Accountant for Nanaimo and central Island businesses
EverStone CPA is a British Columbia accounting firm serving Nanaimo businesses entirely online: corporate tax, bookkeeping, payroll and personal returns from a Chartered Professional Accountant, at a fixed fee agreed before any work begins. Owners in Lantzville, Parksville, Ladysmith and the rest of the central Island are served the same way.
Who we help here: builders and trades, restaurants and cafes, commercial fishers, realtors, and the owner-managed companies that keep a harbour city running.
Quick answer: Nanaimo owners need an accountant who knows BC’s two sales taxes, the island’s seasonal swing and the filings that follow from both. EverStone works with Nanaimo businesses remotely from Abbotsford: corporate tax (T2), bookkeeping, GST and PST, payroll and owners’ personal returns, all at a fixed fee agreed first. Published fees start at $100 for a personal return and $300 a month for bookkeeping.
Personal tax returns start from $100 and monthly bookkeeping from $300 a month, with GST and PST filing included. A typical trades corporation’s bundle of bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 usually runs $450–$650 a month, and a 45-minute Advice Call is a flat fee of $200 + GST. The published fees list every starting point.
A BC firm that works with Nanaimo online
EverStone is a one-CPA firm based in Abbotsford. Nanaimo sits across the Strait of Georgia, and the practice is built so that the water makes no difference. Records come in through a secure upload link, returns are signed electronically, and questions go by email first, with a video meeting when it helps. Nobody books a sailing to see their accountant.
Because BC is our home province, PST, the BC small business rate, WorkSafeBC and the employer health tax are the rules we apply every week, not ones we look up. The same CPA handles your file all year, so the person who prepares the return is the person who answers your email in October.
Services for Nanaimo businesses
Each service has its own page written for Nanaimo:
- Bookkeeping in Nanaimo: monthly reconciliations, ferry and freight costs coded, GST and PST filed
- Corporate tax (T2) in Nanaimo: year-end statements, the small business deduction and owner pay
- Personal tax (T1) in Nanaimo: pensions, rental suites, home businesses and home sales
- Payroll in Nanaimo: remittances, T4 slips, seasonal staff and WorkSafeBC
For owners who need more than compliance, a fractional controller starts from $1,500 a month and a fractional CFO from $2,500 a month. Bookkeeper, controller or CFO? helps you choose.
Nanaimo industries we work with
The central Island economy has a few strong threads, and each brings its own accounting. Construction contractors building new homes on the north end and in Cedar deal with T5018 slips, holdbacks and PST on installed materials. Electricians, plumbers and other trades run on vans, tools and apprentices.
Restaurants and cafes downtown and along the harbourfront handle tips, liquor PST and a summer peak driven partly by ferry traffic. Commercial fishers working the Strait of Georgia use the cash method, pay crew on shares and file T4F slips. Realtors selling to buyers moving over from the Mainland weigh GST, instalments and a personal real estate corporation.
BC’s two sales taxes, in practice
BC is not an HST province. A Nanaimo business can hold two sales tax registrations: 5% GST with the CRA and 7% PST with the BC Ministry of Finance. They have separate returns, separate schedules and separate rules. GST registration is mandatory once taxable sales pass $30,000 in four consecutive calendar quarters. PST depends on what you sell.
The common trap is assuming PST does not apply. A contractor pays PST on materials installed into a building. A restaurant collects it on liquor. A trade that sells parts over the counter collects it on those. GST paid on costs comes back as input tax credits; PST paid on your own purchases generally does not. See the BC PST guide.
Planning around the Island’s seasons
Much of Nanaimo’s trade follows the calendar. Ferry traffic and visitors fill the harbourfront in summer, building crews push hard through the drier months, and fishing income can arrive in a few short openings. Winter is quieter for many of them, but rent, loan payments and the CRA keep their own schedules.
Monthly books turn that rhythm into something you can plan with. Sales tax collected in the busy months sits in its own account until it is filed. Instalments are sized to the real year rather than last year’s. Equipment purchases are timed with the year’s profit in view. None of this needs a meeting in person; it needs current numbers and an accountant who looks at them before the decision rather than after.
Starting or incorporating on the Island
Many Nanaimo businesses start as sole proprietorships, reported on a T2125 inside the owner’s T1. Incorporating makes sense when profit can be left in the company, because active business income up to the $500,000 business limit is taxed at 11% combined in BC. If you need every dollar to live on, the extra cost of a corporation can outweigh the saving. The current rates are on BC tax facts.
A new corporation also picks its year-end, opens its own bank account and starts filing a BC annual report. Should I incorporate? and the new corporation setup checklist cover the first steps.
How a year runs with EverStone
Bookkeeping is kept current through the year, so year-end is a review rather than a rebuild. A planning conversation happens before the year-end, while salary, dividends and equipment purchases can still change the result. The T2 is due six months after year-end, but the balance owing is due two or three months after it. GST and PST returns land on their own schedules in between.
Slips for staff and shareholders, the T4 and T5, are due by the last day of February. Personal returns follow on April 30, or June 15 for the self-employed. Free deadline reminders send the dates to your inbox.
Remote accounting from Abbotsford
EverStone works with Nanaimo businesses virtually, from a base in Abbotsford. There is no Nanaimo office, and nobody on the ground there. You authorize the firm through My Business Account, which lets the CPA see your CRA balances and notices directly. Documents move through a secure upload link and signatures are electronic.
The same remote model runs for owners across the province; see accounting in British Columbia. If you are comparing firms first, questions to ask an accountant is written for exactly that.
Prepared and reviewed by a Chartered Professional Accountant at EverStone CPA, an Abbotsford CPA firm working with small businesses and incorporated owners across British Columbia. Updated . About the firm · Send an enquiry
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 |
| A commercial fisher | A T1 with fishing income, or a T2 for a fishing corporation |
| Sales tax where you operate | 5% GST plus 7% BC PST: two registrations, two returns |
Source: Should you incorporate?. General information, not advice.
Common questions from Nanaimo owners
Do I need to meet my accountant in person?+
How much does an accountant cost in Nanaimo?+
Can an accountant in Abbotsford file my BC corporate taxes?+
How do we exchange documents securely?+
Do you understand British Columbia tax rules?+
Do you work with businesses outside Nanaimo itself?+
Related services and local guides
Nearby cities, the rest of what we do for Nanaimo businesses, and the reference pages behind this one.
Ready to get your GST and PST filings sorted?
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One Chartered Professional Accountant, start to finish. Fixed fees, quoted in writing before any work begins, and no obligation from a first conversation.