usually the simpler path. A CBCA corporation costs less to create but adds the Ontario initial return and filings in other provinces, and a corporate name gives you no trademark rights on its own.

Director residency is the difference that catches non-resident founders. Ontario removed its resident-Canadian director requirement in July 2021, while the federal statute still makes a quarter of the board resident Canadians↗, and a board of fewer than four needs at least one. If you are starting from outside Canada, or one of two founders lives abroad, that rule can decide which statute you incorporate under.

The business number↗ is your single identifier with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), and program accounts hang off it: goods and services tax and harmonized sales tax (GST/HST), payroll, corporate income tax, import-export. Incorporating usually generates one automatically; sole proprietors register when they first need a program account.

The one that catches people is GST/HST. Under the CRA's small supplier rules↗, you stop being a small supplier when your worldwide taxable revenues pass $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over four consecutive calendar quarters. The CRA's plain-language page on when to register and charge GST/HST↗ walks through the same test. From that point you owe tax whether or not you have registered, and the exact date you start charging depends on which test you tripped. Many founders register voluntarily before the threshold: you charge 13% HST in Ontario either way once registered, and in exchange you recover the HST you pay on your own expenses through input tax credits.

There is no single business licence in Ontario. What you need depends on what you do and where you do it: municipalities license everything from restaurants to contractors to home businesses, the province regulates sectors from real estate to security to liquor, and federal rules cover food, transport, and imports. BizPaL↗, a joint federal, provincial, territorial and municipal tool, generates a permit list from your business type and location, and the federal starting a business hub↗ collects the rest of the paperwork in one place. We keep the main registries and agencies on one page of government links for starting a business.

Check municipal zoning before you sign a lease: a commercial unit that cannot legally house your use is still a unit you owe rent on. And if you are running the business from home, check your municipality's home occupation rules and tell your home insurer. An undisclosed business can be a reason for a denied claim.

Hire your first worker in most Ontario industries and you have ten calendar days to register with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)↗. Some sectors are exempt, but the exemptions are narrower than owners assume, and registering late may mean retroactive premiums and penalties. If an unregistered worker is injured, the exposure is far worse. Payroll deductions follow the same logic: a payroll account with the CRA, and income tax, Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions and Employment Insurance (EI) premiums withheld from the first paycheque.

• A separate business bank account from day one. For a corporation it is essential: mixing corporate and personal funds is how owners hand the CRA an audit trail and creditors an argument that the corporation is a sham.
• Insurance matched to the business: commercial general liability at minimum, professional liability if you advise, coverage for premises and stock if you have them.
• Written contracts for whatever the business actually does: client terms, supplier agreements, and, if there is more than one owner, a shareholders' or partnership agreement. That agreement is a document many founders skip.
• A record-keeping system. Business records have to be kept for six years for the CRA, and the corporation's minute book, registers and resolutions belong in one place. Once you have picked a fiscal year end, our corporate filing deadline calculator turns it into the dates you owe.

• Business name registration: $60, renewed every five years for $60.
• OBCA incorporation: $300 online, plus the NUANS report for a named corporation.
• Federal incorporation: $200 online.
• Annual return and notices of change: $0 for an Ontario corporation.
• Later changes: $150 to amend articles and $26 for a certificate of status, which lenders and buyers often request.
• Trademark application: $491.06 online for the first class in 2026, and $499.41 from January 1, 2027.

Those are the government's charges. Legal fees, the NUANS report, insurance premiums, permits, and your accountant sit on top, and the largest number is usually the lease or equipment, not the paperwork.

Incorporating starts a set of duties that run for as long as the corporation exists. The sections below cover the records to set up in the first month, the ownership register, the annual filings, the brand, the contracts and the first hire.

Set up the corporation's records in the first month

Filing the articles creates the corporation, and the directors then pass organizational resolutions that appoint officers, issue the first shares against payment, adopt bylaws, and set the fiscal year end. The resolutions and the registers of directors, officers and shareholders go in a minute book, and a lender, buyer or auditor will ask to see it. Our post on ongoing compliance for an Ontario corporation lists what the OBCA requires you to keep and where.

Keep a register of who really owns the corporation

Since January 1, 2023, a privately held Ontario corporation must keep a register of individuals with significant control, meaning anyone who owns or controls 25% or more of the voting shares or of the fair market value of all shares. Today nothing is filed with a registry: the corporation keeps the register, updates it at least once a year and within 15 days of learning about a change, and hands it over if law enforcement, tax or certain regulatory authorities ask. Ontario has legislated a requirement to file significant-control information with the province (Bill 68, Royal Assent November 27, 2025), but as of September 28, 2026 it is not yet in force, so check the Ontario beneficial ownership page↗ before relying on register-only rules.

A federal corporation goes further. Since January 22, 2024, CBCA corporations file their individuals with significant control information↗ with Corporations Canada with the annual return, and again within 15 days of a change, and some of it becomes public. Start the register at incorporation, when you know who holds what.

After day one: the annual return and change notices

An Ontario corporation files an annual return through the Ontario Business Registry, due six months after the fiscal year closes. The fee is $0, which is why missing it is hard to excuse. Changes to directors, officers or the registered office get reported within 15 days. Our post on ongoing compliance for an Ontario corporation covers the yearly cycle in full, from the minute book to the tax remittance dates. For the arithmetic on your own year end, use the filing deadline calculator.

Protect the brand before you print it

Protect a name when you choose it, before the brand has built up value. In Canada the first person to file a trademark application usually holds the stronger position, though a prior user may be able to oppose or challenge the filing, and a business name or corporate registration does not count as a filing. The current government fee is $491.06 for the first class online. Our post on what registering a trademark gets you lays out the costs, the wait and the maintenance rules, and how to register a trademark in Canada walks through the steps. If you plan to franchise, license or sell into the U.S., raise it in the first month.

Put the key contracts in writing

Three documents do most of the work for a new business. Client terms fix the price, scope, and what happens on cancellation. Supplier agreements cover delivery and remedies when a supplier fails you. A shareholders' agreement, or a partnership agreement for unincorporated owners, decides how you divide control and how a co-owner leaves. Borrowed templates are a common source of trouble, and we walk through the usual failures in eight legal mistakes new Ontario businesses make.

Hiring: employee or contractor, and what you owe

The first hire brings the WSIB registration above, payroll withholding, and the Employment Standards Act. The general minimum wage is $17.95 an hour from October 1, 2026 (it was $17.60 before that); check the province's employment standards guide↗ for the current rate. Whether a worker is an employee or a contractor is a decision that can cost a lot when it goes wrong, and the answer depends on how the work actually runs, not on the label in the contract. Our guide to hiring your first employee in Ontario covers the employment agreement, the termination clause and the payroll setup. Get the agreement signed before the first day of work. Without a valid written termination clause, an employer can owe common law notice on dismissal, which can be well above the statutory minimum.

The order below matters where one step depends on another. Our startup and compliance checklists are printable versions of this list.

• Search the name and the trademark database before you buy a domain or order signage.
• Pass the organizational resolutions and start the register of individuals with significant control as soon as the certificate of incorporation arrives.
• Sign the founder, client and supplier paper before the first sale or the first day of work, and register with WSIB inside ten days of a hire.
• Diarize the annual return date, the HST and payroll remittance dates, and the 15-day rule for changes.

Founders rarely do these steps in a tidy sequence, and mostly that is fine. The gaps that cause trouble are the permanent ones: the business that crossed $30,000 two years ago and never registered for HST, the employee hired in March with no WSIB registration in December, the corporation whose only bank account is the owner's personal chequing, the annual return nobody filed. Each is usually less costly to fix early than late.

Every business on this checklist is different, and the checklist is where the standard advice ends. For new Ontario businesses we prepare organizational resolutions, the minute book, the register of individuals with significant control and the shareholders' agreement, and you can book a 30-minute consultation to go through your own setup. That work sits in our corporate law practice.

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This article is general information, not legal advice, and does not create a solicitor-client relationship. It is current as at its publication date and is not revised as the law changes. For advice on your specific situation, book a consultation or call 416-639-0887.

Written by

Caleesis Telesh

Founder & Principal Lawyer

LL.B. · B.A., York University · Member, Law Society of Ontario

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