For Canadian Real Estate Agents
NorthOS is built for self-employed Canadian real estate agents. Track the GST/HST on your commissions, the kilometres to every showing, and the deductions most agents miss, each one sorted to the right T2125 line.
What NorthOS tracks for you
Agents drive more than almost anyone, yet the trips rarely make it into a log. Without one, the CRA can deny the whole vehicle claim. NorthOS records your business kilometres as you drive and applies your business-use percentage to your real vehicle costs.
Between GST/HST and income tax, part of every closing is already spoken for the moment you are paid. NorthOS shows your safe-to-spend number after tax is set aside, so a big deal does not turn into a spring surprise.
Every one of them is deductible, but only if you keep the receipt and put it on the right line. NorthOS captures each expense and sorts it to the correct T2125 line as you go.
You stop being a small supplier once taxable revenue passes $30,000 in a single calendar quarter, or across the last four consecutive quarters. Agents usually trip the single-quarter test first, and the CRA requires you to charge GST/HST on the very commission that took you over, registered or not. NorthOS tracks both tests so the deal that crosses the line does not cost you the tax.
If you run your business from a workspace at home, a share of your rent or mortgage interest, heat, and hydro is deductible on Line 9945. NorthOS runs the workspace calculation so you claim what you are allowed.
Three closings in a month and then nothing for two. NorthOS tracks income and tax owing as it happens, so you always know what is set aside and what is truly yours.
Log business kilometres to showings and let NorthOS apply your business-use percentage to your actual vehicle costs. The deductible total flows straight to T2125 Line 9281, with the logbook the CRA expects behind it.
Your commission is a taxable supply. NorthOS records the HST you collect on each one and builds your remittance summary, so filing is a download, not a scramble. The figures line up with the boxes on your GST34.
Board dues, brokerage and MLS fees, staging, and marketing each have a home on the T2125. NorthOS files every expense to the correct line so nothing is missed and nothing lands in the wrong place.
Your running revenue total updates with every commission, measured against both CRA tests: $30,000 in one calendar quarter, and $30,000 across the last four. You get the warning while you can still price the tax into the deal.
After each closing, NorthOS estimates your income tax and GST/HST owing and shows what is actually yours to spend. No more borrowing from next quarter's tax money by accident.
Log an expense by photo, voice note, or quick entry from your phone between appointments. North AI reads the receipt and files it to the correct T2125 line, so nothing waits for a desk you rarely sit at.
Connect your business bank and credit cards, and NorthOS imports your commission deposits and expenses automatically, then sorts each one to the right T2125 line. Your books stay current between closings with no manual entry.
The NorthOS iPhone app keeps your books in your pocket. Log a showing, snap a receipt, or check what you owe from the car between appointments. The web app runs on any phone browser too.
The cost of winning and closing a deal is deductible, but only if it is tracked and lands on the right line of your T2125. Here is where a realtor's biggest write-offs go.
Line references follow the CRA T4002 guide. See our own T2125 line-by-line breakdown for every line.
The business-use share of driving to showings, open houses, and listing appointments. Fuel, insurance, repairs, lease or loan interest, times your business-use percentage, backed by a mileage log.
Read the full guideListing photography, signage, staging, brochures, online and social ads, and your agent website. The cost of getting a property (and yourself) in front of buyers.
Your real estate board dues, provincial regulator fees, and professional association memberships required to practise. These are recurring and easy to forget.
Brokerage desk and franchise fees, MLS and lockbox fees, and CRM or transaction software. The tools of the trade that do not fit a named line.
Read the full guideAvailable if the workspace is your principal place of business, or you use it only to earn business income and meet clients there on a regular and ongoing basis. Rent or mortgage interest, heat, hydro, and insurance, at your workspace percentage.
Read the full guideCoffee and meals with clients and referral partners. Only 50 percent of the cost is deductible, and you note who you met and why.
Read the full guideErrors-and-omissions and commercial liability premiums for your practice. Personal life and health insurance do not belong here.
The business-use share of the cellphone airtime you run your day on, plus internet. One trap: you cannot deduct the basic monthly rate of a home phone, only a line kept for business calls alone. Keep the statements behind the percentage you claim.
Once you pass the $30,000 threshold you register and charge HST on your commissions. How you remit it is your choice, and NorthOS runs both methods on your own numbers so you keep more. The Standard Method (the CRA calls it the regular method) claims the actual GST/HST you pay on business costs, from marketing to your vehicle to brokerage fees, back as input tax credits. The Quick Method remits a flat percentage of revenue instead and is simpler to run. Which one comes out ahead depends on your costs, so NorthOS shows you both side by side rather than picking one for you.
Want to dig into one method? Run the Quick Method calculator or read the CRA's Quick Method guide (RC4058).
A real estate commission is a service in relation to real property, so the CRA sets the rate by where the property sits, not where you live or hold your licence. List a cottage across a provincial line and the rate changes with it.
Property in Ontario
On a commission for a property in Ontario, a registered agent charges 13% HST, and files the return with the CRA.
Rates come from the same canonical CRA tables the NorthOS filing math uses. Change the province with the , or read the CRA's General Information for GST/HST Registrants (RC4022).
If you earn commissions as a self-employed agent, NorthOS fits. A few of the agents it is built for:
Three steps to books that keep up with your calendar.
A few onboarding questions, and your profile is configured for a commission-based service business, including your vehicle and business-use percentage. Takes about 3 minutes.
Link your business bank and cards so commission deposits and expenses flow in and get sorted automatically. Add mileage and cash receipts from your phone between showings, and North AI files each to the right T2125 line.
Download your T2125 workpapers (including the Line 9281 vehicle calculation), your GST/HST remittance summary, and the accountant export in one click. Commission earnings carry their own T1 line, 13900, and the workpapers are built to land there.
Every kilometre you drive to a showing is worth money on T2125 Line 9281, but only if it is in a log the CRA will accept. Grab the template and start tracking today.
Get the free mileage log templatePlenty of agents also hold rentals or run a second venture. NorthOS keeps each one in its own books under one login, and tracks the numbers CRA counts per person. Your commission GST/HST and any other taxable revenue belong to one registration, so whether you are watching the $30,000 threshold or already filing returns, the figure that matters is the combined one.
See how multi-business accounts workWorks alongside your accountant, not instead of one.
How Line 9281, business-use percentage, and your logbook fit together.
What qualifies, the workspace percentage, and the Line 9945 loss rule.
The $30,000 threshold, how it is measured, and what to do next.
Which GST/HST method leaves more of your commission in your pocket.
Every expense line on the form every Canadian sole proprietor files.
The broader guide for Canadian service businesses that drive to the work.
For Ontario real estate agents
Clean, CRA-ready records for self-employed Canadian real estate agents.
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