Contractor accountant in Edmonton

Subcontractor reporting and who counts as staff

A construction business paying subcontractors for construction services generally files T5018 information returns for those payments. Alongside that sits the harder question of whether a given worker is genuinely a subcontractor at all. The answer turns on the substance of the arrangement — control over the work, who supplies tools, chance of profit or loss, ability to substitute — not on how the invoice is addressed. Getting it wrong brings CPP and EI exposure with interest. See our subcontractor versus employee guide.

Payroll once you carry crew

Employing tradespeople brings source deductions on a remittance schedule set by your average monthly withholding, and year-end slips after that. Missing a remittance date is one of the easier and more expensive administrative mistakes to make in a growing trades business, because penalties attach to the deduction rather than the tax. We keep the schedule and file it, so it is not a thing you have to remember on a job site.

Equipment, and when to buy it

Trucks, trailers, tooling and shop equipment are capital assets recovered through capital cost allowance. In the year an asset becomes available for use the half-year rule generally halves the first claim, though the Accelerated Investment Incentive suspends that for eligible property and can allow a substantially larger deduction. Timing a large purchase around your year-end is real planning — but only where the year’s income can actually absorb the deduction.

Holdbacks, progress billing and uneven income

Construction revenue rarely lands in the period the work was done. Holdbacks, progress draws and retainage all move income across the cut-off, and GST does not always follow the invoice date either. Combined with a season that concentrates work into part of the year, that makes instalments easy to misjudge. We plan them against your real cash flow rather than a flat projection.

Taking on your first employees

The step from working alone or with subcontractors to carrying employees is the single biggest change in a trades business file, and it happens fast — usually because a contract required it. From the first pay run you have source deductions, a remittance schedule set by your average monthly withholding, year-end slips, and records that need to be right rather than approximately right.

Two things catch Edmonton contractors most often. The first is remittance frequency: it is set by your withholding amount and it changes as you grow, so the schedule you started on may no longer be the one you are on. Penalties attach to the deduction rather than the tax, which makes a missed date expensive out of proportion to the amount. The second is the boundary with subcontractors — hiring one crew as employees while continuing to treat similar workers as subs invites exactly the comparison you do not want made.

We set the payroll up, keep the remittance calendar, file the year-end slips, and make sure the employee and subcontractor populations are distinguishable on more than paperwork.

Holdbacks, progress draws and when revenue is earned

Construction income rarely lands in the period the work was performed, and holdbacks are the clearest example: money earned, invoiced, and retained by the payer until the job is signed off. Treating a holdback as revenue on the invoice date can put profit into a year before the cash exists, while ignoring it entirely understates the year that the work was actually done.

Progress draws create the same tension in a milder form, and GST does not always follow the invoice date either. For a growing Edmonton contractor the practical consequence is that the year-end cut-off matters more than the bookkeeping through the year — a set of books that is tidy month to month can still produce a misleading year if the open jobs are not reviewed properly at the end of it. We review work in progress and holdbacks at year-end so the return reflects what was genuinely earned.

The same review is what makes the year-end conversation useful rather than procedural. Once open jobs are properly stated you can see whether the year can actually absorb an equipment purchase, whether a bonus makes sense, and whether the instalments you are paying still match the work in front of you. Reviewing that in the autumn, while those decisions are still open, is worth considerably more than discovering the answer once the year has closed.

What EverStone handles for you

One CPA, one fixed fee agreed up front:

• T2 corporate return and year-end financial statements
• T5018 subcontractor information returns
• Subcontractor-versus-employee positions documented defensibly
• Payroll remittances and year-end slips
• Equipment and vehicle CCA schedules
• GST filed and reconciled
• Instalments planned around seasonal cash flow

Fixed fees, fully online

EverStone is an Abbotsford CPA firm and Edmonton is an hour ahead, so almost the whole working day overlaps. Everything runs by video, phone and secure upload, which fits a business run from a truck rather than an office. The fee is fixed and agreed before any work starts. See what it costs.