An accountant for Windsor and Essex County businesses
Windsor sits across the river from Detroit, and a large share of the money made here is earned from customers on the other side of it. EverStone CPA is a one-CPA firm serving Windsor, LaSalle, Tecumseh, Lakeshore, Leamington and the rest of Essex County remotely: corporate tax, bookkeeping, payroll and advice at a fee fixed in writing before work starts.
Who this page is for: owners of tool, die and mould shops, cross-border trucking companies, Leamington and Kingsville greenhouses, construction contractors and retailers who want one CPA to hold the whole file.
Quick answer: A Windsor business files the same federal returns as any Ontario business, but it often bills in US dollars, ships goods south that are zero-rated for HST, and runs payroll through seasonal peaks. EverStone handles the T2, 13% HST, payroll, bookkeeping and the owner’s T1 for Windsor and Essex County owners, entirely online, with the fee agreed before work begins. Published fees start at $100 for a personal return and $300 a month for bookkeeping.
A border city keeps two currencies in its books
Few Canadian cities do as much business with the United States at such short range. A Windsor mould shop quotes a Michigan buyer in US dollars, a carrier is paid for a Detroit run in US dollars, and a greenhouse may sell its crop through a US distributor. The ledger still reports in Canadian dollars, so every US invoice, receipt and bank balance has to be translated. The difference between the rate on the invoice and the rate on the day the money lands is a gain or loss that belongs in income.
That is ordinary work, but it has to be set up deliberately: a separate US-dollar bank account in the books, a consistent rate source, and a month-end revaluation of what is still owed. Our guide to foreign exchange gains and losses sets out the rules. On the sales-tax side, goods exported to a US customer are generally zero-rated, so no HST is charged while input tax credits on your costs are still claimed. HST on exports explains the paperwork that proves it.
What Ontario adds to a Windsor file
Ontario keeps sales tax simple and makes payroll and the registry a little busier. The province charges a single 13% HST, so there is one registration and one return. Corporate income tax for Ontario rides on the federal T2, so there is no separate provincial corporate return. Employers pay Ontario Employer Health Tax once payroll passes the exemption, and most employers in construction and manufacturing carry WSIB coverage. Every Ontario corporation also files an annual return through the Ontario Business Registry within six months of year-end, a filing that sits outside the CRA calendar and is easy to miss. The current rates and thresholds are kept on our Ontario tax facts page, and the Ontario accounting guide covers the province as a whole.
The industries that shape the work here
Essex County’s economy leans on a handful of sectors, and each one brings its own accounting pattern. We have written a page for each:
- Manufacturers: tool, die and mould makers and automotive suppliers, with job costing, work in progress, heavy equipment and SR&ED claims on process work.
- Trucking and logistics: cross-border carriers and owner-operators, with IFTA and IRP, US-dollar revenue and long-haul meal claims.
- Greenhouse growers: Leamington and Kingsville operations taxed as farms, with energy costs, zero-rated produce and seasonal workers.
- Construction contractors: T5018 slips, the 10% holdback under the Construction Act, progress billing and WSIB.
- Retailers: inventory counts, shrinkage, point-of-sale reconciliation and HST.
Services Windsor owners use most
Most engagements combine several of these under one fixed monthly or annual fee:
- Bookkeeping in Windsor: monthly reconciliation, US-dollar accounts kept straight, and the HST return filed from the same ledger.
- Corporate tax in Windsor: the T2 and year-end statements, with CCA on equipment and planning before the year closes.
- Personal tax in Windsor: T1 returns for owners, families and residents who earn income in Michigan.
- Payroll in Windsor: source deductions, EHT, WSIB reporting and T4 slips.
Where the decisions have outgrown a monthly close, fractional controller or fractional CFO support adds cash-flow forecasting and margin reporting.
How a Windsor owner’s year runs
The calendar follows your year-end rather than December. Books close monthly. Before the year ends we raise the decisions that still have a window: whether to buy a machine or a tractor before or after year-end, how to split salary and dividends, and whether to leave profit in the company. The T2 is due six months after year-end, but the balance owing is due two or three months after it, which is the date that catches owners out. The Ontario annual return follows on its own six-month clock. Slips (T4, T4A and T5) go out by the last day of February. Deadline reminders can put those dates in your inbox.
What it costs
Fees are fixed in writing after a free consultation, so a question in June does not start a meter. Monthly bookkeeping starts at $300 a month with the HST return included. A personal return starts at $100 and a self-employed T1 with schedules is commonly $250 to $450 for the year. Corporate tax on its own is quoted after the consultation. If you want one focused conversation instead of an engagement, a 45-minute Advice Call is a flat $200 + GST. The full schedule is on the pricing page.
Prepared and reviewed by a Chartered Professional Accountant at EverStone CPA, an Abbotsford CPA firm working with small businesses and incorporated contractors across the Fraser Valley and Canada. Updated September 2026. About the firm · Book a free consult
Which filing applies to a Windsor business
| Obligation | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Corporate income tax | One T2 carries both the federal and the Ontario tax |
| Sales tax | 13% HST on Canadian sales; exported goods generally zero-rated |
| Payroll | CPP, EI and income tax remitted to the CRA; Employer Health Tax above the exemption |
| Workplace coverage | WSIB registration and premiums, separate from the CRA |
| Corporate registry | Ontario annual return through the Ontario Business Registry |
Source: Ontario tax facts. General information, not advice.
Questions from Windsor business owners
Can an accountant in BC handle a Windsor corporation?+
Do I charge HST on parts shipped to Michigan?+
How do you handle invoices in US dollars?+
Do you work with businesses outside the city itself?+
What does the first meeting cost?+
Do you work with businesses outside Windsor itself?+
Related services and local guides
Nearby cities, the rest of what we do for Windsor businesses, and the reference pages behind this one.
Running a business in Windsor or Essex County?
One CPA for your corporate tax, HST, payroll and books, with US-dollar sales handled properly. Free consult, fixed quote, fully online.
Remote, from Abbotsford
EverStone works from Abbotsford, British Columbia, and serves Windsor remotely. There is no Windsor office and no staff based there. Meetings run by video or phone, documents arrive through a secure upload link, and signatures are electronic. Pacific time is three hours behind Windsor, so a question sent at the end of your day is usually answered before your next morning. The guide to working with a CPA in another province covers the practical side.
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.