Corporate tax planning for owner-managed companies
Planning only works while the year is still open. Because the same team keeps your books and files your return, the conversation happens in time to change the outcome.
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Why timing decides most of it
By the time a return is being prepared, the year is closed and the levers are gone. Whether to pay a bonus before year end, how much salary to take, whether to defer an invoice or accelerate a purchase, whether to declare a dividend: all of those had to be decided while the year was still running.
That is the structural weakness of the annual model. The person who could advise you only looks at the business after the window has shut.
What planning actually covers
For an owner-managed Canadian corporation the recurring decisions are fairly consistent. How to pay yourself, and in what mix of salary and dividends. Whether the corporation should hold a vehicle or you should claim mileage. How to take money out without creating a taxable benefit. Whether passive investment income is eroding your access to the small business deduction. When instalments start and what they should be.
Each of those is worked through against your current numbers rather than a general rule, because the right answer changes with how much the corporation earns and how much you need personally.
Paying yourself
Salary is deductible to the corporation, creates RRSP room, and builds CPP entitlement, at the cost of CPP contributions on both sides. Dividends are not deductible, create no RRSP room, and carry no CPP, but are taxed differently in your hands. Most owners land on a mix, and the right mix moves year to year.
Our guide on salary versus dividends in Canada works through the mechanics, and shareholder loan rules covers the third route and the trap in it.
Included, not a separate engagement
Planning sits inside the flat monthly price alongside the bookkeeping, payroll, and filings. There is no separate planning fee and no hourly meter, which is the only way the conversation reliably happens more than once a year.
What’s included
- Owner compensation planning, salary and dividend mix
- Decisions timed while the fiscal year is still open
- Instalment requirements worked out before the schedule starts
- Small business deduction position reviewed
- A running view of what you owe CRA
- Every position reviewed by a Canadian accountant
More on advisory: Business advisory · Corporate tax planning · Salary vs. dividends · Shareholder loans · Incorporate or stay sole proprietor
All four services: Bookkeeping · Tax · Payroll · Business advisory
Common questions
When should tax planning happen?
While the fiscal year is still open. Decisions about bonuses, salary, dividends, and timing of income or purchases have to be made before year end, which is why annual-only accountants miss them.
What does corporate tax planning cover?
How to pay yourself and in what mix of salary and dividends, whether the corporation should hold assets such as a vehicle, how to take money out without a taxable benefit, whether passive income is eroding the small business deduction, and when instalments start.
Is planning charged separately?
No. It sits inside the flat monthly price alongside the bookkeeping, payroll, and filings, with no separate planning fee and no hourly meter.
Can you plan around a specific decision I am facing?
Yes. Bring it up as soon as it comes up rather than at year end. Because your books are reconciled within twenty-four hours, the advice is based on where the business actually stands.
Plan the year while you can still change it
One flat monthly price. Book a call and we’ll quote it live.
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