A Fixed-Fee CPA for Kingston Small Businesses
EverStone CPA is a Canadian accounting firm working with owner-managed businesses in Kingston, Ontario — corporate tax, bookkeeping, payroll and plain-English advice, delivered by video, phone and secure email, at a fixed fee agreed before we start. Businesses in Amherstview, Napanee, Gananoque and the rest of Frontenac County are served the same way.
Who we help here: Contractors and trades, restaurants and tourism operators, clinics and health professionals, small manufacturers and the consultants and suppliers who sell to Kingston’s university, hospital and public-sector employers. Most are incorporated, or close to it, and want one CPA who can explain what each filing is for.
Elsewhere in Ontario, EverStone also serves Ottawa, Toronto and Oshawa.
Quick answer: EverStone works with incorporated and self-employed Kingston businesses entirely online: the T2 corporate return, 13% HST, bookkeeping, payroll and salary-versus-dividend planning, at a fixed fee quoted up front rather than an hourly meter. For a Kingston owner, published fees start at $100 for a personal return and $300 a month for bookkeeping.
Kingston industries we work with most: construction and trades and restaurants and hospitality.
For a one-owner Kingston corporation, our accounting fees for monthly bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 with statements usually run from $450 to $650 a month all-in.
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Restaurants, cafes and bars carry obligations no other retailer does; they are gathered in the restaurant and hospitality accounting hub.
CPA-level work, sized for an owner-run Kingston business
Kingston’s economy leans heavily on large institutions. Queen’s University, St. Lawrence College, Kingston Health Sciences Centre and Canadian Forces Base Kingston are among the city’s major employers, and a great many small businesses here exist to build for them, supply them, feed their staff and students, or house the people who work there. Those businesses need the same things any growing company needs: a clean T2, HST filed on time, payroll that reconciles, and someone who will say early when a decision has a tax consequence.
Every Kingston client is assigned one Chartered Professional Accountant who reviews the file personally, year-round — never a junior associate learning on your return. Meetings happen by video or phone, documents move by secure email and e-signature, and your fee is fixed and confirmed in writing before any work begins.
Get My Fixed QuoteWhat Kingston clients get
- Corporate tax (T2) & year-end statements
- Personal tax (T1) for owners & families
- Monthly bookkeeping & payroll
- Ontario HST filed & reconciled
- Salary-vs-dividend planning
- Fixed fees, confirmed in writing
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 | 13% HST, a single registration and a single return |
Source: When incorporating starts to pay. General information, not advice.
How Ontario’s rules shape the numbers for a Kingston company
One combined sales tax, a recently lowered small-business rate and a payroll levy that only bites past a threshold.
One sales tax, not two
Ontario charges a single 13% HST, made up of 5% federal and 8% provincial, rather than separate federal and provincial sales taxes. For a Kingston contractor, clinic supplier or café that means one registration, one return and one set of input tax credits. The provincial part is recoverable on business inputs in the same way as the federal part, provided the books capture every credit.
Corporate tax rate
Ontario taxes active small-business income at 2.2% provincially for days after 30 June 2026 (3.2% before that date, prorated across a straddling year), on top of the 9% federal small-business rate, on a $500,000 business limit. How you pay yourself decides how much of the company’s profit stays inside that lower band.
Employer Health Tax
Once a Kingston employer’s annual Ontario payroll passes the $1,000,000 exemption, Employer Health Tax applies on top of CPP and EI. Most small employers sit below it, but a growing contractor or a multi-location restaurant group can reach it sooner than expected — we track it so it is never a year-end surprise.
Accounting & tax services for Kingston businesses
Everything an owner-managed Kingston business needs, under one roof — delivered online.
Corporate Tax (T2)
T2 corporate returns and year-end statements for Kingston corporations, with Ontario HST, instalments and CRA correspondence handled as part of the file.
Personal Tax (T1)
T1 returns for Kingston owners, landlords and employees with a business on the side, with the salary-and-dividend split set before the year closes rather than discovered at filing.
Bookkeeping & Payroll
Cloud bookkeeping and payroll kept current monthly, so your numbers are ready when a lender, a bid package or a CRA review asks for them.
GST/HST
Ontario’s 13% HST registered, filed and reconciled against your books each period, with input tax credits on tools, vehicles and supplies tracked properly.
Year-End Statements
Compiled financial statements for Kingston companies that need them for a bank, a bonding company or a shareholder, prepared from the same closed books as the T2.
Fractional CFO
Part-time CFO support for Kingston companies that have outgrown a bookkeeper — forecasting, job and product margin, and the cash plan behind a hire or an equipment purchase.
Built around how Kingston businesses actually earn
Kingston sits where Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River and the Rideau Canal meet, roughly midway between Toronto and Ottawa. Health care, education and public administration account for a large share of local jobs, and the city’s economic development strategy concentrates on health innovation and sustainable manufacturing, alongside life sciences, food processing, clean technology and creative industries such as film, music and theatre. Tourism matters too: the downtown waterfront, Fort Henry and the Thousand Islands region bring visitors who keep restaurants, accommodation and tour operators busy in the warmer months.
That mix produces very different accounting files. A renovation contractor deals with progress billing, holdbacks and T5018 slips. A downtown restaurant deals with tips, seasonal staff and HST on a mixed menu. A clinic may make mostly HST-exempt supplies and claim few input tax credits. A small manufacturer has inventory, equipment and capital cost allowance to get right. We work with each on its own terms, inside one fixed fee.
Get My Fixed QuoteWorking with Kingston, wherever you are in the region
🖥️ Entirely online — video calls, e-signature and secure email.
Prefer email?
✉️ info@everstonecpa.com
📞 (604) 832-1743 · Mon–Fri 9–5:30
When a good year arrives before the instalments do
The most common surprise in a Kingston file is not a missed deduction. It is timing. A contractor lands a large institutional or residential job, a restaurant has a strong summer, or a supplier wins a new contract, and the corporation’s profit jumps well above the year before. Nothing is wrong with the books. But the tax on that profit has been building quietly all year, and nobody has set it aside.
For a Canadian-controlled private corporation claiming the small business deduction, the balance owing is generally due three months after the fiscal year-end, before the T2 itself is due at six months. Once a corporation owes more than a small amount, the CRA also expects instalments through the following year. A business coming off a strong year can therefore face last year’s balance and this year’s first instalments at almost the same moment, often in the quiet season when cash is thinnest.
We deal with it before the year closes. Books are kept current monthly, so a strong year shows up while it is still happening. We estimate the tax as the year goes, set the owner’s salary and dividends with that in mind, and recommend how much to hold back in a separate account. When the balance comes due, the money is already there, and the instalment schedule for the next year is sized to what the business actually expects to earn.
Getting started, from anywhere around Kingston
Onboarding, done entirely online from Kingston or the surrounding townships.
Send an enquiry
A short video call about your business, how it is structured and what has been filed. You leave with a fixed quote in writing — no obligation.
Send your records securely
Upload your books, prior T2s and HST filings through a secure link; we reconcile and catch up any backlog, oldest year first.
Stay compliant all year
We file on time, watch your HST and instalment thresholds, and raise salary, dividend and purchase decisions before year-end.
Working with a virtual small business accountant in Kingston
EverStone has no office in Kingston, and nothing about what gets filed depends on that. Corporate tax, GST/HST and payroll are federal systems, and Ontario’s corporate tax is administered together with the federal return, so a single T2 covers both. What changes is how the year runs.
Onboarding happens over one video call and a secure document upload rather than a drive downtown. Questions in July are answered by the same person who prepared the return in the spring. For a Kingston business the recurring work is usually HST on progress billings or a mixed menu, payroll that swells and shrinks with the season, instalments once the first profitable year lands, and the question of when incorporating starts to pay.
Province-wide detail sits on the Ontario small business page, and every Ontario rate we quote is sourced on the Ontario tax facts page.
salary vs dividends calculator · work out your T2 filing date · corporate instalment calculator · Work out whether to incorporate
Also serving business owners through our accountant in Ottawa and accountant in Toronto pages.
Free tools for Kingston owners: free CRA deadline reminders.
Questions from Kingston business owners
How much does an accountant cost in Kingston?+
Can an accountant outside Kingston file my corporate taxes?+
How do we exchange documents securely?+
Do you understand Ontario tax rules?+
Does my Kingston business lose anything by working with a CPA online?+
Should my Kingston business incorporate?+
I work at a Kingston institution and run a business on the side. What do I file?+
Do you work with seasonal Kingston businesses?+
See how corporate tax and sales tax work province-wide in our Ontario accounting guide — provincial rates, HST and filing for Ontario businesses.
What owners say once the work is done
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!”
“Personal. Professional. Responsive. Plus he saved me a bundle!”
Kingston industries we work with most
The Kingston owners we work with fall into a few groups. Contractors and trades building and renovating homes, commercial space and institutional facilities. Restaurants, cafés and tourism operators in and around the downtown core. Health professionals and clinics, along with the suppliers and consultants who serve the hospitals and the university. And small manufacturers and food processors, often working in the sectors the city has made a priority.
The recurring issues follow the industry. Trades files turn on T5018 subcontractor reporting, holdbacks and WSIB. Hospitality files turn on tips, food cost and payroll turnover. Health files turn on which supplies are HST-exempt and what that does to input tax credits. Manufacturing files turn on inventory, equipment and capital cost allowance. See accounting for Kingston trades and restaurant accounting in Kingston for the two most common.
How working with a Kingston business actually runs
No part of a Kingston engagement asks you to visit an office. The first conversation happens on a video or phone call, records arrive through a secure upload, and returns are approved by e-signature. Questions during the year are covered as well. An email about a new hire, a truck purchase or a client contract does not start a meter, since the fee was set in writing at the outset. Asking early is the whole idea, because the useful question comes before the decision.
One CPA stays on your file from the first call to the filed return, so whoever prepared it is also who answers your email. For owners in the city, out in Amherstview or Napanee, or along the river toward Gananoque, that removes the drive and the second-guessing about whether a question will cost you.
What a Kingston client’s year looks like
A client’s year is shaped by their fiscal year-end rather than the calendar. Books stay current month to month. We raise planning decisions — bonus versus dividend, timing an equipment purchase, whether to leave profit in the company — before the year closes, when they can still be acted on. HST returns file on their own cycle. The corporate return follows, and the balance owing comes due before the filing deadline, which is the detail that most often catches owners out. Then the annual return goes to the Ontario Business Registry, within six months of year-end.
Owner-managed companies elsewhere in Ontario are served the same way. The provincial overview is at accounting in Ontario.
For year-end work specifically, Kingston financial statements covers what a lender or bonding company expects to see in a compiled set.
Services in Kingston
Two service pages go deeper for Kingston: personal tax (T1) for owners and landlords in Kingston, and fractional CFO support for growing Kingston companies. Both run remotely.
Two filings recur so often for Kingston companies that each has its own page. If you employ anyone, payroll services in Kingston covers source deductions, WSIB and the Ontario employer health tax exemption. If you charge sales tax, GST/HST filing in Kingston covers a single 13% HST and the Quick Method question.
Related services and local guides
More of our work for Kingston companies, nearby Ontario cities, and the reference material this page draws on.
Ready for one CPA who knows how a Kingston business runs?
Work with a CPA who understands progress billing, seasonal payroll and Ontario HST — at a fee fixed before anything starts. Email enquiry, fixed quote, fully online.
Remote accounting
EverStone works online and serves Kingston at a distance. No office or staff are located in Kingston. Calls, video and secure document exchange carry the whole engagement, so being nearby never matters. The CPA who answers you in the autumn is the one who prepared your return in the spring, a continuity that bigger offices often lose.
How a remote engagement works in Ontario
Working with a CPA you never meet in person is ordinary now, and for an Ontario corporation it changes nothing about how the return is prepared or filed.
- Access through CRA, not forms. You add us under the CRA’s Represent a Client service from your My Business Account, which takes a few clicks and nothing by mail. From then on we read your filings, balances and CRA letters ourselves instead of asking you to forward each one.
- Records arrive through a secure upload link. Statements, payroll registers and year-end packages come in through the upload link rather than as email attachments, and a phone is enough to send them.
- You sign on screen. The T183 and the engagement letter are signed in a browser window, with no printer, scanner or courier involved.
- Calls happen by video or phone. Enquiries, planning talks and the year-end review are booked around your calendar — around a job site, a lunch service or a clinic day.
- Returns go where they always went. We transmit to the CRA electronically, and the Ontario annual return is filed online with the Ontario Business Registry.
What is specific to Ontario
Ontario harmonized its sales tax with the federal GST, so there is no separate provincial sales-tax return to file — one HST return covers both. The provincial corporate return is administered through the federal T2 rather than filed separately. Employer Health Tax is the main standalone provincial account for Ontario employers, with its own exemption and filing schedule, and workplace coverage runs through the WSIB as a separate registration again.
Current Ontario rates and thresholds live on the Ontario tax facts page. Every number on that page cites its source and the date it was last verified, and it lives there alone so it cannot drift out of date elsewhere.
Ontario questions we get
Does it matter that you have no Kingston office?+
For a corporate return, no. The T2 carries the Ontario schedules and is transmitted federally; nothing about the filing depends on where the preparer sits. Provincial employer accounts are registered and filed online in either case.
Do you work with Kingston health and clinic businesses?+
Do you work with businesses outside Kingston itself?+
Talk to a CPA about this
A single Chartered Professional Accountant from the first call to the filed return. The fee is fixed in writing before work begins, and a first conversation commits you to nothing.
“…We switched to him last year for both our personal and small-business taxes — responsive, knowledgeable and quick.”