Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland
Running an incorporated business involves more than just filing a tax return. Decisions about how to pay yourself and what to do with excess cash can have significant tax implications.
Objective Tax & Accounting works with incorporated professionals, consultants, entrepreneurs, and other owner-managed businesses across Canada. We provide annual corporate tax and accounting services as well as more involved corporate tax planning and retirement tax planning.
More Than a Corporate Tax Return
Preparing accurate financial statements and filing a T2 corporate tax return are important. But an incorporated business owner will often have questions that should be considered before year-end.
Should you pay yourself a salary or dividends? How much money should remain in the corporation? Can surplus cash be invested corporately? Would a holding company make sense?
These questions do not always have simple answers. Paying a salary can create RRSP contribution room and build future CPP entitlement. Dividends may provide more flexibility, and paying taxable dividends may allow the corporation to recover refundable tax previously paid on investment income. Leaving money in the corporation can defer personal tax, but corporate investing should be compared with withdrawing funds to make RRSP or TFSA contributions or repay personal debt.
Your strategy should be reviewed periodically because it may need to change as your circumstances change, particularly as you approach retirement. Business owners with accumulated corporate savings may also benefit from specialized retirement tax planning for incorporated business owners. We help business owners understand the trade-offs before making important decisions, rather than simply reporting the results after the year is over.
Have You Outgrown Your Current Accountant?
Many business owners come to us because their corporation has become more profitable or complex, but their relationship with their accountant has not kept pace.
Their corporate tax returns are getting filed, but there is little discussion about compensation, retained earnings, corporate investments, or longer-term planning opportunities. Others want their bookkeeping and accounting better integrated, or more coordination between their corporate tax and personal financial planning.
You may benefit from a different approach if you rarely hear from your accountant outside tax season or do not understand how your salary and dividends are determined. The same may be true if you are approaching retirement, considering a sale, or unsure what to do with accumulated corporate assets.
Changing accountants is generally more straightforward than many business owners expect. With your authorization, we can request the relevant records from your previous accountant and help manage the transition.
Our Corporate Tax and Accounting Services
Our services include:
- Corporate T2 income tax return preparation
- Preparation of financial statements
- Québec corporate CO-17 tax return preparation
- Bookkeeping, payroll, and GST/HST/QST filings
- Salary and dividend planning for owner-managers
- Passive investment income and tax-deferral planning
- Corporate reorganizations
- Tax planning for the purchase, sale, or wind-up of a business
- Coordination of personal, corporate, and trust tax filings
We can also assist with incorporation, annual corporate maintenance, and corporate dissolution. When legal or other specialized advice is required, we can collaborate with your other professional advisers or experts from our network.
Coordinating Your Business and Personal Planning
Objective Tax & Accounting is affiliated with Objective Financial Partners, one of Canada’s largest advice-only financial planning firms. As a result, we regularly work with business owners whose tax decisions overlap with their financial planning.
For business owners, the most important question should not simply be how much tax they pay this year. It is how to turn the value they are building in their business into long-term financial security and a lifetime tax strategy.
Decisions about compensation and corporate investments can affect retirement planning. The future sale or closure of the business may also influence decisions being made today. For clients who need both accounting and financial planning, a coordinated approach can help keep those decisions aligned.
You do not need to be a financial planning client to work with Objective Tax & Accounting.
Talk To Us About Your Corporation
Whether you are recently incorporated, have significant retained earnings, want more proactive support, or need retirement tax advice for your corporation, we would be happy to discuss your situation.
We work with incorporated business owners across Canada to help them better understand the opportunities and trade-offs that come with running a corporation.
Book a no-obligation introductory call to discuss your corporate tax and accounting needs and determine whether Objective Tax & Accounting may be a good fit.