Tax Insights: 2026 Saskatchewan budget – Tax highlights

Issue 2026-12

In brief

On March 18, 2026, Saskatchewan’s Minister of Finance, Jim Reiter, presented the province’s budget. The budget does not change corporate or personal income tax rates, but does:

• enhance the province’s research and development tax credit
• make changes to Saskatchewan’s corporation capital tax rates
• increase the volunteer first responders’ tax credits

This Tax Insights discusses these and other tax initiatives outlined in the budget.

In detail

Business tax measures

Corporate income tax rates

Saskatchewan’s corporate income tax rates have not changed and will remain as shown in the table below. The table also shows combined federal/Saskatchewan corporate income tax rates.

Research and development (R&D) tax credit

The budget enhances the province’s R&D tax credits by:

• increasing, from $1 million to $2 million, the annual qualifying expenditures incurred in Saskatchewan on which a qualifying CCPC can claim a refundable tax credit – thereby increasing the maximum annual refundable R&D tax credit amount from $100,000 to $200,000; other qualifying expenditures that exceed the $2 million limit, and those of non‑CCPCs, remain eligible for the 10% non-refundable R&D tax credit and Saskatchewan’s total refundable and non‑refundable tax credits that can be claimed by a corporation annually remain capped at $1 million
• allowing eligibility of capital expenditures (including the cost of new machinery, equipment and related lease/rental costs) for purposes of claiming the province’s refundable and non‑refundable R&D tax credits

The budget does not provide the effective date of these R&D enhancements. However, according to a Saskatchewan Ministry of Finance official, these R&D enhancements are expected to be effective for taxation years that begin after December 15, 2024, to align with certain recent changes to the federal scientific research and experimental development (SR&ED) tax credit program (but only when the federal SR&ED changes are enacted; for more information on the federal SR&ED changes, see our Tax Insights “SR&ED updates: Enhanced credits, expanded eligibility and emerging opportunities”).

Saskatchewan chemical fertilizer incentive (SCFI)

The budget extends the time period by five years (to December 31, 2031), for eligible companies that receive conditional approval by December 31, 2026, to meet the SCFI’s minimum $10 million capital investment threshold. This incentive provides a non-refundable, non-transferable 15% corporate income tax credit on capital expenditures of $10 million or more on new or expanded eligible chemical fertilizer production facilities in Saskatchewan.

Corporation capital tax (CCT)

Effective April 1, 2026, the CCT rate for:

• large financial institutions (FIs) will increase from 4% to 6%
• small FIs¹ will decrease from 0.7% to 0%
• crown corporations will decrease from 0.6% to 0.3% (this will be eliminated on April 1, 2027, along with the 0.9% telecommunications CCT surtax)

Personal tax measures

Personal income tax rates

The budget does not change Saskatchewan’s personal income tax rates. The top combined federal/Saskatchewan personal income tax rates are shown in the table below.

Personal tax credits and low-income tax credit

The budget reminds us that the government has previously committed, under The Saskatchewan Affordability Act, to increase:

• several non-refundable personal tax credit amounts by $500 in each of the 2026, 2027 and 2028 taxation years, on top of regular indexation; the credits include the basic personal, spousal and equivalent‑to‑spouse, dependent child and senior supplementary amounts
• the province’s low-income tax credit by 5% per year, on top of annual indexation, in each of the 2026, 2027 and 2028 benefit years

Volunteer first responders’ tax credits

The budget doubles the non-refundable tax credits for volunteer first responders from $3,000 to $6,000. These credits apply to volunteer firefighters, search and rescue volunteers and volunteer emergency medical first responders who perform at least 200 eligible volunteer service hours annually.

Other measures

High water-cut oil well (HWCOW) program

The budget extends the eligibility period of the HWCOW program, which provides a royalty rate reduction for qualifying oil wells that improve water handling capabilities and extend the production cycle, by five years to March 31, 2031. The per-well minimum qualifying investment for the program will also increase from $20,000 to $30,000.

Crown timber dues

The budget announces that it will increase the set trigger prices that are relevant in determining the incremental portion of Crown timber dues, retroactive to January 1, 2026. This will effectively delay the point at which additional incremental dues apply. Base dues will remain unchanged.

Further, starting April 1, 2027, annual adjustments to trigger prices will be made using Canadian benchmark industry production cost data for the previous year.