Payroll services in Aldergrove

Updated September 2026.

Paying yourself a salary is running a payroll

Owners often treat their pay as an internal transfer, which is where trouble starts. A corporation paying you salary is your employer. It needs a payroll (RP) program account, income tax and CPP withheld from each payment and remitted on the CRA schedule, and a T4 by the last day of February.

The corporation also pays the employer’s share of CPP. Money simply moved from the business account to a personal one during the year, reclassified as salary by a bookkeeper the following spring, produces a year of unremitted deductions rather than a tidy plan.

Most owner-managers get one simplification: if you control the corporation, your employment is generally not insurable, so EI is typically not withheld and no EI benefits arise. Understand that trade before a business interruption.

What salary buys, and what dividends do not

Salary versus dividend is not a rate comparison alone, because each buys different things. Salary is deductible to the corporation, creates RRSP contribution room, counts for CPP and is what a mortgage lender looks at. Dividends come from after-tax corporate income, create no RRSP room, CPP or payroll obligations, and are reported on a T5 rather than a T4.

For an Aldergrove owner in their thirties building a business and a personal balance sheet, RRSP room and CPP contributions usually matter more than a one-year comparison suggests; for an owner in their sixties with retirement assets, often less. There is no universal answer, so revisit the decision each year against actual profit. Salary also counts toward BC remuneration for employer health tax while dividends do not, though a single-owner payroll sits far below the $1,000,000 exemption.

The small-payroll obligations that still apply

A one-person payroll is small, not exempt. The RP account must be opened and, if salary stops, closed properly. A new employer normally starts in the most forgiving remitter category, generally remitting by the fifteenth of the following month, and the T4 must be filed on time. WorkSafeBC coverage is separate: some incorporated owners are not covered automatically and may opt in. The RP account guide covers registration and remitter types.

What is handled

• Setting up the payroll account and the owner-salary structure
• Income tax and CPP calculated and withheld on each payment to you
• Remittances made on the CRA schedule assigned to the corporation
• Annual salary-versus-dividend review against the year’s actual profit
• T4 slip and summary filed by the February deadline
• Coordination with the corporate return so the deduction and the slip agree
• T4 and T4A slips for any additional staff added later

Remote, with no Aldergrove office

EverStone operates virtually. The engagement runs online: a video call to set the compensation plan, secure document exchange and e-signature. For a one-person corporation the work is a few decisions and a monthly remittance. The same CPA prepares the corporate return, so the salary decision and the T2 are made together. See what it costs before you commit.

Remote payroll

Owner-salary work is online. There is no Aldergrove office and no local staff. You sign by e-signature, talk by phone or video and upload records securely. What counts is that each remittance lands on time.

An owner’s salary and its remittances should be planned alongside forecasting the cash it needs, not taken as cash allows.