Online Accountant for Victoria’s Consultants, Trades and Tech Businesses
EverStone CPA, a British Columbia firm, serves Victoria and Capital Region corporations online: corporate tax, bookkeeping and clear advice from a CPA, at a fixed fee agreed upfront. Saanich, Langford, Oak Bay and Esquimalt too.
Who we help here: Incorporated consultants contracting to the Province, Crown corporations, health authorities and the universities; trades and marine businesses; and tech founders billing clients off-Island — owners who want a CPA who answers, not one who is closer.
Quick answer: An accountant in Victoria does not have to be on Vancouver Island. EverStone is a BC CPA firm working with incorporated Victoria businesses entirely online: corporate tax, bookkeeping, GST and PST, payroll and salary-versus-dividend planning, at a fixed fee agreed before any work starts. Nothing about the engagement needs a ferry. Published fees start at $125 for a personal return and $325 a month for bookkeeping.
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On this page
- A BC CPA, which matters more here than a Victoria address
- If you invoice the Province through a corporation, read this first
- BC charges GST and PST separately, and they do not agree with each other
- Accounting and tax services for Victoria businesses
- Getting set up, without a sailing
- The businesses that come to us from the Capital Region
- What a year with an incorporated Victoria business looks like
- Real reviews from real clients
- What working across the strait actually involves
- Questions Victoria owners ask first
- More for Victoria and BC businesses
- Talk to a CPA about your Victoria business
A BC CPA, which matters more here than a Victoria address
As a BC firm, we apply PST, GST and BC’s Employer Health Tax every period. A Victoria corporation files the same T2 as any BC corporation; the province sets the arithmetic, not the city.
Island life changes logistics, and remote work removes that. No receipts to deliver, no sailing to plan, no year-end talk waiting on a crossing. Documents go by secure upload, the review is a video call, signatures are electronic.
For the honest version of what remote actually means in practice, including what it does not suit, see accounting for BC businesses and how a virtual CPA engagement runs.
If you invoice the Province through a corporation, read this first
Many Victoria contractors incorporate and work for one institution: a ministry, Crown corporation, health authority or university. That is legitimate, but close to the CRA's line around a personal services business.
The test is not the client’s size or sector. It asks whether, without the corporation, the worker would be the client’s employee: who controls the work, supplies tools, can send a substitute, bears the risk. Fail it and the corporation loses the small business deduction and most deductions on that income, assessed years later with interest.
Get an answer before year end, not after an assessment. The PSB risk assessmentA free tool that walks the factors CRA weighs for an incorporated contractor asks a CRA reviewer's questions, and worker classification explains how the CRA decides. Unclear? Send an enquiry.
BC charges GST and PST separately, and they do not agree with each other
A Victoria business selling goods, and many selling services, may register for both GST and PST: separate regimes, triggers, exemptions and returns. PST is not a smaller GST; treating it as one is the BC error we correct most.
Late surprises are usually PST on goods brought into BC for own use, or PST charged on an exempt sale. Both are fixable, cheaper before a review. The BC tax facts page has provincial rates; GST/HST filing covers the federal side.
Accounting and tax services for Victoria businesses
Corporate tax (T2)
The corporate return, year-end statements and the schedules behind them, filed on time with the balance date calculated for your year-end rather than assumed. Corporate tax in Victoria →
Bookkeeping
Monthly or quarterly books that stay reconciled, so the year-end is a review rather than a reconstruction. Bookkeeping in Victoria →
GST and PST filing
Both registrations handled on their own schedules, including the instalment obligation annual filers often discover too late. GST and PST in Victoria →
Payroll
Remittances, T4s and ROEs, including the seasonal patterns Victoria’s tourism and hospitality employers run on. Payroll in Victoria →
Personal tax (T1)
The owner’s return prepared alongside the corporation’s, because the remuneration decision is made once and shows up on both. Personal tax in Victoria →
Advice between filings
Asking a question is not a billing event. Incorporating, hiring, buying equipment or taking money out — the answer is easier before the transaction. Business advisory →
Getting set up, without a sailing
It starts with an email enquiry about your year end, structure and open issues. If it fits, you get a fixed fee in writing, changed only if scope changes and you agree first.
Then records arrive by secure upload, we prepare and review, and you e-sign. Questions between filings are answered as they arise. No office visits, so distance changes neither work nor fee.
The published fees are on the pricing page, and the fee estimate gives a range for your situation in about a minute.
Free tools for Victoria owners: free CRA deadline reminders.
The businesses that come to us from the Capital Region
Victoria is not a small Vancouver. Its biggest employers are public, its private sector leans to professional services and tech, and much work is done by incorporated individuals. That shapes the questions.
Consultants with one institutional client
Policy, IT, engineering and communications contractors invoicing a ministry, a Crown corporation, a health authority or a university. The live question is almost always personal services business exposure, and it is worth settling before the year-end.
If you are comparing firms first, what to ask an accountant in Victoria before you sign is written for exactly that.
Tech and SaaS founders
Revenue from outside the province and often outside the country, which changes the GST treatment and adds foreign-exchange to the books. Exports and non-residents covers when a sale is zero-rated and what proof the CRA expects.
Professional corporations
Physicians, lawyers, engineers and others operating through a professional corporation, where the remuneration decision and the corporate structure interact. Incorporated professionals →
Trades and marine
Project work, holdbacks, subcontractors and the T5018 filing that goes with paying them. Contractor accounting →
Tourism and hospitality
Revenue concentrated into a short season, which makes GST instalments, seasonal payroll and records of employment the recurring work rather than the year-end itself.
Owners with rental property
A second property or a suite changes the personal return, and a change in how it is used changes it again. Rental income →
What a year with an incorporated Victoria business looks like
Most owners arrive expecting one annual event. In practice an incorporated business has a handful of fixed dates through the year, and the year-end is only the largest of them. Knowing which ones apply to you is most of what makes the year calm.
| What | When it falls | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate balance owing | Two or three months after year-end | Whether the corporation is a CCPC claiming the small business deduction |
| T2 corporate return | Six months after year-end | Your fiscal year-end date, which you chose at incorporation |
| GST/HST return | Monthly, quarterly or annually | Your taxable supplies; the CRA assigns the frequency and does not lower it on its own |
| GST instalments | Quarterly, for annual filers | Net tax in the previous year; missing them creates interest even if you pay in full later |
| Payroll remittances | Monthly for most new employers | Average monthly withholding; the threshold moves the due date, not the amount |
| T4 and T5 slips | The last day of February | Whether you paid salary or declared dividends in the calendar year |
| Personal return | 30 April, or 15 June if self-employed | The balance is still due 30 April either way |
Every date above is set out in full, with the CRA source for each, on the CRA deadlines page. The corporate ones are worked through on the T2 deadline page, including how the balance date and the filing date come apart.
Real reviews from real clients
Rated 5.0 on Google across 24 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.”
“…We switched to him last year for both our personal and small-business taxes — responsive, knowledgeable and quick.”
“…have been completing my bookkeeping, taxes and financials for the last 2 years and they have been amazing. Thank you!”
What working across the strait actually involves
What you do. Send records once a month or once a quarter, depending on the engagement, through a secure upload rather than as email attachments. Answer a short list of questions at year-end. Sign electronically. That is the whole of it.
What we do. Keep the books reconciled, file what is due when it is due, and tell you before a deadline rather than after it. Every file is handled by a CPA rather than passed down, which is the reason the fee is what it is.
What does not happen. No hourly meter on a phone call. No invoice for asking a question. No trip to the mainland, and no expectation that you will courier anything.
What we will tell you plainly. If you need someone local, such as in-person audit defence or a site-visit valuation, we say so at the consult. That is rare.
Questions Victoria owners ask first
How much does an accountant cost in Victoria?+
Do I need an accountant on Vancouver Island?+
I contract to a ministry through my company. Is that a problem?+
Do you charge more because I am off the mainland?+
Can you take over part-way through a year?+
My books are behind by more than a year. Is that a problem?+
Do you work with businesses outside Victoria itself?+
More for Victoria and BC businesses
Talk to a CPA about your Victoria business
An enquiry answered by email by a Chartered Professional Accountant. You get a straight answer about your situation and a fixed fee in writing if you want to go further. No obligation either way.
Starting fees
Every fee is fixed in writing before any work begins.
- Monthly bookkeeping, GST/PST filing includedfrom $325 a month
- Payroll, remittances, T4s and ROEsincluded in monthly bookkeeping
- Books, payroll and the year-end T2 together$500–$700 a month
- Corporate year-end and T2 returnfixed fee, quoted in writing
- Personal tax return (T1)from $125; self-employed or rental $275–$500
- Catch-up bookkeepingfrom $2,200 per year of records
- Controller or CFO supportcontroller from $1,650, CFO from $2,750 a month
- One-off advice call with a CPA$225 plus GST