Accounting for insurance brokers in Ontario
Insurance brokerages earn commissions and renewals, may carry trust obligations, and run producers whose pay is tied to what they write.
CRA EFILE authorized · Every filing signed by an accountant · Switching is free — about an hour of your time
taxifi · Insurance Brokers
This month
- Bookkeeping Current
- Payroll & source deductions Filed
- HST Filed
- Year-end tax (T2) On track
The problems we take off your plate
Commissions and renewals
First-year commissions and trailing renewals are tracked so your recurring income is clear.
Producer compensation
What your producers write and are paid is tracked cleanly against the book.
Your corporation at year-end
The corporate T2 is handled and your accountant plans how you draw from the brokerage.
What’s included
Published prices for incorporated Ontario insurance brokers. Everything below is handled.
- Commission and renewal-income bookkeeping
- Producer compensation tracked
- HST handling reviewed with your accountant
- Year-end corporate tax (T2), from $1,000 a year
- Owner pay planning
| Area | A typical setup | With taxifi |
|---|---|---|
| Your books | Weeks or months behind | Current every day |
| Year-end (T2) | A spring scramble, billed extra | Included, no surprise invoice |
| Your accountant | Metered by the hour | Unlimited questions, flat monthly |
The exempt-supply problem nobody warns brokers about
Arranging insurance is generally an exempt financial service in Canada, so most brokerage commission income carries no HST. That sounds like a simplification, and for invoicing it is. For the books it is the opposite: exempt suppliers generally cannot claim input tax credits, so the HST inside your rent, software, marketing, and equipment stays a real cost of doing business.
That changes how a brokerage should read its own margins, and it creates a genuine trap when a brokerage adds fee-based advisory, referral income, or administrative services that may not be exempt. Mixed revenue can trigger registration and apportionment questions that are easy to get wrong and awkward to unwind. It is worth having an accountant look at the revenue mix once and set the books up to track it.
Common questions
Can you track producer commissions?
Yes. Producer pay is tracked cleanly against what they write.
Do you work with incorporated brokerages?
Yes. Incorporated insurance brokers are a good fit.
Do insurance brokers charge HST on commissions in Ontario?
Generally no — arranging insurance is normally an exempt financial service, so commissions typically carry no HST. The flip side is that most HST you pay on brokerage expenses is not recoverable as input tax credits, so it should be budgeted as a true cost rather than a wash.
What if my brokerage also earns fees or referral income?
Then you may have a mixed supply situation, where some revenue is exempt and some is potentially taxable, which raises registration and apportionment questions. The answer depends on what the fees are actually for. This is a common blind spot in brokerages that added services gradually — worth reviewing before CRA does.
Books and taxes for your insurance brokerage, done
Bookkeeping from $99 a month, accountant-reviewed from $299, corporate T2 from $1,000 a year. Prices are published; a call confirms the fit.
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