T1134 Due Date and Penalty for Canadians With a US LLC

If you live in Canada and own a US LLC, you probably have to file Form T1134 every year. The CRA treats a US LLC as a non-resident corporation, which makes it your foreign affiliate. T1134 is due 10 months after your tax year ends: for a calendar-year individual, the 2025 return is due October 31, 2026 and the 2026 return October 31, 2027. Filing late costs $25 a day, up to CAN$2,500, and far more if the CRA decides the failure was knowing.

This guide is written for individuals with a single-member or small US LLC, not corporate groups. Rules checked 29 Oct 2026 against the CRA’s T1134 form and instructions, its T1134 Q&A and its foreign-reporting penalties page (both dated 2026-10-19).

This is general information, not tax advice. T1134 can be technical; a Canadian CPA with cross-border experience should review your first filing.

What is Form T1134, and why does a US LLC trigger it?

Form T1134, Information Return Relating to Controlled and Non-Controlled Foreign Affiliates, tells the CRA about non-resident corporations in which a Canadian taxpayer holds a meaningful stake. The legal test in the CRA Q&A is simple: you must file if the non-resident corporation or trust “is either a foreign affiliate or a controlled foreign affiliate at any time during the reporting taxpayer’s tax year.”

A US LLC qualifies because of how Canada classifies it. The IRS ignores a single-member LLC for income tax, but the CRA has long said US LLCs are corporations for Canadian purposes. We explain that mismatch, and the double-tax risk it creates, in US LLC for Canadians. The short version for this form: if you own a US LLC, Canada sees you owning shares of a foreign corporation, and for a founder who owns all or most of it, that corporation is a foreign affiliate (in fact a controlled one).

The return comes in two parts:

• T1134 Summary: who you are, your organizational structure, and a table of dormant affiliates.
• T1134 Supplement: one per foreign affiliate that is not dormant, with financial information and, for a controlled affiliate, the nature of its income.

Who needs to file T1134 (individuals included)

Per the T1134 instructions, Canadian-resident taxpayers (corporations, individuals and trusts) and certain partnerships file for each foreign affiliate. The CRA’s Q&A also says filing is required even in edge cases that people often assume are exempt:

• the affiliate was formed or acquired during the year and hasn’t had a year-end yet;
• the affiliate was sold before its year-end;
• it stopped being a controlled foreign affiliate before your year-end.

That last pair matters if you are closing your LLC: the year you dissolve it is still a T1134 year.

The newcomer exemption. An individual (not a trust) doesn’t file T1134 for the year they first become resident in Canada (section 233.7). The instructions are explicit that this doesn’t cover a former resident coming back: “A ‘returning’ resident could immediately be subject to the reporting requirements.”

NAICS code. The 2021 form makes a NAICS code mandatory. If your activities don’t have a fitting code, the CRA says individuals should use 551113, Holding companies (CRA Q&A).

T1134 due date for individuals: 2025, 2026 and 2027

For tax years beginning in 2021 or later, T1134 is “due no later than 10 months after the end of your taxation year or fiscal period” (instructions). Individuals have a December 31 year-end, so:

The Government of Canada’s deadline fact sheet says that when a due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, “your information and tax return are considered on time if the CRA receives it, or if it is postmarked, on or before the next business day” (canada.ca). The T1134 instructions don’t restate that rule, so treat Monday as a safety margin, not a plan.

Note that T1134 runs on a different clock from your T1 (April 30, or June 15 if you’re self-employed) and from T1135, which is due with your T1.

The dormant or inactive exception: when the summary is enough

You don’t file a Supplement for an affiliate if all of these are true (instructions):

• Your total cost amount of the interest was under CAN$100,000 at all times in the year; and
• the affiliate had gross receipts under CAN$100,000 in its year; and
• its assets never had a total fair market value over CAN$1,000,000.

You still file the Summary and fill in Part I, Section 3.D, Dormant foreign affiliates for it.

Two traps:

1. “Gross receipts” isn’t revenue. The instructions say it “refers to any receipt received in the year, and not just income amounts. This would include all non-revenue receipts, for example, loans.” A US$30,000 loan into the LLC plus US$50,000 of sales can push you over the line.
2. The thresholds are in Canadian dollars. The CRA says the CAN thresholds “must be met regardless of functional currency election made.” An LLC with US$75,000 of receipts is well over CAN$100,000 at recent exchange rates.

T1134 vs T1135: which one applies to your US LLC and US bank account

The two forms are often confused because both are foreign-reporting returns with similar penalties. They cover different property:

Sources: T1135 page and T1134 instructions.

If you opened a personal US account alongside your LLC account (for example with Mercury or another US bank), add its balance to your T1135 calculation.

T1134 late filing penalty

From the CRA’s foreign reporting penalties page, page dated 2026-10-19:

The due diligence exception. The omission penalty doesn’t apply if you made diligent efforts to get missing information, disclose in the return that it was unavailable, and file it within 90 days of it becoming available. The CRA also warns that a return “missing substantial information will be considered invalid”, meaning it may be treated as not filed at all (CRA Q&A). Use Part IV, Disclosure, to explain any gaps.

Financial statements. For a controlled foreign affiliate (a single-member LLC you own is one), you must include the affiliate’s financial statements and notes. The CRA does not accept consolidated statements for this purpose.

Missed the October 31, 2026 deadline? What to do now

1. File as soon as you can. The $25-a-day penalty stops growing at 100 days ($2,500), and a quick late filing makes a “knowing” finding less likely.
2. Complete Part IV, Disclosure, for anything you couldn’t get, and say what you did to get it.
3. Check earlier years. If you have owned the LLC since before 2025, you may have older T1134s outstanding. Returns for years that began before 2021 use the 2012/2017 version of the form, and the CRA says years beginning in 2020 had a 12-month deadline.
4. Consider the Voluntary Disclosures Program if several years are missing. The VDP “grants relief on a case-by-case basis” to taxpayers who come forward to fix errors or omissions; the program changed on October 1, 2025, so read the current eligibility rules or use an advisor.
5. Fix the US side too. A missed T1134 often travels with a missed Form 5472, whose penalty is US$25,000 per form.

How to file T1134 as an individual

Electronically. Per the instructions, individuals can EFILE and NETFILE T1134 for the 2021 and later tax years (since February 7, 2022), and you get a confirmation number at once. In practice that means certified tax software or a tax preparer that supports T1134. We haven’t verified which consumer tax apps support it this season, so check before you rely on one.

On paper. For individuals and trusts, the CRA says a paper copy “must be filed separately from your income tax return.” Mail it to:

Winnipeg Taxation Centre Data Assessment & Evaluation Programs Validation & Verification Section Foreign Reporting Returns 66 Stapon Road Winnipeg MB R3C 3M2

If you mail it near the deadline, use a service that gives you a dated receipt: the CRA treats a return as on time based on receipt or postmark.

Practical checklist before you start:

• The LLC’s legal name, US address, EIN (the CRA asks for a foreign tax identification number; see EIN for non-US residents)
• Your ownership and voting percentage, and the cost of your interest in Canadian dollars at the historical exchange rate
• The LLC’s unconsolidated financial statements and notes for its year
• Gross receipts, including loans and owner contributions, in CAD, to run the dormant test
• Any dividends or distributions you received from the LLC during the year
• For a controlled affiliate: a breakdown of active vs passive (FAPI) income

Worked example: a Toronto freelancer’s Wyoming LLC

Illustrative numbers. The exchange rate is the Bank of Canada daily rate of 1.4036 CAD per USD for October 28, 2026; for a real return, use the rate your advisor applies for the period.

Setup. Priya lives in Toronto and formed a single-member Wyoming LLC in 2024 with US$1,000 of capital. In 2025 it invoiced US clients US$80,000 and she lent it US$5,000 for software.

Step 1: Is it a foreign affiliate? She owns 100%, and the CRA sees the LLC as a corporation. Yes, and it is a controlled foreign affiliate.

Step 2: The dormant test.

One failed test is enough: Priya files the Summary plus a full Supplement, with the LLC’s financial statements, not just the dormant table. Note that her sales alone (about C$112,288) already fail the test, even though US$80,000 sounds “under 100k”.

Step 3: Dates. Her 2025 T1134 is due October 31, 2026. If she files on November 20, 2026 with no CRA finding of knowing failure, the late-filing penalty is 20 days × $25 = $500. If she waits until mid-February 2027, more than 100 days late, it reaches the $2,500 cap.

Step 4: The US side. The same LLC files a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 for 2025, due April 15, 2026 (October 15 with an extension) per the IRS instructions.

Step 5: T1135. Priya’s personal brokerage account holds US ETFs costing C$60,000. That is under CAN$100,000, so no T1135. The LLC doesn’t count toward it.

Your annual Canada-US filing calendar for a US LLC

If your clients ask for tax forms, the LLC or you may also need the right W-8 form; see W-8BEN vs W-8BEN-E. For whether a US LLC is the right structure at all, start with US LLC for Canadians, or browse the rest of the US company setup hub.