Are any of your clients reporting rental income from Québec on their tax returns? If so, they also need to file an RL-31 slip. You can prepare these slips for your clients or just remind them about the rules. In either case, here’s an overview of the essentials.

What’s an RL-31 Slip?

The RL-31 Slip (Information About a Leased Dwelling) is an informational form required of landlords by Revenu Québec. Landlords must file the form with Revenu Québec and also give a copy to their tenants.

The slip requests the following information:

• The address of the dwelling
• The number of tenants who signed the lease
• The tenants’ mailing addresses
• The landlord’s name and address

You have to fill out a separate slip for each rental property, and if more than five tenants signed the lease, you have to fill out additional forms because you can only list five people on each form.

Which Dwellings Need an RL-31 Slip?

As a general rule of thumb, if your client is collecting rent on any dwelling in Québec, it needs to fill out an RL-31 slip related to that dwelling. This includes houses, apartments, duplexes, condos, and potentially even rooms in houses. However, the following dwellings are exempt:

• Low-rental housing involved with the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal program
• Rentals where the Société d’habitation du Québec is contributing some of the rent
• Housing cooperatives or other dwellings governed by the National Housing Act
• Hospital centres, residential and long-term care centres, or rehabilitations centres
• Rooms in your primary residence that don’t have a separate entrance or bathroom, unless you rent out three or more rooms
• Rooms in hotels or rooming houses where people stay for less than 60 days in a row

If your clients’ rental properties don’t fall into these relatively rare categories, they need to file an RL-31 slip.

How Do You File RL-31 Slips?

Whether your clients are individuals or businesses, they can prepare and file R-31 slips online through Revenu Québec’s website. To access the system, individuals need their social insurance number, date of birth, and a notice number from any assessment issued in the last two years. Businesses, in contrast, need a user code and password from clicSEQUR.

If desired, you can access this service on behalf of your clients. If you don’t have a clicQUER account, you just need to register for one.

You can also file these forms using authorized software or software that you’ve developed as long as it meets Revenu Québec’s criteria. If you want to file these forms through the post, you need to contact Revenu Québec and order paper forms. Regardless of how you submit the forms, you need to download and print copies for tenants. Every tenant or subtenant listed on the slip gets a copy. These slips are due at the end of February for the previous year.

The RL-31 slip is just one of the many obligations landlords face. To make it easier to handle the books for these clients, you may want to invest in real estate accounting software that lets you keep all these numbers and details in one place.

How Do You File RL-31 Slips?

Whether your clients are individuals or businesses, they can prepare and file R-31 slips online through Revenu Québec’s website. To access the system, individuals need their social insurance number, date of birth, and a notice number from any assessment issued in the last two years. Businesses, in contrast, need a user code and password from clicSEQUR.

If desired, you can access this service on behalf of your clients. If you don’t have a clicQUER account, you just need to register for one.

You can also file these forms using authorized software or software that you’ve developed as long as it meets Revenu Québec’s criteria. If you want to file these forms through the post, you need to contact Revenu Québec and order paper forms. Regardless of how you submit the forms, you need to download and print copies for tenants. Every tenant or subtenant listed on the slip gets a copy. These slips are due at the end of February for the previous year.

The RL-31 slip is just one of the many obligations landlords face. To make it easier to handle the books for these clients, you may want to invest in real estate accounting software that lets you keep all these numbers and details in one place.