Ontario Accounting — Frequently Asked Questions
20 plain-language answers to the questions Canadian business owners ask RN Canada about Ontario Accounting.
Yes, remotely. RN Canada serves Toronto and Greater Toronto Area businesses from its Edmonton head office using cloud accounting and video meetings. We do not have a Toronto office, address or local staff — Ontario and federal tax rules apply the same regardless of where your accountant sits.
No. Our two offices are in Edmonton (head office) and Vancouver. Toronto and GTA clients are served remotely from Edmonton. We say this plainly because a local address is often implied and rarely true; what matters for compliance is the CPA doing the work, not the postal code.
It depends on scope: an annual T2 and financial statements sit at one end, monthly bookkeeping with HST and payroll in the middle, and fractional CFO work at the top. Ask any firm what the engagement includes and what triggers extra fees before signing. RN Canada quotes a fixed scope after reviewing your books.
A licensed CPA who can sign off on the corporate year end, genuine experience with Ontario specifics such as HST and the Employer Health Tax, and clarity on who does the ongoing bookkeeping versus the annual filing. Ask how the firm handles the $500,000 small business limit across associated companies.
Yes. The T2, HST returns, payroll remittances and EHT filings are all filed electronically with the CRA and the Ontario Ministry of Finance, and the rules are federally and provincially documented. What a remote engagement needs is disciplined document flow and scheduled meetings, not proximity.
Recording and reconciling transactions, tracking HST collected and paid so input tax credits are not lost, running payroll with CPP, CPP2, EI and EHT, and producing monthly statements that a year end can be built from. Clean books are what make the T2, the HST return and any financing conversation straightforward.
When the decisions outgrow the bookkeeping: pricing and margin questions, a financing round or bank facility, multi-location expansion, or a cash-flow forecast nobody owns. A fractional CFO gives you senior financial leadership for a fraction of a full-time salary, which suits companies roughly in the $1M-$20M revenue range.
You incorporate federally under the CBCA or provincially under the Ontario Business Corporations Act through the Ontario Business Registry, then register for a business number, HST, payroll and WSIB as needed. The choice of jurisdiction affects name protection and filing obligations more than tax, since Ontario corporate tax is filed with the federal T2 either way.
Incorporation starts paying off when profit consistently exceeds what you draw personally, because retained earnings are taxed at the small business rate rather than your personal rate. Below that, the extra corporate return, bookkeeping and filings often outweigh the benefit. Model both before deciding.
Any date within 53 weeks of incorporation. December 31 keeps the corporate and personal years aligned and is simplest for owner-manager planning; a non-calendar year end can smooth workload or defer tax in the first year. Whatever you choose, the T2 is due six months later and the tax earlier than that.
Yes. Professional corporations follow the share-ownership rules of the practitioner's regulatory college rather than ordinary corporate law, which affects who can hold shares and how income can be split. We handle the corporate year end, the practitioner's personal return and the compensation plan that connects them.
Open a payroll account with the CRA, set up CPP, CPP2, EI and income tax withholding, register with WSIB if your industry requires coverage, and track Ontario payroll against the $1,000,000 EHT exemption. Remittance frequency depends on your average monthly withholding amount.
Yes. Early-stage work usually means a runway model, a hiring plan tied to cash, and a chart of accounts that will still make sense at Series A. This is fractional CFO work rather than bookkeeping, and it pairs with clean monthly reporting so the model is fed by real numbers.
Keep books, invoices, receipts, payroll records and HST documentation supporting what you filed. The general CRA requirement is six years from the end of the tax year they relate to, longer where a return is filed late or an objection is outstanding. Digital copies are acceptable when they are legible and complete.
Yes, catch-up work is common. It normally starts with reconciling bank and credit card accounts, rebuilding the HST position period by period, then correcting payroll remittances before the year end is prepared. Filing late is better than filing wrong; both are better than not filing.
Salary is deductible to the corporation, builds RRSP room and creates CPP entitlement; dividends avoid CPP but build no earned-income room and interact with Ontario's surtax and health premium. Most owner-managers use a blend, and the right split depends on cash needs and income level rather than a rule of thumb.
We work in the mainstream cloud ledgers most Canadian small businesses already use, with bank feeds and receipt capture so the books stay current between meetings. Remote engagements depend on that flow: if the documents arrive continuously, the reporting is monthly rather than annual.
Yes. The same remote engagement works for Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, Ottawa and anywhere else in Ontario, because Ontario corporate tax, HST, EHT and payroll rules are province-wide. Only municipal items such as Toronto's Vacant Home Tax and Municipal Land Transfer Tax are city-specific.
Adjusting entries and reconciliations, financial statements, the T2 return covering federal and Ontario tax, the small business deduction calculation including any associated-company allocation, and the owner's compensation entries. HST and payroll accounts are reconciled to what was actually filed and remitted.
Onboarding is usually a scoping call, access to the ledger and prior-year filings, then a fixed-scope proposal. Urgent work such as an approaching T2 or overdue HST return is triaged first. Contact RN Canada with your year end and current filing status and we will tell you what is realistic.