A Fixed-Fee CPA for Markham’s Tech Firms, Professionals & Family Companies
EverStone CPA is a Canadian accounting firm working with owner-managed corporations in Markham — corporate tax, bookkeeping, payroll and plain-English advice, delivered by video and secure email at a fixed fee agreed before we start. Businesses in Unionville, Richmond Hill, Stouffville and the rest of York Region are served the same way.
Who we help here: software and hardware companies, engineering and IT consultancies, incorporated professionals, importers and distributors, and the family-run shops and restaurants that make up so much of the city’s small-business base. These are owners who want one CPA who knows the file, answers in writing and prices the work up front.
The nearest large-city page is accountant in Toronto; for the province as a whole see accounting in Ontario.
Quick answer: A Markham business can get its corporate tax, HST, payroll and bookkeeping from one CPA without an office visit. EverStone works fully online, prices each engagement at a fixed fee in writing, and keeps the same accountant on the file all year. Published fees start at $100 for a personal return and $300 a month for bookkeeping.
Markham industries we work with most: technology and startups, construction and trades and owner-run professional firms.
For a one-owner Markham 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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CPA-level work, sized for an owner-run Markham company
Markham owners tend to sit at one of two extremes. Some pay a large firm for a level of partner attention they rarely receive, because a ten-person engineering shop is a small file to them. Others hand the year-end to whoever prepared the owner’s personal return and hope the corporate side is right. We sit between those: a CPA-led practice that treats the T2, the HST return and the year-end statements with real care, without the overhead of a leased office.
Every Markham client works with one Chartered Professional Accountant who reviews the file personally through the year. Meetings happen by video, documents move through a secure upload link and e-signature, and the fee is fixed in writing before any work begins. Questions in the middle of the year are part of the engagement rather than a new invoice.
Get My Fixed QuoteWhat Markham 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.
What Ontario’s rules mean for a Markham company
One harmonized sales tax, a two-band corporate rate and a payroll tax that only bites once a team grows.
One sales tax
Ontario charges a single 13% HST, made up of the 5% federal and 8% provincial components, administered by the CRA. A Markham business holds one registration, files one return and claims back the whole 13% it pays on business inputs as input tax credits. The work is in coding every purchase correctly, not in juggling two taxes.
Corporate tax rate
Ontario taxes active business income eligible for the small business deduction at 2.2% for days after 30 June 2026 (3.2% before that date, prorated across a straddling year), on top of the 9% federal rate, on a $500,000 business limit. Income above the limit is taxed at the combined general rate of 26.5%.
Employer Health Tax
Once a Markham employer’s Ontario payroll passes the $1,000,000 exemption, Employer Health Tax applies on top of CPP and EI. The rate is chosen from bands using payroll before the exemption, which surprises growing technology firms the first year they cross it.
Accounting & tax services for Markham businesses
Everything an incorporated Markham business needs from its accountant, delivered online.
Corporate Tax (T2)
T2 corporate returns and year-end statements for Markham companies, with Schedule 50, the CCA schedule, instalments and CRA letters handled as part of the file.
Personal Tax (T1)
T1 returns for Markham owners and their families, prepared alongside the corporate file so salary, dividends and T5 slips line up with what the company actually paid.
Bookkeeping & Payroll
Cloud bookkeeping and payroll kept current monthly, so a lender, an investor or a CRA review can be answered from the books rather than from a scramble.
GST/HST
Ontario’s 13% HST filed and reconciled each period, including the zero-rated export sales that many Markham technology and manufacturing companies make.
Financial Statements
CSRS 4200 compilation statements for the bank, the shareholders and the T2, with inventory, work in progress and deferred revenue handled properly.
Fractional CFO
Part-time CFO support for growing Markham firms — cash forecasting, margin by product or contract, and reporting a lender or board can rely on.
Built around how Markham businesses actually earn
The City of Markham’s economic development office lists its key sectors as technology, semiconductors, autotech, cleantech, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, food and beverage, professional services, finance and insurance, and the creative industries. It also points to a large number of corporate head offices and technology companies. Around those larger employers sits a deep layer of owner-managed firms: engineering consultancies, contract developers, component distributors, importers, clinics and family businesses.
Those businesses raise different accounting questions. A hardware company needs inventory and SR&ED records that hold up. A consultancy billing one large client has to watch the personal services business rules. A distributor selling to U.S. customers needs its zero-rated exports documented. We work with each of these, and the planning on salary, dividends and retained earnings that decides how much of the profit reaches the owner.
Get My Fixed QuoteWorking with Markham, wherever you are in York Region
🖥️ Entirely online — video calls, e-signature and secure email.
Contact details
✉️ info@everstonecpa.com · Mon–Fri 9–5:30
📞 (604) 832-1743
When one large client makes a Markham consultancy look like an employer
Markham has a large community of technical professionals: engineers, developers, test and validation specialists, project managers. Many incorporate and sell their time through the corporation, often to one of the larger technology employers nearby or through an agency that places them there. Incorporating can be the right move, because the combined federal-and-Ontario rate on active business income eligible for the small business deduction is far below personal rates on the same dollars.
The risk is the arrangement itself. If the owner would reasonably be regarded as an employee of the client but for the corporation, the CRA can treat the company as carrying on a personal services business. That income loses the small business deduction, is taxed at a higher rate, and most of the company’s deductions are denied. It is a federal rule, and it falls hardest on exactly the single-contract technical consultancies that are common in this part of York Region.
We review the contracts, the degree of control, who supplies the equipment and how many clients the company really has, and we tell you plainly where the risk sits. Sometimes the answer is to broaden the client base or restructure the contract. Sometimes it is simply to pay salary rather than leave the income in the company. Either way, you find out before a reassessment rather than after one. The personal services business risk check walks through the same tests.
Getting started, from anywhere in York Region
Onboarding is done entirely online, with no office visit at any stage.
Send an enquiry
A short email or video call about your company, its year-end and anything overdue. You leave with a fixed quote in writing — no obligation.
Send your records securely
We are authorized through CRA’s Represent a Client, then you upload the books, prior T2s and HST returns; we reconcile and catch up any backlog.
Stay compliant all year
We file on time, watch your HST and instalment dates, and raise planning decisions before the year closes.
Working with a virtual small business accountant in Markham
Working with a CPA online changes nothing about what gets filed. Corporate tax, GST/HST and payroll run through federal systems, and Ontario’s corporate tax is collected on the same T2 as the federal tax, so one return covers both. What changes is how the year runs.
Onboarding is one conversation and a secure upload rather than a drive to an office. A question in June is answered by the same person who prepared the return in March. For a Markham company the recurring work is usually HST on sales to customers outside Ontario, instalments once the first profitable year lands, SR&ED records for development work, and the salary-and-dividend decision before each year-end.
Province-wide detail sits on the Ontario small business page, and the current provincial rates are on Ontario tax facts.
salary vs dividends calculator · work out your T2 filing date · corporate instalment calculator · Work out whether to incorporate
Free tools for Markham owners: free CRA deadline reminders.
Questions from Markham business owners
How much does an accountant cost in Markham?+
Do you have an office in Markham?+
How do we exchange documents securely?+
Does HST apply to my sales outside Ontario?+
I work through my corporation for one client. Is that a problem?+
Can you take over from my current accountant mid-year?+
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!”
Markham industries we work with most
The Markham owners we work with are mostly technology and engineering firms, incorporated professionals, importers and distributors, and family businesses in retail and food service. The recurring issues are HST on sales outside Ontario, SR&ED records that were never kept during the year, inventory that does not agree to the ledger, and single-client contracts that raise personal services business questions.
Technology companies are the largest group. See accounting for Markham tech startups for SR&ED, founder pay and CCPC stock options. Contractors and renovation companies working in the newer subdivisions and older neighbourhoods are a distinct group again; see construction accounting in Markham. The shops and restaurants along Main Street Unionville, which the City describes as a heritage village and a regional destination for retail and dining, bring their own questions about tips, seasonal staff and HST on food.
How working with a Markham business actually runs
No part of a Markham engagement asks you to drive anywhere. The first conversation happens on a video call or by email, 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 or a large purchase does not start a meter, since the fee was set in writing at the outset. Asking early is the point, because the useful answer comes before the decision.
One CPA stays on your file from the first enquiry to the filed return, so the person who prepared it is the person who replies when you write. The City notes that most Markham residents speak two or more languages, and many owners run the business alongside family partners; written answers you can reread or forward to a family partner tend to work better than a rushed phone call.
What a Markham client’s year looks like
The year is shaped by the company’s fiscal year-end rather than the calendar. Books stay current month to month. We raise planning decisions — bonus versus dividend, timing a large equipment purchase for CCA, whether to leave profit in the company — before the year closes, while they can still be acted on. HST returns file on their own cycle. The T2 follows, and the balance owing comes due three months after year-end for most small CCPCs, before the six-month filing deadline. That gap is the detail that most often catches owners out. The Ontario Business Registry annual return is due within six months of year-end too, and it sits outside the CRA’s reminders altogether.
Owner-managed companies elsewhere in Ontario are served the same way. The provincial overview is at accounting in Ontario, and the closest large-city page is our Toronto accountant page.
For year-end work specifically, Markham financial statements covers inventory, deferred revenue on support contracts and what a lender expects to see.
More Markham services
Corporate tax (T2) in Markham · Personal tax (T1) in Markham · Bookkeeping in Markham · Payroll in Markham · GST/HST filing in Markham · Financial statements in Markham · Fractional CFO in Markham · Trades and construction accounting in Markham · Tech startup accounting in Markham
Related services and local guides
More of our work for Markham companies, nearby cities, and the reference material this page draws on.
Ready for a CPA who knows how Markham companies earn?
Work with a CPA who understands development work, inventory, export sales and Ontario HST — without a large-firm retainer. Email enquiry, fixed quote, fully online.
Remote accounting
EverStone works online and serves Markham at a distance. No office or staff are located in Markham. Video, email and secure document exchange carry the whole engagement, so being nearby never matters. The CPA who answers you in June is the one who prepared your return in March, 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 CRA’s Represent a Client 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.
- Meetings happen by video. Enquiries, planning talks and the year-end review are all booked around your calendar, not around a commute.
- Returns go where they always went. We transmit to CRA electronically, and the Ontario registry return is filed online through 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 — one HST return covers both. The provincial corporate tax is administered through the federal T2 rather than filed separately. Employer Health Tax is the main standalone provincial account for employers, with its own exemption and annual return, and workplace coverage runs through the WSIB.
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 are not in Markham?+
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 and the registry return are filed online in either case.
Do you work with Markham tech and hardware businesses?+
Do you work with businesses outside Markham itself?+
Talk to a CPA about this
A single Chartered Professional Accountant from the first enquiry 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.”