Contractor accountant in Maple Ridge

The PST question is answered by the contract, not the invoice

British Columbia treats a contractor who supplies and installs materials into real property as their end user. On a typical renovation or build, you pay PST on materials and carry it in your price, not as a line on the homeowner’s bill.

Supply-only arrangements differ, as do some contracts where the customer supplies materials. The wording decides, so decide at the quote. Finding at year-end that a contract was structured one way and priced another is not a bookkeeping fix; the money is gone.

A subcontractor’s clearance letter is your liability, not theirs

A hiring contractor in British Columbia can be assessed for an uninsured subcontractor’s WorkSafeBC premiums, often months after the job closed, when the sub is unreachable. The defence is cheap: make a current clearance letter a condition of final payment for every sub on every job, and file it with the invoice. Do it consistently and there is nothing to reconstruct; do it occasionally and an unquantified liability sits in your history.

Vehicles, the log, and the claim that survives a review

Almost every Maple Ridge trades business runs a truck, and the vehicle claim is one of the most reviewed items on a small corporate file. The deduction depends on business-versus-personal use, proven by a log of dates, destinations, purpose and kilometres. Mileage across Albion, Silver Valley, Whonnock and out to Mission is legitimate, but a claim without records gets reduced. Owning or leasing changes what is deducted, not the need for the log.

One client is a structural risk, not just a commercial one

A trades corporation with essentially one customer, using its tools and direction with little risk of loss, can be a personal services business. It loses the small business deduction and most deductions, retroactively.

This hits incorporated tradespeople who have become one builder’s crew. Control, tool ownership, ability to subcontract and chance of profit or loss decide it, as with employee status. Review them honestly.

The Maple Ridge work mix, and what it implies

Maple Ridge trades skew residential: custom builds on the Silver Valley and Albion slopes, acreage work east of town, renovations near the river, and site services. Homeowner contracts change who bears sales tax, how deposits arrive and how disputes resolve.

Revenue is also seasonal, so instalments based on a strong year can fall due before the next season pays. Planning them against the actual draw schedule rather than a flat formula makes spring manageable. Construction accounting in BC covers the reporting side.

How the engagement runs online

EverStone is a virtual sole practitioner firm, with no Maple Ridge office or local staff. Video calls, e-signature and secure exchange suit an owner on site; documents go up from a phone, and the CPA preparing the return answers your emails. See the BC tax facts tables for provincial rates. For an accountant Maple Ridge trades owners can reach from a job site, that is the whole arrangement.

Beyond the corporate return

Trades owners usually need more than the T2, all at fixed fees. See tax preparation in Maple Ridge.

The single figure that most often makes a trades year end right or wrong is work finished but not yet invoiced. See financial statements for Maple Ridge trades corporations for how that and customer deposits are handled.

Where the business has outgrown what one person can hold in their head, fractional CFO support for growing Maple Ridge trades businesses covers margin by crew, the hiring arithmetic and overhead recovery.