Accounting for it consultants in Ontario
IT consultants and one-person corporations bill by project or contract, often through staffing agencies, and need clean books for both HST and the salary-vs-dividend question.
CRA EFILE authorized · Every filing signed by an accountant · Switching is free — about an hour of your time
taxifi · IT Consultants
This month
- Bookkeeping Current
- Payroll & source deductions Filed
- HST Filed
- Year-end tax (T2) On track
The problems we take off your plate
Agency and direct contracts
Income billed through staffing agencies and directly to clients is tracked cleanly, both with correct HST.
The salary-vs-dividend question
As a one-person corporation, how you pay yourself matters; your accountant runs the numbers each year.
Home office and equipment
Home-office, hardware, and software costs are tracked and documented so you claim everything you're owed.
What’s included
Published prices for incorporated Ontario it consultants. Everything below is handled.
- Contract and project bookkeeping
- HST returns prepared and filed
- Home-office and expense tracking
- Salary-vs-dividend planning with your accountant
- Year-end corporate tax (T2), from $1,000 a year
| 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 personal services business risk that costs incorporated consultants the most
An incorporated IT consultant with one main client is exposed to a rule that catches people late: the personal services business. If CRA concludes your corporation is effectively an incorporated employee of the client — you look and function like their staff — the corporation can lose the small business deduction and most ordinary expense deductions, and the tax result is materially worse than either salary or normal corporate treatment.
Factors resemble the employee-versus-contractor test: control over how the work is done, whose equipment you use, whether you carry financial risk, and whether you have multiple clients. Long single-client engagements, a desk at their office, and their laptop are the pattern. This is worth reviewing before a long contract starts, not after a reassessment, and it is exactly the kind of question an accountant should raise unprompted.
Common questions
I'm a one-person IT corporation. Is that a fit?
Yes. Incorporated IT consultants are a core fit for the flat monthly service.
Do you handle contracts billed through agencies?
Yes. Agency and direct-client income are both tracked cleanly.
What is a personal services business, and am I one?
It is a corporation that CRA treats as an incorporated employee rather than a genuine business. Long single-client engagements where you use the client's equipment, follow their direction, and carry little financial risk are the risk pattern. The consequences include losing the small business deduction and most expense deductions, so the exposure should be assessed before signing, not after.
Do I charge HST to clients in the United States?
Often no — services to non-resident clients can be zero-rated exports when the conditions are met, which means no HST charged while your input tax credits remain claimable. The conditions depend on the client and where the service is consumed, so confirm the treatment against your actual contracts.
Books and taxes for your IT consulting business, 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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