A fixed-fee CPA for Kelowna and the Central Okanagan

A BC firm, so the province is home ground

Most accountants who work remotely have to learn a second province’s sales tax before they can touch your file. EverStone does not. The firm is in Abbotsford, its own clients file BC PST returns, remit to WorkSafeBC and deal with the BC employer health tax, and the provincial annual report sits on the same calendar as everything else. A Kelowna company is not an out-of-province file here. It is a BC file that happens to be on the other side of the Coquihalla and the Okanagan Connector.

What that does not mean is a Kelowna office. There is none, and there are no staff in the Okanagan. The work runs remotely, which is how most Kelowna owners would rather work anyway: a question sent from a job site, a winery floor or a showing is answered by the same CPA who prepares the return. Kelowna shares the Pacific time zone with Abbotsford, so a call is never an early start for anyone.

Two sales taxes on almost every Okanagan invoice

BC is not an HST province. GST at 5% is administered by the CRA, and PST at 7% is administered separately by the BC Ministry of Finance, with its own registration, its own return and its own rules about what is taxable. The two do not behave alike. GST paid on business inputs usually comes back as an input tax credit; PST paid on inputs is generally a cost that stays in the books.

That split shows up differently in each of the valley’s main trades. A winery collects PST on the bottles it sells from the tasting room. A restaurant charges GST on meals, while PST generally does not apply to the food but does apply to the liquor on the same bill. A contractor installing materials into a house usually pays PST on those materials as the consumer rather than charging it to the homeowner. A software company can find that PST reaches what it sells to BC customers. The BC PST guide covers the registration rules in more depth.

A year that turns on the summer

The Okanagan economy runs on a calendar. Lake traffic, patios, tasting rooms, wedding season and short-term visitors all peak between the long weekends, and a good share of the valley’s businesses earn most of their year in a few months. Construction follows its own curve, and real estate moves with the spring. The accounting consequence is simple and often ignored: cash arrives in a lump, but payroll remittances, GST and PST returns, rent and instalments do not wait for the next lump.

We plan the year from the fiscal year-end backwards. That usually means setting aside sales tax and source deductions as they are collected rather than when they are due. It also means sizing instalments to the actual pattern of income, and choosing a year-end that falls after the busy season has been counted rather than in the middle of it. Cash flow for a seasonal business sets out the method.

The industries with pages of their own

Five kinds of Kelowna business come up often enough that each has a page covering its own filings, records and questions.

• Wineries: the licence under the Excise Act, 2001, the vineyard as a farm, and wine that sits in barrel for years before it becomes revenue.
• Restaurants and hospitality: tips, a short and intense summer, and point-of-sale totals that have to match the bank.
• Construction contractors: T5018 slips, progress billing, WorkSafeBC clearance and GST on new housing.
• Realtors: commission income, GST registration, the vehicle and home-office claims, and the BC personal real estate corporation.
• Tech startups: SR&ED claims on Form T661, grants that reduce the claim, and stock options for early staff.

What a Kelowna corporation actually files

A BC corporation files one T2 with the CRA, which carries both the federal and the provincial tax. On the current BC tax facts, active business income eligible for the small business deduction is taxed at a combined 11% (9% federal, 2% BC), and general income at 27%. The lower rate applies to the first $500,000 of active business income, a limit shared across any associated group. The balance owing is generally due three months after year-end for a Canadian-controlled private corporation claiming the small business deduction that meets the conditions, and the return six months after.

Separately, BC Registries expects an annual report within two months of the anniversary of incorporation. It is not a tax return and the CRA never reminds you about it, which is why it gets missed. Owner pay is the other recurring decision: salary, dividends, or a mix, and what happens to money taken out of the company that is not either. A shareholder loan not repaid within one year after the corporation’s year-end is generally taxed as the owner’s income.

Services for Kelowna businesses

Each service has a Kelowna page setting out how it works for an Okanagan business.

• Bookkeeping: monthly reconciliation with GST and PST filed, from $300 a month.
• Payroll: seasonal hiring, source deductions, WorkSafeBC, the employer health tax and year-end slips.
• Corporate tax (T2): the return, year-end statements and the planning that has to happen before the year closes.
• Personal tax (T1): owners, families, retirees and anyone with a rental or a second property in the valley, from $100 per return.

Fees for each are published on the pricing page, and corporate tax on its own is quoted after a free consultation.

Remote accounting from Abbotsford

The firm operates from Abbotsford and serves Kelowna remotely. There is no Kelowna office and no staff based there. Everything runs by video call, phone 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, which is the part a larger office structure tends to lose. For the provincial picture, see accounting across British Columbia.