Accountant for New Westminster contractors
New Westminster keeps contractors busy: older houses in Queen’s Park and the Brow of the Hill that need careful renovation, strata buildings Downtown and along the Quay, and newer townhouses and industrial units in Queensborough. Most crews also cross the bridges for work. EverStone handles the accounting that follows them, remotely and at a fixed fee.
Part of the New Westminster accounting service.
Quick answer: An incorporated New Westminster contractor files T5018 slips for subcontractor payments, pays PST on materials installed into real property, keeps WorkSafeBC clearance letters for every subcontractor, and charges GST on each progress billing. A typical trades bundle of monthly bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 with statements usually runs $450–$650 a month.
T5018, if you pay subcontractors
If construction is your main business and you pay subcontractors for construction services, you report those payments on the T5018. Each subcontractor paid over the reporting threshold gets a slip, and the return is due six months after the end of the reporting period you chose. The CRA matches those slips against what the subcontractors report.
The work is easier if it starts on day one. Collect each subcontractor’s legal name, business number and address before the first payment, and code every payment to them in the books. The T5018 subcontractor tracker keeps the list, and the T5018 guide explains who is caught.
PST on the materials you install
BC treats a contractor who installs goods into real property as the consumer of those goods. You pay 7% PST when you buy the lumber, tile, fixtures or wiring, and you do not charge PST to the owner on the installed price. The tax is part of your job cost, and quotes have to allow for it.
It changes if you sell goods without installing them, or supply and install items that remain tangible personal property. Then PST may be collected from the customer instead. Contractors who do both need their invoicing set up to keep the two apart. The BC PST guide covers the contractor rules.
WorkSafeBC, and the clearance letter
If you employ anyone, you register with WorkSafeBC and pay premiums on assessable payroll. Subcontractors are a separate risk. If a subcontractor you pay is not registered, or is behind on premiums, WorkSafeBC can look to you for what they owe on that work.
A clearance letter, requested before you pay and again before the final payment, removes that risk. It takes minutes online. We keep the letters with the T5018 file so both are in one place. See the WorkSafeBC registration guide.
Classification matters here too. A helper paid by the day, using your tools and working your hours, is likely an employee whatever the invoice says. That brings CPP, EI premiums, tax withholding and WorkSafeBC coverage with it. Getting it wrong is costly when it surfaces years later. See subcontractor or employee.
Heritage houses, strata buildings and slow payers
Renovating an older New Westminster house often means change orders: what was behind the plaster was not what anyone expected. Each change order needs pricing, approval in writing and a separate line in the job cost, or the margin disappears without a trace.
Strata work brings a different pattern. Repairs and upgrades are approved by a strata council and paid through a property manager, often on longer terms. Larger contracts may carry a holdback, released only after completion. Holdbacks owed to you are receivables, and holdbacks you keep back from subcontractors are payables. Treating them as ordinary balances distorts working capital. See holdbacks accounting.
GST is due on the invoice, not on the payment
GST on a progress billing is generally reportable in the period you issue the invoice, not when the client pays it. A strata or commercial client on slow terms can leave you remitting GST weeks before the cash arrives. Annual filers with revenue of $1.5 million or less report it all at once, which makes setting it aside monthly essential.
The GST you pay on materials, tools and subcontractors comes back as input tax credits on the same return. That only works if each bill is coded with its GST separated out. See input tax credits.
Job costing across the bridges
A New Westminster crew may run a job in Burnaby, another in Coquitlam and a third across the river in Surrey in the same month. Job costing tags each invoice, material purchase, subcontractor bill and labour hour to the job it belongs to. Without it, a year can be profitable overall and still hide two jobs that lost money.
Trucks, trailers and tools are capital, claimed through CCA by class. A truck bought just before year-end gets a smaller first-year claim than owners expect under the half-year rule. Vehicle logs support the business share. See equipment CCA classes in BC.
Job costing also improves the next quote. Once you can see what a bathroom, a deck or a strata envelope repair actually cost in labour and materials, pricing the next one stops being a guess. A monthly job report, sent with the books, is part of the engagement.
Paying yourself, and the year-end
Most established contractors incorporate. The company pays the BC small business rate on active income up to the $500,000 limit, and the owner draws salary on a T4, dividends on a T5, or both. Money taken out without either becomes a shareholder loan, which is generally taxed as income if not repaid within one year after year-end. The T2 then pulls it all together, with the CCA schedule and Schedule 50. See corporate tax in New Westminster and payroll for your crew.
Prepared and reviewed by a Chartered Professional Accountant at EverStone CPA, an Abbotsford CPA firm working remotely with small businesses and incorporated owners in British Columbia. Updated . About the firm · Send an enquiry
What an incorporated contractor has to get right
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| T5018 reporting | Subcontractor payments are cross-checked by CRA against what recipients report |
| Holdbacks | Receivable and payable both distort working capital if treated as ordinary balances |
| WorkSafeBC | Separate registration, and an uncovered subcontractor can become your liability |
| GST on progress billings | Generally due by reference to the invoice, not to when the money arrives |
| Salary or dividends | How you pay yourself changes both the corporate and the personal return |
| Sales tax where you operate | 5% GST plus 7% BC PST: two registrations, two returns |
Source: Construction and trades accounting. General information, not advice.
New Westminster contractor questions
Do I have to file T5018s?+
Do I charge PST on a renovation?+
How should holdbacks be recorded?+
When is GST due on a progress claim?+
What does an accountant cost for a New Westminster construction business?+
Do you work with contractors outside New Westminster itself?+
Related services and local guides
Nearby cities, the rest of what we do for New Westminster businesses, and the reference pages behind this one.
Incorporated trade in New Westminster?
T5018s, PST on materials, WorkSafeBC and the year-end handled by one CPA, at a fixed fee. Send an enquiry.
Fully virtual, based in Abbotsford
EverStone works with New Westminster contractors virtually, from a base in Abbotsford. There is no New Westminster office and no staff based there. Invoices, receipts and subcontractor details come in through a secure upload link, questions are answered by email or video, and nobody has to leave a job site for a meeting.
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.
