Alberta Corporate Annual Return: Deadlines, Fees, and What Happens If You Miss It

Your anniversary month is the month on your Certificate of Incorporation. If you incorporated on 14 March 2024, your first annual return is due in March 2025, and then every March after that.

Corporate Registry mails a reminder to your registered office one month before the anniversary month. That is the only notice you get before the return is due, so the reminder only works if the registered office address on file is current.

There is no return in the year of incorporation. A corporation formed in 2026 files its first annual return in 2027.

Some registry agents describe the deadline as "by the last day of the month following the anniversary month". Do not plan around the later date. Treat the anniversary month itself as the deadline and you will never be caught out.

The annual return timeline at a glance

An Alberta annual return is a short registry filing that confirms three things about the corporation as of the filing date:

1. Directors. Who they are and where they live.
2. Addresses. The corporation's addresses on file, including the registered office.
3. Top five shareholders. Their names, addresses, and each one's percentage of the issued voting shares.

It does not report revenue, profit or tax. It is a snapshot of who runs and owns the corporation, kept current once a year.

Annual return, tax return, annual resolutions: three different things

Owners mix these up every week, and the mix-up is the most common reason a return goes unfiled.

Your accountant filing the T2 does not file the annual return unless you have asked them to. Ask rather than assume.

Our prices are total fees before GST (5%), government fee included. Government fees mentioned in this guide are current as of September 2026; confirm against the Alberta Registry agent product catalogue.

Nothing happens on the first day of the next month, which is exactly why people stop worrying. Here is the sequence.

1. The return goes overdue. The corporation still exists and still shows on a search. Its record is simply behind.
2. Corporate Registry sends notices. Alberta.ca puts it plainly: if you do not file, "your corporation may be dissolved." Practitioners describe warning notices to the registered office first, then strike-off after repeated non-filing, with some citing roughly three years of missed returns. If your registered office address is out of date, you never see the notices.
3. The corporation is struck. Struck means dissolved. As far as the registry is concerned, the corporation no longer exists.
4. Someone notices. Usually a bank, a lawyer on a deal or a landlord runs a corporate search and finds a dissolved corporation. Financing, account openings and contracts stall until it is fixed.
5. Revival. A struck corporation can be revived within 10 years of dissolution by an interested person, meaning a director, shareholder or creditor. Revival needs Articles of Revival, a Notice of Directors, a Notice of Address, a Notice of Agent for Service, every outstanding annual return, and an Alberta NUANS report if the corporation was dissolved three or more years ago. You pay the government revival fee plus the fee for each missed return. The full process is in our guide to reviving a struck-off Alberta corporation.

The short version: an annual return costs $149 + GST and ten minutes. A revival costs more, takes longer, and usually lands at the worst possible moment.

Search the corporation by legal name or corporate access number. A free lookup shows the current status, whether active, struck or dissolved, and the registration date, which tells you your anniversary month. Our guide on how to search for a company in Alberta explains what each status means and what a full profile report adds.

If you need proof for a bank or lender, order a certificate of status from Corporate Registry. If returns are overdue, file them first; the certificate is only useful once the record is clean.

1. Confirm the status. Active means you file. Struck or dissolved means you revive.
2. List the missing years. Each year is a separate return with its own $50 government fee. We check the record and tell you exactly which years are outstanding before you pay anything.
3. Gather the current details. Directors, addresses, and the top five shareholders with their voting percentages, as they stand today.
4. File the outstanding returns. We prepare each one, a trained agent reviews it, and it goes to the registry through a licensed registry agent, usually the same business day.
5. Fix the cause. If the reminders were going to an old address, file a change of registered office at the same time so next year's reminder reaches you.

• Keep the registered office current. The reminder is mailed there and nowhere else. If you have moved, update your registered office address before the next anniversary month.
• Use a reminder service. When we file your return, we record your anniversary month and remind you before the next one is due.
• Give it its own calendar entry. Separate from the T2 deadline and separate from the accountant. The month is the same every year.
• If you own several corporations, keep one list. Each has its own anniversary month, and holding companies are the ones most often forgotten.

• Assuming the accountant filed it. The T2 goes to CRA; the annual return goes to Corporate Registry. Ask which one your accountant handles.
• A registered office at an old address. The reminder and the notices go to the address on file. This is how corporations get struck without the owner knowing.
• Filing the wrong year. Overdue returns are filed year by year; skipping one leaves the record incomplete.
• Shareholder percentages that do not add up. The top five holders of voting shares must be listed with accurate percentages of the issued voting shares.
• Stale director information. The return must show the current directors, and a change of directors is a separate filing in its own right.
• Treating the reminder letter as junk mail. It is a plain letter from Corporate Registry, and it is the only warning you get.