Corporate Tax & Bookkeeping for Vancouver’s Trades, Film & Tech Businesses
Reviewed by EverStone CPA · July 2026
EverStone CPA is a British Columbia accounting firm serving incorporated businesses across the Vancouver area entirely online — corporate tax, bookkeeping and clear advice from a Chartered Professional Accountant, at a fixed fee agreed before any work begins.
Who we help here: Trades and construction subcontractors, film and production crew companies, and tech and e-commerce founders — owners who need someone who already understands BC’s two-tax GST/PST system and won’t make them chase down an office to get it filed.
Quick answer: Vancouver owners rarely need an accountant downtown — they need one who answers. EverStone works with incorporated Vancouver businesses entirely online from Abbotsford: corporate tax, bookkeeping, GST and PST, and salary-versus-dividend planning, all at a fixed fee agreed before any work starts.
A BC-based CPA who happens to work entirely online
We’re a British Columbia firm, so PST, GST and BC’s Employer Health Tax aren’t abstractions to us — they’re rules we apply every filing period. What’s different from a traditional Vancouver accounting relationship is that none of it requires an in-person meeting: your file is handled the same way whether you’re downtown, in a studio in Burnaby, or on a job site in North Vancouver.
Every client works with one Chartered Professional Accountant who knows their numbers year-round, not a rotating team. Meetings happen by video or phone, documents move by secure email and e-signature, and your fee is fixed and confirmed before any work starts.
Book your free consultWhat Vancouver-area clients get
- Corporate tax (T2) & year-end statements
- Personal tax (T1) for owners & families
- Monthly bookkeeping & payroll
- GST and BC PST filed separately
- Subcontractor & crew-payment tracking
- Fixed fees, confirmed up front
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 | 5% GST plus 7% BC PST — two registrations, two returns |
Source: Should you incorporate?. General information, not advice.
Why BC’s two-tax system needs closer tracking than most provinces
GST and PST are charged, registered and filed separately in BC — and PST catches more service businesses than owners expect.
Two separate taxes
BC charges 5% GST and 7% PST as two distinct taxes with two different registrations. Unlike Ontario or the Atlantic provinces’ single HST, a Vancouver-area business has to track and file each one correctly — miss a PST registration and the province can assess penalties independently of any GST issue.
PST on services, not just goods
Owners assume PST is only about goods on a shelf, but BC also applies PST to certain software, telecommunication and related services. Tech and production companies that buy software licences or contract services often owe PST they didn’t register to collect or remit.
Corporate tax rate
BC taxes active small-business income at 2% provincially, on top of the 9% federal small-business rate — one of the lower combined small-business rates in Canada, provided the GST/PST filings behind it are clean.
Accounting & tax services for Vancouver-area businesses
Everything an incorporated Vancouver-area business needs, under one roof — delivered online.
Corporate Tax (T2)
T2 corporate returns and year-end statements for incorporated trades, production and tech businesses in the Vancouver area, with GST/PST and CRA correspondence handled as part of the file.
Personal Tax (T1)
Personal and self-employed T1 returns built around a tax-efficient salary-and-dividend split, for owners balancing project-based or seasonal income.
Bookkeeping & Payroll
Monthly bookkeeping and payroll that tracks crew payments, subcontractor invoices and job costs, so a trades or production business always knows its real margin.
GST / PST
BC’s two-tax system — 5% GST plus 7% PST — registered, filed and reconciled separately and correctly, including the service categories PST catches that owners often miss.
Business Advisory
Practical advice on cash flow, equipment financing and structure for Vancouver-area owners, from a CPA who understands seasonal and project-based revenue.
Fractional CFO
Fractional CFO support for growing production, trades or tech companies that need real forecasting and financing conversations, not just monthly bookkeeping.
Built for project-based, seasonal and crew-driven businesses
A large share of the businesses we serve in the Vancouver area don’t have predictable monthly revenue — construction and trades subcontractors bill by project, film and production companies staff up and down by production, and tech founders often run lean between funding rounds. That rhythm makes generic monthly bookkeeping templates a poor fit.
We build your books, GST/PST filing and payroll around how the money actually moves — job costing for trades, crew and per-diem tracking for production, and burn-rate visibility for tech — so your T2 and year-end statements reflect the business you actually run.
Book a free consultServing the Vancouver area, entirely online
🖥️ 100% online — video and phone meetings, secure email and e-signature.
Rather just call?
📞 (604) 832-1743 · Mon–Fri 9–5 PT
✉️ info@everstonecpa.com
PST registration gaps that surface at the worst possible time
The most common problem we see with Vancouver-area businesses isn’t GST — it’s PST. BC’s provincial sales tax applies to a wider range of transactions than most owners assume, and because GST and PST are separate registrations with separate rules, it’s entirely possible to be fully compliant on the federal side while quietly under-registered on the provincial one.
It shows up differently depending on the business. A construction subcontractor who starts selling materials as well as labour may trigger a PST obligation on the goods portion of a contract that didn’t exist when they were purely a labour subcontractor. A film or production services company that leases equipment, or a tech company that resells software licences to clients, can owe PST on transactions that look, on the surface, like straightforward service billing. None of this is exotic — PST’s rules for what counts as a taxable sale or lease are simply broader than most owners expect, and BC will assess penalties and interest on unremitted PST going back multiple years if it’s caught in an audit rather than caught by your accountant first.
We review what you actually sell — not just what industry you’re in — against BC’s PST rules before it becomes a problem, register you correctly the first time, and build PST collection into your invoicing and bookkeeping alongside GST, so a two-tax province stays a manageable filing routine instead of an audit risk.
Getting set up, without a trip downtown
No trip downtown — the whole engagement runs online.
Book a free consult
A free video consult about your project-based or seasonal business. You get a fixed, written quote before anything begins.
Send your records securely
Send your records securely; we bring the books current and reconcile GST and BC PST against your contracts.
Stay compliant all year
We keep both filings on schedule, watch your PST registration exposure, and stay reachable all year.
Working with a virtual accountant in Vancouver
A Vancouver client and an Abbotsford client run through exactly the same process, because the whole engagement is built to work at a distance. You send records through a secure portal rather than dropping off a banker’s box, we meet by video at a time that fits between your own client calls, and returns are approved by e-signature. The difference for a Vancouver business is usually the mix of work rather than the mechanics: more e-commerce and marketplace GST questions, more contractor-versus-employee classification, and more owners weighing when to stop drawing everything as salary. Because BC is our home province, the provincial layer — PST registration, the BC small business rate, the Employer Health Tax once payroll grows — is the layer we work in every day rather than one we look up.
The same remote model runs for owners in every province — there is a full walk-through of a remote CPA engagement, and a province-wide view for BC small businesses.
Quick Method vs regular GST calculator · compare salary against dividends · our T2 deadline tool · work out the GST on an amount
Also serving business owners in virtual accountant in Toronto and online accountant in Ottawa.
Common questions from Vancouver-area owners
Can an accountant outside Vancouver file my corporate taxes?+
How do we exchange documents securely?+
Do you understand British Columbia tax rules?+
Do I need to meet my accountant in person if I’m based in Vancouver?+
Why does BC charge two sales taxes instead of one?+
Does PST apply to my software or production-services business, or just retailers selling goods?+
I do both labour and materials on construction jobs — does that change my PST obligations?+
How much does an accountant cost for a Vancouver-area business?+
You are in Abbotsford and I am in Vancouver — how do meetings actually work?+
See how corporate tax and sales tax work province-wide in our British Columbia accounting guide — provincial rates, GST/HST/PST and filing for British Columbia businesses.
Real reviews from real clients
Verified 5-star Google reviews from EverStone CPA clients.
“I have worked with Sunny for the past 2 years. 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.”
“Highly recommend working with Sunny. We switched to him last year for both our personal and small-business taxes — responsive, knowledgeable and quick.”
“Sunny and his team have been completing my bookkeeping, taxes and financials for the last 2 years and they have been amazing. Thank you!”
Vancouver industries we work with most
Vancouver’s owner-managed base skews toward professional services, e-commerce, design and consulting studios, and trades serving a dense residential market. Those businesses share a pattern: revenue that arrives unevenly, contractors rather than employees, and an inventory or platform layer that complicates GST and PST. We work with a lot of them, and the questions repeat — when to incorporate, how to treat a contractor, whether PST applies to a service bundled with a product. Our e-commerce accounting page covers the platform-seller case specifically. Realtors and personal real estate corporations are a distinct group again — see realtor accounting in Vancouver.
How working with a Vancouver business actually runs
Everything is remote, and deliberately so: you get a CPA who replies, not one who is close by. A first consultation runs by video or phone. Documents move through a secure upload rather than a courier or a drop-in, and signatures are electronic. Through the year you can call or email with a question without a bill following it, because the fee is fixed and agreed before any work begins — which is the point, since the questions worth asking usually arrive before a decision, not after. The same CPA handles your file from start to finish, so the person who prepares your return is the person who answers the phone. For Vancouver owners that removes the two things that make an accountant hard to use: travel, and the hesitation to ask.
What a Vancouver client’s year looks like
Most Vancouver clients have a December year-end, which puts the corporate return six months later and the balance owing earlier than that. The work is spread deliberately: bookkeeping kept current through the year, a planning conversation before year-end while decisions can still change the outcome, then the return itself as a confirmation rather than a scramble. GST filings land on their own frequency in between. Nothing about that schedule depends on which city your accountant sits in.
We work with owner-managed businesses across British Columbia — see accounting in British Columbia for the provincial picture, or how a virtual CPA engagement works.
Where the immediate need is a year end, Vancouver financial statements covers share capital by class, related-party disclosure and what an outside shareholder looks for.
For part-time senior finance support rather than compliance work, see fractional CFO support for Vancouver companies with investors.
Services in Vancouver
Two service pages go deeper for Vancouver: personal tax (T1) for incorporated owners in Vancouver, and accounting for Vancouver trades and construction businesses. Both are handled remotely from the Abbotsford office.
Two obligations come up often enough with Vancouver businesses to have pages of their own. If you employ anyone, payroll services in Vancouver covers employees in more than one province. If you charge sales tax, GST/HST filing in Vancouver covers place of supply when you sell across Canada.
Related services and local guides
Nearby cities, the rest of what we do for Vancouver businesses, and the reference pages behind this one.
Ready to get your GST and PST filings sorted?
Get GST and BC PST handled properly by a CPA who tracks both taxes against your actual contracts. Free consult, fixed quote, no trip downtown.
Specialized accounting
Remote accounting from Abbotsford
EverStone works with Vancouver businesses from one location: 32615 South Fraser Way in Abbotsford. There is no premises in Vancouver, and nobody on the ground there. Calls happen by video or phone and paperwork moves by secure email 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.