A fixed-fee CPA for Delta, from Ladner to Annacis Island

A BC firm, so the province is home ground

EverStone works from Abbotsford, an hour or so up the Fraser from Ladner. The firm’s own clients file BC PST returns, remit WorkSafeBC premiums and watch the employer health tax, so a Delta company is simply another BC file. Nothing about the province has to be learned before the work starts.

There is no Delta office, and no staff on the ground there. The work is remote by design. A question sent from a truck cab on Highway 17, a greenhouse in East Ladner or a shop floor on Annacis Island reaches the same CPA who prepares the return. Documents come in through a secure upload link, and signatures are electronic. If a conversation helps, it runs by video, booked through the booking page.

Port, river and farmland in one municipality

Delta is unusual among Metro Vancouver cities. The container and bulk terminals at Roberts Bank sit off its western shore, the ferry terminal is at Tsawwassen, and the south arm of the Fraser runs along its northern edge. Behind that sits some of the most productive farmland in the province, much of it in the Agricultural Land Reserve, with greenhouses in among the open fields.

The industrial land is concentrated on Tilbury and Annacis Island, with Highway 17 and Highway 91 tying them to the port, the Alex Fraser Bridge and the border crossings to the east. The residential side is quieter: Tsawwassen and Ladner village to the south and west, and North Delta on the bluff above the river next to Surrey. A Delta business can be a drayage company, a fourth-generation farm and a renovation contractor, sometimes owned by the same family.

Two sales taxes, and five different answers

There is no HST in BC. The CRA collects the 5% GST, while the BC Ministry of Finance runs the 7% PST through a registration and return of its own. The two also treat your purchases differently. GST you pay on business costs is normally recovered as an input tax credit, while PST you pay is usually just part of the expense.

Each of Delta’s main trades meets that split differently. A greenhouse selling fresh vegetables makes zero-rated sales for GST, so it often files for refunds of the GST on its inputs. A carrier hauling a container to Washington State may be zero-rated on that freight. A manufacturer can buy qualifying production equipment without PST. A contractor installing materials into a building usually pays PST as the consumer instead of charging it. Our guide to BC PST for small business walks through who has to register.

The industries with pages of their own

Five Delta trades get a page each, written around their own filings, records and recurring questions.

• Trucking and logistics: port drayage, trucks and trailers written off through CCA, owner-operators and cross-border freight.
• Greenhouse growers: farming income under glass, GST refunds on zero-rated produce, heating costs and seasonal crews.
• Farms and agribusiness: the cash method, field crops and berries, and passing farmland to the next generation.
• Manufacturers: inventory and work in progress, the PST production exemption, and SR&ED on Form T661.
• Construction contractors: T5018 slips, holdbacks, PST on installed materials and WorkSafeBC clearances.

What a Delta corporation actually files

Federal and BC corporate tax travel together on a single T2 sent to the CRA. Per the BC tax facts page, the provincial rate is 2% on income that qualifies for the small business deduction and 12% on the rest. Only $500,000 of income gets the low rate, and associated companies split that one limit between them. In Delta that rule bites often, because one family may own the farm, the greenhouse and the trucking company through three corporations.

The return is due six months after year-end. The balance owing is due two months after year-end, or three for a Canadian-controlled private corporation claiming the small business deduction that meets the conditions. The annual report to BC Registries is a separate job that no tax notice will prompt. Money taken out of the company as a shareholder loan needs watching too: if it is still unpaid one year after the year-end, it is generally added to the owner’s income.

Services for Delta businesses

Four core services each have a Delta page.

• Bookkeeping: monthly reconciliation with GST and PST filed, from $300 a month.
• Payroll: drivers, shift crews and seasonal workers, source deductions, WorkSafeBC and year-end T4 slips.
• Corporate tax (T2): the return, year-end statements and the planning that has to happen before the year closes.
• Personal tax (T1): returns for owners, retirees in Tsawwassen and Ladner, and households renting out a suite, from $100 per return.

Starting fees are listed on the pricing page; a stand-alone T2 is priced once we have talked it through.

Remote accounting from Abbotsford

The firm operates from Abbotsford and serves Delta remotely. There is no Delta office and no staff based there. Everything runs by video, email and secure document exchange, so nothing about the engagement depends on being nearby. The person who answers your question in March is the one who prepared the return in June, which is the part a larger office structure tends to lose. For the provincial picture, see accounting across British Columbia.