Contractor accountant in Delta

T5018, if you pay anyone else to do the work

If construction is most of what your business does, every payment to a subcontractor for construction services goes on a T5018 slip, with a summary filed alongside. You pick a reporting period, either the calendar year or your fiscal year, and the filing is due six months after it ends. The CRA matches those slips against the income your subs declare, so a wrong business number or address will surface.

Those details are easiest to collect on the day a sub is engaged, not the following spring when the crew has moved on to a job in Surrey or Richmond. Invoices that split labour and materials should be recorded that way too. The T5018 subcontractor tracker keeps it in one place, and T5018 reporting covers the rules.

Holdbacks sit on both sides of the ledger

BC’s Builders Lien Act requires the payer to hold back part of each payment on most contracts until the lien period has passed. A Delta contractor usually has holdbacks owed to it by owners and general contractors, and holdbacks it owes to its own subs. Both have to be tracked separately from ordinary receivables and payables.

Treating holdback receivable as cash you can collect now overstates working capital, and lenders and bonding companies look at that figure. The GST on a holdback generally becomes payable when the holdback is paid or becomes payable, not with the rest of the draw, so the invoice should show it separately. Construction holdbacks works through the entries.

PST on materials you build in

For PST, what matters is whether goods end up built into a property. Drywall hung in a Ladner basement or windows set into a North Delta infill house become part of real property, and the province treats the contractor as the end user of them. So the PST is paid at the supplier’s counter, and the homeowner’s invoice for the finished work carries none. Anything you bring in from another province without PST is self-assessed on your own PST return.

Selling goods you do not install is a different transaction. Hand a customer a pallet of tile or an appliance they will fit themselves, and PST is charged on that sale. Your own tools and equipment carry PST too. Mistakes happen in both directions, and an audit catches both. The BC PST guide covers registration and self-assessment.

WorkSafeBC, and the clearance letter nobody asked for

Any trade with workers registers with WorkSafeBC, which sets a premium rate by industry classification and charges it on assessable payroll. The piece contractors overlook is the clearance letter. If a sub you hired has not paid its own premiums, WorkSafeBC can come to you, as the prime contractor, for the amount owing on your job. Pulling a clearance before you release each payment closes that gap. A trade working alone with no staff may also weigh optional coverage for themselves. WorkSafeBC registration covers the first steps, and the Delta payroll page covers the crew.

GST on progress billings and new housing

GST on a progress draw generally becomes payable when the invoice is issued or payment is due under the contract, whichever is earlier. It is not tied to when the owner pays. Remitting only once the cheque clears means every draw is reported late, and the timing gap turns into a cash squeeze at each filing date.

New homes carry their own GST rules. The sale of a newly built house is taxable, and the purchaser may qualify for a new housing rebate, which is often credited to the builder on closing. Keep the house and rent it out instead, and the self-supply rules generally make you account for GST as though you had sold it to yourself at fair market value. Gutting and rebuilding an existing house can count as new construction for the same purpose. Infill builds in North Delta are where this comes up most, and it is planned before the foundation goes in. The first-time home buyers’ GST rebate covers the latest change.

Residential, industrial and the one-client question

A Delta trade can work for homeowners in Ladner one month and on an industrial fit-out on Annacis Island the next. Those jobs differ in more than size. Commercial work brings longer payment terms, bigger holdbacks and more paperwork from the general contractor. Residential work brings deposits, change orders and homeowners who expect a clear invoice. Job costing by project shows which kind of work actually pays.

An incorporated trade that works almost entirely for one general contractor should also look at the personal services business rules. If the corporation would reasonably be seen as that company’s employee without the corporation in between, the income loses the small business rate and most deductions. Your own tools, insurance, several customers and the right to send someone else all weigh against it. The PSB risk assessment walks through the factors.

Fully virtual, based in Abbotsford

EverStone works from Abbotsford, an hour east of Delta, and the engagement runs entirely online. Receipts and sub invoices can be photographed on site and sent through a secure upload link, and questions go by email between jobs. For an incorporated contractor, the usual package of bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 with statements comes to $450–$650 a month, set in writing before anything starts. See what it costs.

Remote contractor accounting from Abbotsford

Contractor accounting for Delta clients is delivered remotely from Abbotsford. There is no Delta office and no local team. Meetings are virtual, documents are signed electronically, and you deal with the CPA directly rather than an intake desk. Subcontractor payments, equipment and vehicle costs are tracked as they happen rather than reconstructed at year end.