A fixed-fee CPA for Penticton and the South Okanagan
EverStone CPA is a British Columbia firm, based in Abbotsford, serving Penticton, Summerland, Naramata, Okanagan Falls and Oliver remotely. Corporate tax, bookkeeping, payroll and personal returns are handled by one Chartered Professional Accountant, by email first and video when it helps, with documents through a secure upload link, at a fee fixed in writing before any work starts.
Who we help here: Wineries and vineyards on the benches above both lakes, orchards, restaurants and summer hospitality, builders and renovators, and realtors working through a personal real estate corporation.
Quick answer: A Penticton business follows the same BC rules as the rest of the province. It charges 5% GST and 7% PST under separate registrations, pays the 2% small business rate on active income up to the business limit, and files a T2 or T1 at year-end. What sets the South Okanagan apart is the calendar. Much of the year is earned between spring and harvest, so the books, payroll and tax plan are built around it. Published fees start at $100 for a personal return and $300 a month for bookkeeping.
Updated .
A BC firm, working the South Okanagan remotely
EverStone is a one-CPA firm in Abbotsford, and its own work is BC work: PST returns, WorkSafeBC accounts, the BC employer health tax and provincial annual reports. A Penticton company is not an out-of-province file here. It is a BC file reached from the Fraser Valley over Highway 3, handled the same way as one down the road.
The work is remote, and that is deliberate. There is no Penticton office and no staff in the Okanagan. Questions go by email and are answered by the CPA who prepares your return, documents arrive through a secure upload link, and a video meeting is booked when a conversation is easier than a message. Penticton and Abbotsford share Pacific time, so nobody is waiting on another time zone.
GST and PST on almost every local invoice
BC charges GST and PST as two separate taxes. GST is filed with the CRA on a GST34 or electronically, and PST is filed with the BC Ministry of Finance on its own registration and return. GST paid on business inputs usually comes back as input tax credits. PST paid on inputs generally does not, so it stays in the cost.
The split looks different in each of Penticton’s main trades. A winery collects PST on bottles sold at the tasting room. A restaurant charges GST on meals, while liquor carries PST. A builder pays PST on materials it installs rather than charging it to the homeowner. An orchard selling fresh fruit charges no GST at all on most sales but can still claim input tax credits. A realtor charges GST on commissions once registered. The BC PST guide covers registration.
A year shaped by the lakes and the harvest
Penticton sits between Okanagan Lake and Skaha Lake, and its business year follows the weather. Beaches, patios, tasting rooms and rental properties fill from the May long weekend to Labour Day. Cherries come off in early summer, then stone fruit and apples, and the grape harvest and crush run into the fall. Building crews work hardest in the same months. Then the valley slows down for winter.
The accounting consequence is straightforward. Cash arrives in a lump, but payroll remittances, GST and PST returns, rent and instalments do not wait for the next one. We plan from the year-end backwards: tax and source deductions set aside as they are collected, instalments sized to the real pattern of income, and a fiscal year-end that falls after the busy season has been counted. Cash flow for a seasonal business sets out the method.
Five industries with pages of their own
Five kinds of Penticton business come up often enough to have their own guides:
- Wineries: excise records, wine valued at cost by vintage, and GST and PST across the tasting room, the club and shipping.
- Orchards and farms: the cash method, zero-rated fruit sales, picking payroll and passing the farm on.
- Restaurants and hospitality: the nightly close, tips, PST on liquor and a crew that doubles in summer.
- Construction contractors: T5018 slips, holdbacks, WorkSafeBC clearance letters and PST on installed materials.
- Realtors: uneven commissions, GST, vehicle claims and the personal real estate corporation.
The services, and where the fees start
Every engagement is quoted in writing before work starts, and the fee does not change with the season.
- Bookkeeping in Penticton: monthly bookkeeping from $300 a month, with GST and PST filing included.
- Payroll in Penticton: source deductions, CPP and EI premiums, remittances, T4 slips and Records of Employment, included in monthly bookkeeping.
- Corporate tax in Penticton: the T2 and year-end statements, quoted after a free consultation; a typical trades-corporation bundle usually runs $450–$650 a month.
- Personal tax in Penticton: T1 returns from $100, and self-employed returns with a T2125 commonly $250–$450.
For a single question, a 45-minute Advice Call is a flat fee of $200 + GST. Growing companies can add a fractional controller from $1,500 a month. See all published fees.
Prepared and reviewed by a Chartered Professional Accountant at EverStone CPA, an Abbotsford CPA firm working with small businesses and incorporated contractors 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 farmer | Farming income on the cash method, on a T1 or a T2 |
| Employed with a side business | A T1 that reports both the T4 income and the T2125 business |
| 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 Penticton-area owners
How much does an accountant cost in Penticton?+
Can an accountant outside Penticton file my corporate taxes?+
How do we exchange documents securely?+
When should a seasonal Penticton business have its year-end?+
Do you have a Penticton office?+
Do you work with businesses outside Penticton itself?+
Related services and local guides
Nearby cities, the rest of what we do for Penticton businesses, and the reference pages behind this one.
Ready for a CPA who plans around the South Okanagan season?
Work with a CPA who knows BC PST, WorkSafeBC and a summer-shaped year. Free consult, fixed quote, fully online.
Remote accounting from Abbotsford
EverStone works with Penticton businesses virtually, from a base in Abbotsford. There is no Penticton office, and nobody on the ground there. Questions go by email, meetings happen by video, and paperwork moves by secure upload link and e-signature. The person who answers your question in March is the one who prepared the return in June, which is the part a larger office structure tends to lose.
How a remote engagement works in British Columbia
You are in the same province we are, so nothing here is unusual, but the engagement still runs entirely remotely, because that is how the practice is built rather than a concession to distance.
- Authorisation, not paperwork. You authorize us on CRA’s Represent a Client through your CRA My Business Account, a few clicks on your side, no forms in the mail.
- Documents move by secure upload link. Bank statements, payroll records and year-end files are sent by secure upload link, never as email attachments. You can send from a phone.
- Signatures are electronic. Your T183 and engagement letter are signed in a browser. Nothing is printed, scanned or couriered.
- Filing is electronic to the same place it always was. Returns go to the CRA electronically, and the BC PST return goes to the province the same way.
Current British Columbia rates and thresholds live on the British Columbia tax facts page. Each figure there carries its source and the date it was checked.
Talk to a CPA about this
One Chartered Professional Accountant, start to finish. Fixed fees, quoted in writing before any work begins, and no obligation from a first conversation.