Contractor accountant in Victoria

The year-end covers the T2 with Schedule 1 and Schedule 50, the CCA schedule, the small business deduction, T4 or T5 slips for the owner’s pay, and the instalments for the year ahead.

T5018, if you pay anyone else to do the work

A construction business that pays subcontractors must report those payments on a T5018 information return each year, and CRA cross-checks the slips against what recipients report. Errors are rarely deliberate: a subcontractor paid partly in materials, a labour-and-materials supplier not split, a business number copied from a wrong invoice header. Each is easy to get right at the time and awkward to rebuild in February. The T5018 tracker keeps it current, free.

Holdbacks sit on both sides of the ledger

BC’s builders lien legislation holds back part of most construction contracts for a statutory period, so contractors are usually owed holdback and holding it. Treating the receivable as ordinary overstates what is collectable; ignoring the payable understates what is owed.

Both errors distort working capital, the figure a surety uses to set your bonding limit. If bonding capacity limits the work you can bid, look here first. Year-end statements in Victoria covers how a surety reads them.

WorkSafeBC, and the clearance letter nobody asked for

Coverage with WorkSafeBC is registered and paid separately from CRA source deductions, at a rate set by the classification unit for your work. If a subcontractor you engage is not properly covered, the liability can fall back on you; a clearance letter obtained before payment prevents that. Marine repair, residential construction and roofing sit in different units at materially different rates, so a business doing more than one kind of work should report each under its own unit.

Marine work is its own thing

A refit, repower or haul-out is a job like a build, with two differences. Equipment is heavier relative to revenue, so capital purchases matter more to the return. And marine businesses often carry parts inventory, which a trades ledger is not set up to value. Whether to buy, finance or lease turns on cash and on what capital cost allowance does with it, not the sticker price.

GST is due on the invoice, not on the payment

For most contractors GST becomes payable when the invoice is issued or payment is due, not when the money lands. So the GST on a progress claim is remitted on schedule while the claim, and the holdback inside it, may be outstanding for months. Contractors who treat the GST account as a reserve rather than money already owed arrive at the filing date short. Keep it visibly separate. GST and PST filing in Victoria covers the return itself.

When most of your work comes from one general

An incorporated tradesperson working almost only for one general contractor fits the personal services business rules: if you would reasonably be that company’s employee without the corporation, they can apply. The result is no small business deduction or general rate reduction, a further 5% tax, and most business deductions disallowed. Your own tools, vehicle and insurance, several clients with real revenue and a right of substitution all help. The PSB risk assessment walks the factors, and corporate tax in Victoria covers the cost.

Job costing, or a year you cannot explain

Without per-job margins, a contractor is guessing at which work to bid. Job costing — labour, materials, subtrades and equipment time against each contract — turns a year-end figure into a decision, and often shows the repeat customer subsidising the prestigious one. Set the ledger up for it when a job starts. Construction and trades accounting covers the method, and bookkeeping in Victoria the monthly discipline.

Fully virtual

EverStone is a fully virtual, one-CPA firm with no Victoria office or Island staff. Invoices, subcontractor details and equipment purchases arrive by secure upload link or bank feed, and the year end is reviewed on a call. No afternoon lost travelling to an accountant.

Where equipment and hiring decisions are coming, the forward numbers matter more than the historical ones — a forecast that gets updated is where that starts.

For fractional CFO in Victoria, where bonding capacity and bid pricing are the recurring themes, the scope and the fixed-fee approach are the same.

Contractors who also want payroll in Victoria and personal tax in Victoria can have both quoted together.