Edmonton Accountant for Construction, Trades & Government Contractors
EverStone CPA helps Edmonton’s incorporated trades, construction and contracting businesses with corporate tax, bookkeeping and advice — delivered entirely online by a dedicated CPA, at a fixed, up-front fee. Businesses in St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Spruce Grove and Leduc are served the same way.
Who we help here: General and trade contractors, industrial and municipal-project subcontractors, and firms doing government or institutional work — owners who need clean subcontractor reporting, correct worker classification and a T2 filed on time, every time.
Quick answer: Edmonton contractors and consultants get Alberta’s simpler sales-tax position — GST only, no provincial sales tax. EverStone handles corporate tax, payroll, bookkeeping and personal services business risk for incorporated Edmonton owners entirely online, at a fixed fee agreed up front. Published fees start at $125 for a personal return and $325 a month for bookkeeping.
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On this page
- An accountant that keeps up with your job sites, not the other way around
- Which return applies to you
- What Alberta’s tax rules mean for a construction or contracting business
- Accounting & tax services for Edmonton businesses
- Built for subcontractor networks and government-tender work
- Single-client contracts and the personal-services-business risk
- Getting set up between jobs
- Payroll and WCB once the first crew member arrives
- Edmonton industries we work with most
- How working with an Edmonton business actually runs
- What an Edmonton client’s year looks like
- Questions from Edmonton contractors
An accountant that keeps up with your job sites, not the other way around
Edmonton’s construction, trades and contracting businesses run on tight schedules and thin administrative time — owners are on-site, not filing paperwork. We handle your T2, GST and Alberta compliance securely online, so getting proper CPA support never costs you a day away from the job.
In Edmonton you work with one Chartered Professional Accountant who tracks your file all year, not a different preparer each spring. Everything happens by video and phone, and every fee is fixed and quoted before we begin.
Get My Fixed QuoteWhat Edmonton clients get
- Corporate tax (T2) & year-end statements
- Personal tax (T1) for owners & families
- Job-costed bookkeeping & payroll
- GST filed — no PST return required
- Subcontractor & T5018 tracking
- Fixed fees, quoted up front
Which return applies to you
| If you are | You file |
|---|---|
| A sole proprietor | A T1 personal return with form T2125 for the business |
| An incorporated business | A T2 corporate return, with financial statement schedules |
| A partnership | A T5013 partnership return where required, plus each partner’s own return |
| Employed with a side business | A T1 that reports both the T4 income and the T2125 business |
| Sales tax where you operate | 5% GST only. Alberta levies no provincial sales tax |
Source: Incorporating versus staying a proprietor. General information, not advice.
What Alberta’s tax rules mean for a construction or contracting business
No PST simplifies invoicing, but subcontractor reporting and worker classification carry the real risk.
No provincial sales tax
Alberta charges no PST at all — your business only registers for and files the 5% federal GST, which simplifies invoicing across materials, labour and equipment rental compared to provinces charging two separate sales taxes.
Corporate tax rate
Alberta’s active small-business income is taxed at just 2% provincially, on top of the 9% federal small-business rate — one of the most favourable combined rates in the country for a profitable contracting business.
Subcontractor reporting (T5018)
General contractors and developers paying subcontractors for construction services have a T5018 subcontractor reporting obligation to CRA each year. We track subcontractor payments in your bookkeeping as you go, so T5018 season is a formality, not a scramble.
Accounting & tax services for Edmonton businesses
Everything an incorporated Edmonton business needs, under one roof — delivered online.
Corporate Tax (T2)
T2 returns and year-end statements for Edmonton’s incorporated trades, construction and government-contracting businesses, with GST and CRA correspondence included.
Personal Tax (T1)
Personal and self-employed T1 filings for Edmonton owners, capturing vehicle, tool and site-related claims that generalist preparers often miss.
Bookkeeping & Payroll
Job-costed bookkeeping and payroll for Edmonton crews, including T5018 subcontractor tracking built in from the first invoice, not reconstructed at year-end.
GST Filing
Alberta GST handled and filed on time — no PST to manage — reconciled to job costs and equipment purchases each period.
Business Advisory
Practical guidance on bidding, hiring and cash flow for Edmonton contractors, from a CPA who works with trades and construction every day.
Fractional CFO
Fractional CFO support for larger Edmonton contracting operations that need budgeting, bonding-ready financials and lender-facing reporting.
Built for subcontractor networks and government-tender work
Edmonton’s economy runs heavily on construction, industrial maintenance and public-sector contracting — work that typically flows through networks of general contractors and subcontractors, often on government or institutional tenders with strict invoicing and reporting requirements. That structure creates two recurring accounting problems: correctly reporting what you pay subcontractors, and making sure a business that works mostly for one general contractor or government client isn’t inadvertently structured in a way CRA could challenge.
We handle T5018 subcontractor reporting as part of your regular bookkeeping, review how your contracts and working relationships are structured, and take care of corporate tax, GST, payroll and year-end statements. Bidding on the next tender shouldn’t mean untangling last year’s books first.
Get My Fixed QuoteServing Edmonton, entirely online
🖥️ All online: phone or video meetings, secure email and e-signatures.
Have a question first?
📞 (604) 832-1743 · Mon–Fri 9–5:30
✉️ info@everstonecpa.com
Single-client contracts and the personal-services-business risk
A common Edmonton pattern is an incorporated contractor or technical specialist who, for a stretch of time, works almost exclusively for one general contractor or one government department. Often it runs through a staffing arrangement or a long-running master services agreement. It’s a completely normal way to build a business, but it carries a specific CRA risk. If your corporation looks, in substance, like an employee of that one client rather than an independent business serving multiple customers, CRA can reassess it as a personal services business.
That reassessment is expensive. A personal services business loses access to the small-business tax rate and most of the expense deductions a normal corporation can claim. It is taxed at a rate that can end up higher than if you’d simply been an employee, while still carrying all the administrative cost of running a corporation. CRA looks at practical factors. How much control does the client exercise over your day-to-day work? Do you supply your own tools and equipment? Do you carry any real financial risk on the arrangement? How integrated are you into the client’s own operations and reporting lines?
For Edmonton contractors who land a long single-client engagement, especially government or large industrial contracts, we review the arrangement against these factors before it becomes a filing-season surprise. Where the structure allows it, we help you diversify how the work is billed and documented so the corporation continues to look, and function, like an independent business.
Getting set up between jobs
Onboarding that fits between job sites, all online.
Send an enquiry
A quick call about your trade or contracting business, then a fixed written quote with no obligation.
Send your records securely
Send records by secure upload; we reconcile job costs, subcontractor payments and T5018 tracking as we go.
Stay compliant all year
We keep GST and T2 on schedule and review your single-client contracts for personal-services-business risk.
Payroll and WCB once the first crew member arrives
The step from working alone to employing someone is the biggest administrative jump an Edmonton contractor makes, and it happens fast — usually mid-season, when the work is already there. Three obligations start at once.
First, a payroll (RP) account with the CRA, and withholding on every pay: income tax, CPP and EI, plus the employer’s share of the last two. Those amounts are held in trust, which is why unremitted source deductions can become a personal liability for directors rather than staying with the company. Second, a remittance schedule — most new employers remit monthly by the 15th, but the schedule is assigned from your average withholding and it changes as payroll grows. Third, coverage with the provincial workers’ compensation board, which is a separate registration with its own premium basis and reporting, not something handled through your CRA account.
T4 slips follow at the end of February for the preceding calendar year. Where a crew mixes employees and genuine subcontractors, the classification of each person drives which obligations apply, and getting that wrong is assessed against the payer, with interest, often across several years at once. It is worth settling before the first cheque, not after.
Edmonton industries we work with most
Edmonton’s owner-managed base runs to industrial and energy services, construction and the trades, transport and logistics, and the technical consultants who serve them. Equipment-heavy operators carry the capital-asset questions — class, lease versus buy, recapture on disposal — while one-person consulting corporations carry the personal services business question instead.
Businesses that employ staff add payroll remittances and the year-end slip filing that goes with them. Construction and the trades make up a large part of that base. See contractor accounting in Edmonton, and for crews working across the province, the CPA for contractors in Alberta page. Retailers and distributors carry inventory questions the trades do not. See retail and wholesale accounting in Edmonton.
The industrial belt south of the city drives most of what we see. Nisku and Leduc are dense with oilfield-services shops, fabrication yards and equipment-rental businesses, which means capital assets, subcontractor networks and T5018 reporting. Sherwood Park carries a similar industrial-services profile alongside incorporated professionals. St. Albert and Spruce Grove send more owner-operated trades and small construction firms running contracts back into the city. We act for all of them remotely; the location shapes the numbers on the return, not the way the work gets done.
How working with an Edmonton business actually runs
Nothing about an Edmonton engagement needs a meeting room. The opening consultation is a video or phone call. Receipts and statements come through a secure upload link instead of a courier or a visit, and returns are signed electronically. You can email through the year about a job, a hire or a truck purchase, and no bill follows, because the fee was fixed before we started. Those are the moments when advice is worth having, before the money moves.
Your file stays with one CPA from start to finish, so the accountant who prepares the return is also the one who replies to your email. For Edmonton owners working from a site trailer or a shop in Nisku, that means no drive and no reluctance to ask.
What an Edmonton client’s year looks like
An Edmonton client’s year is usually paced by projects and, for anyone working outdoors, by season. We keep the books current rather than reconstructing them in spring, plan instalments against real cash flow instead of a flat projection, and raise the year-end decisions while they can still change the result. Payroll remittances run on their own schedule through the year. The corporate return follows the fiscal year-end, with the balance owing due before it.
Owner-run companies across Alberta get the same service. The provincial picture is in accounting in Alberta, and how a virtual CPA engagement works explains the process.
Free tools for Edmonton owners: free CRA deadline reminders.
Questions from Edmonton contractors
How much does an accountant cost in Edmonton?+
Can an accountant outside Edmonton file my corporate taxes?+
How do we exchange documents securely?+
Do you understand Alberta tax rules?+
Do I lose anything working with an accountant who isn’t in Edmonton?+
Do I need to file a T5018 for my subcontractors?+
I mostly work for one general contractor — could that be a problem?+
Does Alberta’s lack of PST change anything for a construction business specifically?+
For year-end statements specifically, Edmonton financial statements covers contract revenue, holdback presentation and what a prequalification submission requires.
See how corporate tax and sales tax work province-wide in our Alberta accounting guide — provincial rates, GST/HST/PST and filing for Alberta businesses.
Client reviews, unedited
Rated 5.0 on Google across 21 client reviews.
“…He is very knowledgeable and has saved me tons in taxes by restructuring my group of companies — the best accountant I’ve worked with in the last 10 years, after switching from three different firms.”
“…have been completing my bookkeeping, taxes and financials for the last 2 years and they have been amazing. Thank you!”
“…We switched to him last year for both our personal and small-business taxes — responsive, knowledgeable and quick.”
Working with a virtual accountant in Edmonton
Edmonton’s incorporated-contractor base runs into two recurring issues, and both are cheaper to handle early than to explain afterwards. The first is worker classification — whether the people on a crew are employees or genuine subcontractors, which drives payroll withholding, remittance schedules and the slips that have to be filed at the end of February.
The second is equipment: what gets capitalized, which capital cost allowance class it belongs in, and how the timing of a purchase against your year-end changes the deduction. Everything runs remotely. Records arrive by secure upload rather than a drop-off, meetings happen by video around site hours, and approvals are by e-signature. Alberta’s separately administered corporate return and its own instalment schedule are coordinated alongside the federal filing rather than handed back to you as a second job.
The virtual CPA guide covers onboarding and the yearly rhythm in detail. Province-level material, including Alberta’s own corporate filing, is on the Alberta business page.
company car benefit calculator · the corporate deadline calculator · work out when remittances are due · model your pay mix
Also serving business owners in virtual accountant in Vancouver and online accountant in Toronto.
Services in Edmonton
Two service pages go deeper for Edmonton: personal tax (T1) for incorporated owners in Edmonton. It is delivered remotely.
Two compliance jobs come up so often for Edmonton businesses that each has a page. If you employ anyone, payroll services in Edmonton covers Alberta construction employment standards. If you charge sales tax, GST/HST filing in Edmonton covers refund positions on capital purchases.
Written for particular industries: energy services in Edmonton, trucking and logistics in Edmonton and restaurants and hospitality in Edmonton.
Related services and local guides
Other cities, the rest of our services for Edmonton firms, and the reference pages behind this guide.
Elsewhere in Alberta
The same fixed-fee service, online, for owner-run businesses in St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Spruce Grove, Leduc and Fort Saskatchewan. Every Alberta city we serve is on the Alberta accounting page.
Starting fees
Every fee is fixed in writing before any work begins.
- Monthly bookkeeping, GST/PST filing includedfrom $325 a month
- Payroll, remittances, T4s and ROEsincluded in monthly bookkeeping
- Books, payroll and the year-end T2 together$500–$700 a month
- Corporate year-end and T2 returnfixed fee, quoted in writing
- Personal tax return (T1)from $125; self-employed or rental $275–$500
- Catch-up bookkeepingfrom $2,200 per year of records
- Controller or CFO supportcontroller from $1,650, CFO from $2,750 a month
- One-off advice call with a CPA$225 plus GST
Ready for an accountant who understands job sites and T5018s?
Get an accountant who understands job-site costs, subcontractor reporting and PSB risk on government-tender work. Email enquiry, fixed quote, fully online.
Remote accounting
Accounting for Edmonton clients is delivered remotely. There is no Edmonton office and no local team. Meetings are virtual, documents are signed electronically, and you deal with the CPA directly rather than an intake desk. The CPA who takes your March question is the one who prepared your June return, and that continuity is what bigger offices tend to lose.
How a remote engagement works in Alberta
Edmonton owners get exactly the same engagement as clients down the highway — the practice has been fully remote since it opened, so nothing about it is a workaround.
- Authorise us in CRA’s system. A few clicks in your My Business Account under Represent a Client give us access, with nothing to mail. It lets us check balances, notices and filings ourselves instead of waiting for copies from you.
- A secure upload link carries the records. Bank statements, payroll summaries and year-end paperwork go through the link, not email, and you can upload straight from a phone on site.
- Approvals are signed online. The T183 and engagement letter open in a browser for your e-signature, so no printing, scanning or courier is needed.
- We meet by video or by phone. The first consultation, planning discussions and the year-end review fit around your job schedule instead of a drive across the city.
- Returns are e-filed as they always were. CRA gets them electronically from us, and Alberta’s separately administered corporate return is filed electronically to the province too.
What is specific to Alberta
Like every Alberta corporation, yours files a provincial AT1 return with Alberta Tax and Revenue Administration as well as the federal T2, because Alberta administers its own corporate income tax rather than routing it through CRA. There is no provincial sales tax to register for. For employers, the payroll accounts are federal; the provincial layer that catches people is Workers’ Compensation Board coverage, which is registered separately from anything CRA touches.
If you are comparing firms first, what to ask an accountant in Edmonton before you sign sets out what to check before choosing.
Current Alberta rates and thresholds live on the Alberta tax facts page. Every figure on that page shows where it came from and when it was confirmed, and keeping it in one place stops old numbers lingering elsewhere.
Alberta questions we get
Can you deal with Alberta TRA on my behalf?+
Yes — provincial authorization is separate from CRA’s Represent a Client, and setting it up is part of onboarding rather than something you chase later.
Do you work with Edmonton trades and construction companies?+
Yes, and the sector-specific parts — subcontractor reporting, holdbacks, WCB — are the same conversation regardless of province. The contractor accounting page covers how those are handled.
Do you work with businesses outside Edmonton itself?+
Talk to a CPA about this
A Chartered Professional Accountant handles your file from the first call to the last filing. Fees are set in writing before any work, and an initial conversation carries no obligation.
“Personal. Professional. Responsive. Plus he saved me a bundle!”