Personal tax accountant in Barrie

Updated September 2026.

Self-employed on the side, or full time

A lot of Simcoe County income is earned outside a payroll: a carpenter taking weekend jobs, a snowplough contract through the winter, a guide or instructor working the summer season, a trucker running as an owner-operator. All of it goes on the T2125 statement of business activities with the expenses that earned it. The filing deadline moves to June 15, but the balance is still due April 30, so interest runs from the earlier date on anything unpaid.

The records that hold up are simple: every sale, every receipt, and a vehicle log if the truck is used for both work and home. Once taxable sales pass $30,000 in four consecutive calendar quarters, HST registration becomes mandatory as well, and the return has to reconcile to what was reported on the HST side. The self-employed return guide lists what to bring.

The commute is not a deduction

Plenty of Barrie residents drive or take the train into the GTA for work. The cost of getting from home to a regular place of employment is personal, however long the drive, and is not deductible. What can be deductible is different: an employee required to travel away from the employer’s place of business, whose employer signs a T2200, may claim some vehicle costs. A self-employed person travelling from a home base to clients is in a different position again. The line is worth drawing correctly, because it is one of the claims the CRA reviews most often.

Cottages, rentals and the principal residence

Lake Simcoe and the lakes to the north mean many Barrie families own a second property, and many rent it out for part of the year. Rental income goes on the return with its expenses, apportioned for the weeks you used it yourself. The larger question comes when the property is sold or passed on. Only one property per family can be designated as the principal residence for any given year, so a family with a house in Barrie and a cottage up north has a choice to make about which one shelters which years. Records of what was paid and what was spent on improvements decide how much of the gain is taxable, and those records are far easier to keep as you go than to find later.

Owners paid by their own corporation

If you own an incorporated business, your T1 is where the company’s choices land. Salary arrives on a T4 and dividends on a T5, and the mix changes your tax, your RRSP room and your CPP. We prepare both returns together so the personal side is modelled before the year-end pay decision is made, rather than discovered afterwards. Where the company has paid personal costs, the shareholder account is checked too, because a loan not repaid within one year after the corporation’s year-end is generally taxed as your income.

Instalments, and when the CRA asks for them

If your net tax owing is more than $3,000 in the current year and in either of the two previous years, the CRA will ask for quarterly instalments on March 15, June 15, September 15 and December 15. Self-employed owners and people with rental or investment income are the usual cases. The reminders the CRA sends are based on your history, not on this year. A good year after a slow one can leave a balance, and a slow year after a good one can mean paying more than you need to. We check the amount each year before the first payment is due.

Ontario credits that need a filed return

Several Ontario benefits are paid only if a return is filed, even when there is no income to report. The Ontario Trillium Benefit, which combines the energy and property tax credit with the sales tax credit, is calculated from your return and paid through the following year. A late or missing return delays it. For a household with a student, a retired parent or a spouse with little income, filing every return on time is part of the job.

What is covered

A fixed fee covers the whole return, not a form at a time:

• Employment, pension and investment slips pulled directly from the CRA
• Self-employment on the T2125, with the vehicle claim built from your log
• Rental income, and the change-in-use rules when a cottage moves between personal and rental use
• Principal residence designations when a property is sold
• Instalment amounts checked against the instalment calculation before the March payment
• Notices of assessment read and explained, and a notice of objection within 90 days where one is warranted

If a return from an earlier year was filed elsewhere and something looks wrong, a review of it can be quoted on its own.