Your First CRA Instalment Reminder: Why It Asks for 75% on September 15 (2026)

If your first-ever CRA instalment reminder arrived this August and asks for 75% of the year on September 15, that is not a mistake — it is how the CRA collects a full year across the only two due dates left. Most people’s reminders split the year four ways. Yours can’t, because your 2025 return was assessed after the February reminders went out. So the CRA’s own 2026 calculation chart applies a different split: if your reminder only states instalment payments for September and December 2026, you pay 75% of the total on September 15 and 25% on December 15 (Canada Revenue Agency, Calculation chart for instalment payments for 2026). This guide walks through why, whether you actually have to pay at all, and what each choice costs.

Why your first reminder lands in August

The CRA sends instalment reminders in two batches: February, covering the March 15 and June 15 payments, and August, covering September 15 and December 15. A first-year freelancer typically files their first self-employed return in June (the self-employed filing deadline) — by the time it is assessed and crosses the instalment line, February is long gone. So the system catches you at the next batch: August, with only two dates remaining. If the whole idea of the reminder feels like a bill you never agreed to, read why an instalment reminder is not a bill first — it is the calmer framing, and everything below builds on it.

The 75/25 split, in numbers

The rule comes straight from the CRA’s chart: “If your reminder only states instalment payments for September and December 2026, you will need to make two payments for the whole year on the following dates: 75% of the total on September 15 and 25% on December 15” (Canada Revenue Agency). So for a freelancer whose total instalment amount due works out to $8,000:

Due date	Share	Amount
September 15, 2026	75%	$6,000
December 15, 2026	25%	$2,000

Why front-load it? Because by September 15, most of the year’s income has been earned — the CRA is catching the instalments a four-date payer would already have made in March and June. It feels steep precisely because it is three payments’ worth arriving at once.

First question: do you actually have to pay?

A reminder is a calculation from your past returns, not a determination about this year. The requirement has two parts, and both must be true: you have to pay instalments for 2026 only if your net tax owing is more than $3,000 — $1,800 for Québec residents — in 2026, and it was also more than that in either 2025 or 2024 (Canada Revenue Agency). And the CRA says so explicitly: if you received an instalment reminder but your 2026 net tax owing will be $3,000 or less ($1,800 or less for Québec), you do not have to pay tax instalments for 2026 (Canada Revenue Agency).

So if 2026 is a down year — you took a break, lost a client, went back to employment where tax is withheld — estimate your 2026 net tax owing before paying anything. The CRA instalment calculator gives you the estimate in about a minute, and the 2026 freelancer tax calendar puts every date and threshold on one page. Québec residents: your threshold is lower on both the federal and provincial side — the full picture is in our guide to Québec’s $1,800 instalment threshold.

One quiet trap: CPP is in the amount, not the trigger

The threshold test uses net tax owing — income tax alone. But the amount you actually remit is bigger: CPP contributions payable on self-employment earnings and voluntary EI premiums are not used to calculate net tax owing, but must be added when calculating your total instalment amount due (Canada Revenue Agency, 2026 instalment chart, lines 22–23). Self-employed CPP in 2026 runs at 11.9% of pensionable earnings — for many freelancers that adds thousands to the instalment total. If that rate is news to you, our guide to CPP for the self-employed in 2026 breaks down where every dollar goes.

What skipping September 15 actually costs

If you are required to pay and simply don’t, the meter is known: the CRA charges instalment interest, compounded daily at the prescribed rate — 7% for overdue amounts in the third quarter of 2026, July 1 to September 30 (Canada Revenue Agency), from the day the payment was due to your balance due date. On a $6,000 September payment left entirely unpaid until April 30, 2027, that is roughly $265 if the rate held at 7% throughout — real money, but not catastrophe money. The arithmetic, including the penalty that only starts once instalment interest tops $1,000, is worked through in what a missed instalment actually costs.

You have three options — and different safety nets

The reminder shows the no-calculation option: the CRA’s own figures from your latest assessed return. Two alternatives exist. The prior-year option bases payments on your 2025 return; the current-year option bases them on your estimated 2026 net tax owing, CPP contributions payable and voluntary EI premiums (Canada Revenue Agency). If 2026 income is lower than what the reminder assumes, the current-year option shrinks the September payment to match reality.

The catch is where the risk sits. Pay the reminder’s amounts on time and the CRA will not charge instalment interest even if the amounts turn out to be more than you owe — you get the difference back at filing. Choose your own numbers, and the CRA charges no instalment interest or penalty only if the payments are made in full by the due dates — unless your estimated amounts are too low (Canada Revenue Agency). Estimate honestly, not optimistically. And if you are weighing the September payment against an RRSP contribution, that trade has its own guide — short version: the deadline with a price tag wins.

The calm way through

Treat the reminder as the CRA telling you your business has grown into pay-as-you-go territory — which, one layer down, is good news. Run the threshold test, pick your option, schedule both payments today, and keep a slice of every invoice flowing to the tax jar so December 15 is a transfer, not a scramble. Our guide to how much tax to set aside gives you the per-payment percentage, and VRITTI keeps the jar filled and the dates visible so none of this lives in your head.

If instalments are the first CRA obligation you've bumped into, it's worth zooming out: our self-employed taxes in Canada pillar guide covers everything from HST/GST registration to T2125 filing in one place. And if you're still tracking income and expenses by hand or in a spreadsheet, our roundup of the best bookkeeping apps for Canadian freelancers compares the options that will actually flag an instalment date before it sneaks up on you.

Sources

• CRA — Who has to pay tax instalments ($3,000 / $1,800 Québec thresholds; the two-part 2026-and-2025-or-2024 test; reminder-but-under-threshold rule)
• CRA — Options to calculate (no-calculation, prior-year and current-year options; interest safety of each; link to the 2026 calculation chart)
• CRA — Calculation chart for instalment payments for 2026 (PDF: the 75%/25% September–December split; CPP/EI added at lines 22–23; farmers and fishers 66% December 31 rule)
• CRA — Prescribed interest rates (7% on overdue amounts for Q3 2026, July 1 – September 30)

This article explains CRA rules in plain language. It is general information, not tax advice for your situation — every figure above was verified against the Canada Revenue Agency pages listed on 24 August 2026. Rules and thresholds change; check the current CRA page before relying on a number.