International financial centre

Recently Announced Change

In the additional information for Budget 2025-2026 published on March 25, 2025, the government announced the abolition of the tax holiday for foreign specialists assigned to operations of an international financial centre.

Consequently, the Minister of Finance has not accepted any new application for the issuance of a specialist qualification certificate since the day following the day of the budget speech.

As for foreign specialists holding a valid qualification certificate, they will be able to receive an annual certificate each year until the end of their eligibility period, and thus obtain their personal tax benefit.

The tax measures were put in place by the Ministère des Finances to encourage the implementation and development of new projects by businesses specializing in international financial activities in the urban agglomeration of Montréal. To benefit from these tax measures, a corporation must hold the status of international financial centre (IFC).

IFC status is conferred is the name given to a business or part of a business that carries out international financial activities and in respect of which it holds the qualification certificate and annual certificates required under the Act respecting the sectoral parameters of certain fiscal measures (CQLR chapter P-5.1) .

An IFC is a business or part of a business that meets the following conditions:

it is operated by a corporation; partnerships and tax-exempt corporations are not eligible
it proposes a project with new activities that:

have not started more than 12 months before the date of the application for a qualification certificate, or 12 months before the addition of an activity to the qualification certificate
start no later than 24 months after the date of the application for a qualification certificate

all of its activities relate to one or more qualifying international financial activities
it employs a minimum of six eligible employees at all times, including local employees and foreign specialists holding a qualification certificate and an annual certificate, at each of its eligible facilities
all qualifying international financial activities are conducted in one or more of the eligible facilities within the territory of the urban agglomeration of Montréal.