Choosing an accountant in Maple Ridge, and what to ask first

Why Maple Ridge is a different search

Much of Maple Ridge works elsewhere: a professional billing a Vancouver or Burnaby client through a personal corporation, a tradesperson contracted to one builder, a Pitt Meadows corridor manufacturer supplying two customers. Much of the local incorporated base shares one problem most accounting websites never mention.

The personal services business rules let the CRA treat a one-main-client corporation that looks like a job as an incorporated employee, losing the small business deduction and most expenses. Avoid it by being genuinely in business, and by having an accountant review the facts before the CRA does.

Trades and manufacturing add the usual BC set: separate GST and PST, subcontractor slips, work in progress and year-end equipment timing. Local owners need a firm that handles those and understands PSB risk.

The questions that separate firms

1. Will you tell me if my corporation looks like a personal services business?

Ask this first, and expect specifics: one main client, employment-like work, few marks of an independent business. Ask how the firm assesses it and what it would change. If PSB is new to them, keep looking.

Start with the credential. CPA members and public accounting firms in British Columbia are listed in CPABC’s member and firm directories; a minute there confirms that the person and the firm you are talking to are who they say they are.

2. Who does the work, and who signs it?

In a large practice, a small one-client file goes to whoever is free. Ask who prepares, reviews and signs, and whether that changes. One CPA from first email to filed return keeps the PSB judgement consistent.

3. Is the fee fixed and in writing before the work starts?

A small corporation should not carry an uncertain accounting bill. Ask for the number in writing before anything begins and ask what would change it. The fair answers are transaction volume, the state of the books, the number of filings and payroll.

4. How should I pay myself, and when do we decide?

Salary versus dividends matters most for a one-person corporation and must be settled before year end. Ask whether the firm plans it with you, and whether that is in the fee.

5. For a trades or manufacturing business: how do you handle the specifics?

Subcontractor slips, work in progress, equipment purchases and the two sales taxes each have a right way to be handled. Ask for the last file the firm did that looked like yours and what the hard part was.

6. What does switching involve?

You authorize the new accountant with the CRA, the new firm requests your file, and work continues from the last filed year-end, even mid-year. Any backlog is quoted separately up front.

How to compare two Maple Ridge quotes

List what each includes: T2, year-end statements, GST and PST, the owner’s T1, payroll if you take a salary, and questions through the year. For a one-person corporation the salary-versus-dividend planning is the part worth paying for; check whether it is inside the fee.

Then compare the answers to the PSB question. The firm that engaged with it is the one that is actually thinking about your situation.

Red flags worth walking away from

• The personal services business rules never come up for a one-client corporation.
• Salary versus dividends is decided after the year-end, from whatever the bank statements show.
• A fee described as an estimate, or tied to an hourly rate.
• PST not mentioned for a trades or manufacturing business.
• You cannot get a name for the person who will do the work.

Where to start

A free thirty-minute conversation covers the client structure, what is filed now and how you are paid. You leave with a fixed fee in writing. The work runs online, which is a shorter trip than it sounds and one most clients never make.

Get My Fixed Quote See the fixed fees

For Maple Ridge specifically: accountant services in Maple Ridge, incorporated professionals in Maple Ridge, Maple Ridge manufacturers, the personal services business risk check and the salary versus dividends calculator.

Choosing somewhere else? The same questions, with the local specifics, for Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Langley, Surrey, Aldergrove, Vancouver, Victoria, Mission and the Fraser Valley.