Annual Returns – File Your Alberta Corporate Annual Return Online

Annual return due date in Alberta, and what the return contains

• When: every year in the anniversary month of incorporation. Corporate Registry mails a reminder to the registered office one month before.
• First year: no return is due in the year the corporation was incorporated.
• What it confirms: the directors, the registered office and other addresses, and the top five shareholders, with names, addresses and percentage of issued voting shares.
• Price: $149 + GST per return in total fees, government fee included.
• If it is not filed: Corporate Registry sends notices; keep missing it and the corporation is struck from the register, which dissolves it. A struck corporation can be revived within 10 years, at a higher cost than filing on time.
• What it is not: the annual return is a registry filing. It is separate from the T2 corporate tax return your CPA files with CRA, and from the annual shareholder and director resolutions kept in your minute book. Filing one does not file the others.
• Extra-provincial corporations: corporations formed outside Alberta and registered here also file an Alberta annual return.

Overdue Alberta annual return? We file the missed years

Missing a year is common, and the fix is straightforward while the corporation is still on the register: file each outstanding return, each with its own government fee, in one order.

Tell us the corporation's name and we check its status first with our free corporate lookup. If Corporate Registry has already struck it, a late return is no longer the route; the corporation needs a revival, which includes every outstanding return. Either way you will know before you pay.

Who this is for

• The owner with the reminder letter on the desk, who wants it filed today and off the list.
• The owner who is a few weeks past the anniversary month and wants it done before the notices start.
• The owner of two or more corporations, such as an operating company and a holding company, each with its own anniversary month.
• The accountant, bookkeeper or law clerk filing returns for a list of clients, who needs same-day confirmation, a PDF for each minute book and partner pricing.

How it works

1. You fill in the short online form — about ten minutes. Returning customers confirm last year's directors, addresses and shareholders instead of typing them again.
2. A CORES-trained agent reviews the return within one business hour: the right anniversary year, shareholder percentages that add up, director details that match the registry record.
3. We submit it through a licensed Alberta registry agent into CORES. ACS is a private company; we are not a government office or a registry agent.
4. You receive the confirmation and the filed return by email the same business day for orders received before 3:00 pm MT.
5. We note next year's anniversary month and remind you before it arrives.

If a return cannot be filed, our refund policy explains what happens.

Common mistakes we catch before filing

• The wrong year. Each return covers one anniversary year; when an earlier year is still outstanding, we file that one too rather than skipping it.
• Shareholder percentages that do not add up, or five names listed when three people hold all the voting shares.
• Director addresses that are years out of date. The return confirms them, so a stale address stays on the corporate record for another year.
• The CRA return mistaken for the registry return. Your CPA filing the T2 does not file the annual return, and vice versa.
• A change of directors or address typed onto the return. The return confirms the record; a change is its own filing.

What you need before you start

• The corporation's exact legal name, or its Alberta corporate access number. Both are on the reminder letter and on your certificate of incorporation.
• The names and addresses of the current directors.
• The registered office address (the Alberta address where Corporate Registry sends its mail) and the agent for service (the individual in Alberta who accepts legal documents for the corporation), so we can confirm both are still current.
• The top five shareholders: each one's name, address and percentage of the issued voting shares (the shares that carry a vote at shareholder meetings).
• A credit card. You do not need any registry login, because business owners cannot file in CORES, Alberta's Corporate Registry System, themselves; filings go through a licensed registry agent.

If a director or an address has changed since your last return, tell us. Those changes are filed on their own notices, not on the annual return; see change of directors and change of address.

• Your annual return prepared by a CORES-trained agent and checked against your corporation's current registry record before anything is filed.
• Filing with Alberta Corporate Registry (the government office that keeps the record of every Alberta corporation) the same business day for orders received before 3:00 pm MT.
• Confirmation of filing and the filed return in PDF by email, ready for your minute book (the corporation's record book).
• The government fee, paid on your behalf and included in the price.
• A reminder from us before your next anniversary month.
• One account for every corporation you look after, with last year's details saved so you confirm rather than re-type.

That timing assumes a complete, error-free return, which is why a person checks yours before it goes in.