Accounting for Veterinarians and Vet Clinics in BC
A veterinary clinic is part medical practice, part pharmacy and part retail counter. That mix shows up in the books: drug inventory, diagnostic equipment, associate and locum pay, client deposits and a front desk that takes payments all day.
EverStone CPA works with veterinarians and clinic owners anywhere in British Columbia, online, with fees fixed in writing.
Quick answer: Many veterinarians who own a clinic run it through a corporation, but whether you can, and how the shares must be held, depends on your college’s rules. Once that is settled, the accounting work is drug and food inventory, equipment write-offs, staff payroll and a clean monthly match between your practice software and the bank. We handle all of it for BC clinics.
Veterinary practices we work with
Our veterinary clients range from a single vet with a mobile kit in a truck to a multi-doctor hospital with technicians, assistants and a reception team. The questions change with the size of the clinic, so we start with how yours actually runs.
Some vets own the practice outright, some are buying in as a partner, and some work as associates or relief vets for several clinics. Each shape has its own tax return and its own risks.
- Small-animal clinics with one or two veterinarians
- Multi-doctor animal hospitals with a full support team
- Mobile and large-animal practices serving farms and ranches
- Emergency and after-hours clinics with shift-based staffing
- Associate and relief veterinarians billing several clinics
- Vets buying into, or selling, an existing practice
Owning a clinic personally or through a corporation
A new associate earning a salary has nothing to structure yet. The decision arrives when you start billing as a relief vet, open your own clinic or buy into one.
Relief and associate vets
If you invoice clinics as a self-employed vet, your fees and costs go on a T2125 with your personal return. You pay both halves of CPP, and you may need personal instalments once the tax owing grows.
A clinic in a corporation
The company bills clients, owns the equipment and employs the staff. Profit left inside is taxed at the small business rate, 11% combined in BC, on the first $500,000 of active business income.
Your college decides the rules
Whether a veterinarian may practise through a company, and who may own its shares, depends on your college and its current bylaws. Check that before you file incorporation papers, and we will plan around the answer.
Buying in or buying out
Buying shares of a clinic is taxed differently from buying its assets. The split between goodwill, equipment and drug stock changes your deductions for years, so price allocation is worth agreeing on paper.
Run your figures in the incorporation calculator, read about accounting for incorporated professionals, or ask for incorporation advice before you sign anything.
Paying yourself from a veterinary corporation
Clinic owners often take a mix of salary and dividends. The right mix depends on what you need personally, whether you want RRSP room, and what the clinic must keep for equipment and slow months.
Salary through payroll
Deductible to the clinic, reported on a T4 and builds CPP and RRSP room. It runs through the same payroll as your technicians, so remittances stay on one schedule.
Dividends from profit
Paid after corporate tax and reported on a T5. No source deductions, but no RRSP room either. Dividends to a spouse who does not work in the clinic can hit the tax on split income rules.
Keeping a reserve
An ultrasound replacement or a lean winter is easier when cash sits in the company. We plan your draw around the equipment you expect to buy, not just this year’s tax.
Compare options in the salary vs dividends calculator and read the 2026 salary vs dividends guide.
GST and PST for veterinary clinics
Confirmed for your clinic before you rely on it
How GST/HST and BC PST apply to a veterinary clinic depends on the service or product supplied and on the practitioner’s regulated status. We do not publish a general answer here. We confirm the treatment for your clinic’s own mix of services and sales when we review your enquiry. Send us a short description of what you bill for and we will reply in writing.
Payroll, locums and WorkSafeBC for clinics
Most clinic costs are people. Technicians, assistants, kennel staff and receptionists are usually employees, and locum vets sit in a grey zone that deserves a careful look.
Employees on payroll
Source deductions remitted on time, 4% vacation pay rising to 6% after five years, and T4 slips by the last day of February. Final pay is due within 48 hours when someone is let go.
Relief vets and locums
A locum who sets their own days, carries their own insurance and works for several clinics may be a contractor paid on a T4A. One who works fixed shifts under your direction looks more like an employee.
WorkSafeBC and health tax
Clinics register with WorkSafeBC and pay premiums on staff wages. Once total BC payroll passes $1,000,000 in a year, the BC Employer Health Tax applies too.
Our payroll services run the whole cycle, and the worker classification guide explains how the CRA weighs a locum arrangement.
Bookkeeping from practice software to the bank
Your practice management system knows every invoice, estimate and payment. The bookkeeping job is making sure the bank agrees with it, every month.
Invoices and deposits
Surgery estimates often come with a deposit taken before the procedure. We track deposits as money held until the work is done, then match them to the final invoice.
Card terminals and payment plans
Terminal batches settle net of fees, and some clients pay through third-party financing. We record the full fee earned and the processing or financing cost on separate lines.
Insurance claims and cremation
Where a pet insurer pays the clinic directly, or you pass cremation and lab charges through, the cost and the recovery need to land in the right accounts so margins stay readable.
See our monthly bookkeeping services, or start with catch-up bookkeeping if the clinic’s books have fallen behind.
Diagnostic equipment, vehicles and CCA
Clinics carry more equipment than most small businesses: digital x-ray, ultrasound, anaesthesia machines, dental units, lab analysers and surgical tables. Each is written off over time through capital cost allowance.
Buy, lease or finance
A purchase goes on the balance sheet and is depreciated by CCA class. A true lease is deducted as rent. Vendor financing is a purchase with a loan beside it, and the interest is deductible.
Leasehold improvements
Building out a surgery suite, isolation ward or kennel area in a leased unit is depreciated over the lease term rather than claimed in one year.
Practice vehicles
A mobile or farm-call vet’s truck is a working tool. Keep a mileage log, because the business share of fuel, insurance and repairs rests on it.
Read about CCA classes in Canada, the 2026 vehicle deduction limits and how a mileage and vehicle log should look.
Drug inventory, food sales and clinic margins
Pharmaceuticals, vaccines and therapeutic diets can tie up a large share of a clinic’s cash. Inventory that is never counted makes the profit figure a guess.
- Count drugs, vaccines and retail food at year-end, and value the count at cost
- Write off expired or damaged stock deliberately, with a record of what was discarded
- Keep controlled-drug logs as your regulator requires; we use only the cost side
- Record supplier rebates and volume discounts against the cost of goods, not as income
- Track online pharmacy or home-delivery sales separately from in-clinic dispensing
- Watch receivables from farm accounts that pay on terms after the visit
The year-end inventory count guide covers the count itself, and our page for pharmacy owners goes further into dispensing margins.
Year-end checklist for a BC veterinary clinic
Work through these in the last month of your fiscal year. Your T2 is due six months after year-end, but any balance owing is due two or three months after.
- Count the stock. Drugs, vaccines, diets and retail items, valued at cost on the last day of the year.
- Clear the deposits. List every estimate deposit still held and confirm which procedures are finished.
- Review receivables. Chase or write off old client and farm balances before the year closes.
- List new equipment. Send invoices for anything bought, leased or financed, with delivery dates.
- Reconcile payroll. Match wages, vacation pay and remittances so T4s can go out in February.
- Settle the shareholder loan. Money you took personally and do not repay within one year after year-end is generally taxed as income.
- Plan the owner draw. Decide the salary and dividend mix before the year ends, not after.
Our year-end paperwork checklist lists what to send, and the corporate T2 service covers the return and statements.
Services and fees for veterinary practices
Veterinary clients pay the same published fees as every other EverStone client. A multi-doctor hospital simply needs more of them.
- Relief or associate vet personal return with a T2125: commonly $250–$450
- Monthly bookkeeping with GST and PST filing included: from $300 a month
- Corporate T2 and year-end statements: quoted after a free consultation
- Payroll for technicians, assistants and owner salary: quoted with the bookkeeping
- Fractional controller for larger hospitals: from $1,500 a month
- A one-off Advice Call on a purchase or buy-in: $200 + GST
Every engagement is fixed in writing before work starts. See the full schedule on our pricing page or book an Advice Call.
Questions from veterinarians
Can a veterinarian in BC incorporate?+
I work relief shifts at three clinics. How am I taxed?+
What should I check before buying into a clinic?+
Do I really need a year-end inventory count?+
Do you work with clinics outside the Fraser Valley?+
Written and reviewed by a Chartered Professional Accountant at EverStone CPA, an Abbotsford CPA firm working remotely with businesses across British Columbia. Updated . You can read client reviews before you get in touch. See our editorial standards.
Related reading
Guides that go further into clinic finances.
Send an enquiry
Tell us about your clinic: how many vets, whether it is incorporated, and which practice software you use. A Chartered Professional Accountant replies within one business day with next steps and a written fee.