Ontario’s registry will take your money in about four minutes. What it won’t do is tell you whether you picked the right structure, whether you needed to file anything at all, or which government accounts you now owe. That silence is where the expensive mistakes live.
So this guide walks the full path. You’ll see what it costs to register a business in Ontario in 2026. You’ll also see what lands in your inbox instantly, what takes 15 business days by mail, and where the CA$30,000 sales tax line sits.
What every filing costs, and how fast it clears
These are the ministry’s own published fees and turnaround times. Filing online is the same price as filing by mail and roughly fifteen days faster, which makes the paper route hard to justify. Notice the CA$0 row. Changing your address or shutting a name down costs nothing, so there’s no financial reason to leave a dead registration sitting in the public record.
| Filing | Fee | Online | By mail |
| Business name, sole proprietorship | CA$60 | Immediate | 15 business days |
| Business name, general partnership | CA$60 | Immediate | 15 business days |
| Business name renewal every five years | CA$60 | Immediate | 15 business days |
| Amend or cancel a registered name. | CA$0 | Immediate | 15 business days |
| Incorporation, Business Corporations Act | CA$300 | Immediate | 15 business days |
| Articles of Amendment | CA$150 | Immediate | 15 business days |
| Ontario limited partnership | CA$210 | Immediate | 15 business days |
| Not-for-profit incorporation | CA$155 | 5 business days | 15 business days |
| Profile report on an existing business | CA$8 | Immediate | 5 business days |
| Certificate of status | CA$26 | Immediate | 5 business days |
What Is Registering a Business in Ontario?
Registering a business in Ontario is the official process of establishing a business or operating name under Ontario’s business laws. Depending on your structure, you may register a sole proprietorship, general partnership, or corporation through the Ontario Business Registry.
Registration can provide the documentation needed for banking, contracts, and other business activities. After registering, you may also need a CRA business number, GST/HST registration, WSIB coverage, and municipal licenses or permits, depending on your business and location.
What you’ll need before you open the form
- An email address you monitor, because the ministry sends your documents there and nowhere else.
- A debit or credit card.
- Your Social Insurance Number, if you’re registering as an individual rather than through a corporation.
- The full legal name and home address of every owner or partner.
- An Ontario address for the business. A post office box on its own won’t clear.
- A one-line description of what you sell, which the form turns into an activity code.
- Your company key, if the business already exists in the registry.
- An Ontario-biased Nuan’s report, but only if you’re incorporating under a word name.
Sole proprietorship, partnership, or corporation
This choice drives everything downstream: your fee, your tax return, and how much of your own property is at risk when something goes wrong.
| Sole proprietorship | General partnership | Corporation |
| Filing fee—CA$60 | Filing fee—CA$60 | Filing fee—CA$300 |
| Who owes the debts? — You, personally, without limit | Who owes the debts? — Every partner, for the whole debt | Who owes the debts? — The corporation |
| Where profit is taxed—your personal return | Where profit is taxed—each partner’s personal return | Where profit is taxed—a separate corporate return |
| Ongoing filings—Renew the name every five years. | Ongoing filings—Renew the name every five years. | Ongoing filings—annual return, initial return, minute book |
A sole proprietorship is the cheapest way in and the most exposed. There’s no legal wall between you and the business, so a customer who sues is suing you. Your car and your savings sit inside the claim.
General partnerships carry a harder edge that surprises people. Each partner is liable for the full debt, not a share of it. If your partner signs a bad supply contract and disappears, the supplier can come after you for all of it. Disputes this size often reach Ontario’s Small Claims Court before anyone has hired a lawyer.
Incorporating buy separation. Your company owns the contracts, owes the debts, and files its own return, which is why lenders and larger clients often insist on it. You pay for that with CA$300 up front and a corporate tax return every year. Add an initial return within 60 days of incorporating, plus an annual return due within six months of your fiscal year end. If none of your risk is real yet, the CA$300 buys protection you aren’t using.
When you can trade without registering at all
Plenty of Ontarians file when they don’t have to. The province is direct about it: you need to register a sole proprietorship only if you aren’t using your own name as your business name.
Priya Raman, working as Priya Raman, registers nothing. Priya Raman, operating as Raman Bookkeeping, has a business name and must file. Add a single descriptive word, and you’ve crossed the line, which catches people who think “Raman Consulting” is still their own name.
Skipping the filing has consequences beyond a fine. An unregistered business name is awkward at the bank, since most branches want the registration before they open an account in that name. It also weakens your position if you ever need to sue on a contract signed in that name.
One more thing worth saying plainly, because almost nobody does: a business name registration is a disclosure filing, not a license, and not a trademark. Ontario will happily register a name identical to someone else’s. It gives you no exclusive right to it and no defense if the other owner holds a registered trademark.
How to register a business in Ontario, step by step
- Pick your structure. Decide between a sole proprietorship, a general partnership, and a corporation before you touch the form, because the fee and the filing type both follow from it.
- Search the registry for your name. Run a free business name search first to see what already exists, and pull a CA$8 profile report if you want the details on a close match.
- Order a Nuans report only if you’re incorporating. Ontario corporations with a word name need an Ontario-biased Nuans report, and the federal version won’t be accepted.
- Create your ServiceOntario account. Set up the login you’ll use for the Ontario Business Registry, then request your company key if the business already exists.
- File and pay. Complete the registration or the articles online, pay by card, and download the confirmation the moment it appears.
- Get your CRA business number. Register with the Canada Revenue Agency and add the program accounts you need, such as sales tax or payroll.
- Open your workplace coverage. Report to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board once your first worker starts, if your industry falls under mandatory coverage.
- Apply for municipal licenses. Check your city’s bylaw for your trade, then apply before you open the doors rather than after an inspector arrives.
The registry, your company key, and the Nuans search
The Ontario Business Registry is the province’s online filing system, open around the clock. Your company key is the nine-digit code that proves you control a business already in that system. It’s free, and the ministry sends it three ways. Email arrives within minutes if your contact details are current. Mail takes several days. An online verification tool emails it within a few business days once you answer the security questions.
Request the key before you need it. People discover the mail route exists on the afternoon a renewal is due.
A Nuans report is a different animal. It searches corporate names and trademarks across Canada and reserves your proposed name for 90 days. Only corporations need one. A do-it-yourself federal search runs CA$13.80, while private Nuans members selling the Ontario-biased report typically charge between CA$35 and CA$55 plus HST. Registering a sole proprietorship name skips this entirely.
If you just want proof that no similar name exists, the registry sells a certificate of no match for CA$26, which is cheaper than most agent-assisted Nuans reports.
Your business number and the CA$30,000 sales tax line
Ontario registration and federal tax registration are two separate jobs. The Canada Revenue Agency issues a nine-digit business number, then hangs program accounts off it. RT covers GST/HST, RP covers payroll, RC covers corporate income tax, and RM covers import and export.
Sales tax is where the real threshold sits. According to CRA guidance on when to register for and charge GST/HST, updated in June 2026, you stop being a small supplier once taxable revenues pass CA$30,000. That test looks at four consecutive calendar quarters. Blow through CA$30,000 inside a single quarter, and you must register immediately, effective no later than the day of the sale that took you over.
Registering voluntarily below the threshold has a real upside. You get to claim input tax credits on the HST you pay for equipment, software, and supplies. That matters most in a start-up year with heavy spending and thin revenue.
Workers, WSIB, and the municipal license
Hiring changes your obligations more than incorporating does. You’ll need an RP payroll account with the CRA before the first pay run and coverage from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board if your industry is covered. WSIB timing is tighter than most guides admit.
Give the board information about your operations within 10 calendar days of your first worker starting. Finish registering by the last day of the month following the month that the worker began. Sole proprietors, partners, and independent operators aren’t required to carry coverage, though they can buy it voluntarily. Hiring also triggers the duties in OSHA, which apply from the first day, not the first inspection.
Municipal licensing is the step people forget. Toronto licenses food trucks, nightclubs, auto repair shops, smoke shops, and auctioneers, among many others, and it won’t renew a license while bylaw fines are outstanding. Fees and categories differ in every municipality, so read your own city’s schedule rather than a guide written for somewhere else.
The five-year renewal that catches people
Your business name registration expires after five years. Nothing dramatic happens on the day it lapses, and that’s the problem: the name simply stops being registered while you keep trading under it. Banks and clients notice at awkward moments.
Renewal costs the same CA$60 and clears immediately online. Put the expiry date in your calendar the week you register, with a reminder 60 days out. Their notice goes to whatever email address they had on file five years ago.
Key takeaways
- A sole proprietorship or partnership name costs CA$60 online and issues immediately; incorporating costs CA$300.
- Trading under your own legal name means no registration at all.
- The company key is free, and email delivery beats waiting for the post.
- Only incorporations need an Ontario-biased Nuans report, valid for 90 days.
- HST registration becomes mandatory above CA$30,000 in taxable revenue.
- Report to the WSIB within 10 calendar days of your first worker starting.
- Renew the business name every five years, or it quietly lapses.
Conclusion
Registering a business in Ontario is straightforward when you choose the right structure and understand the requirements before filing. In 2026, a business name registration starts at CA$60, while incorporation costs CA$300, but the real decisions involve liability, taxes, licensing, and ongoing compliance.
After registration, make sure you address your CRA business number, GST/HST obligations, WSIB requirements, municipal licenses, and five-year renewal date. Taking care of these steps early can help you avoid unnecessary costs, compliance problems, and delays as your Ontario business grows.
Apart from that, if you want to know about the article Residential Tenancy Agreement Ontario: Complete 2026 Guide to Standard Lease Rules and Tenant Rights, then please visit our Business Law Category.
Where to go from here
Pick the structure first, file second. Most Ontario founders can complete the province’s part of this in an evening for CA$60, and the harder questions are about liability and tax, not paperwork. If your situation involves partners, employees, or investors, contact the Lawverra team before you file, while changing course is still free.
Frequently asked questions
Online filings through the Ontario Business Registry are immediate for business names and incorporations. Mailed filings take 15 business days.
Yes. Master Business Licence is the older name for the same document, and it carries the same five-year term.
No. Ontario built the registry for self-service. Advice is worth buying when the question is which structure fits your risk, not how to complete the form.
No. Each operating name needs its own CA$60 registration, though one sole proprietor can hold several.
You risk a fine under the Business Names Act, and you’ll struggle to open a bank account or enforce a contract signed in that name.
