Starting and incorporating a business in Canada

Most guides to starting a business in Canada answer one question — should you incorporate, then stop. The harder part is next: which accounts to open and when, which deadlines start at once, and what can wait a year.

This hub follows that sequence: the structure decision, registration and the accounts CRA expects, then the first-year filings that catch new owners out. Already incorporated? Skip to the checklists.

Step one: sole proprietor or corporation

• Sole proprietor vs corporation — the honest comparison of tax, liability and administration, with the point where incorporating starts to pay for itself. Read this before anything else on the page.
• Incorporate or stay a sole proprietor in BC? — the same decision with British Columbia rates and the provincial detail. Read it if you are BC-based and want the specifics.
• Model the incorporation decision — estimates the tax deferral available at your income level, so the decision has a number attached. Run it before booking any advice.
• When to incorporate, not whether — the triggers and calendar timing once you have decided incorporation is coming. Read it if the answer is “yes, eventually.”
• Partnerships and their returns — the third structure, and the filing obligations that come with it. Read it if you are going into business with someone else.

Step two: incorporating and getting registered

• New corporation setup checklist — the accounts, registrations and records to put in place once the corporation exists. Work through it in the first month, not the first year.
• Just incorporated? What happens next — the same ground in narrative form, including the obligations that begin the day the certificate is issued. Read it the week you incorporate.
• Choosing your fiscal year end, a decision made once, difficult to change later, and worth five minutes of thought rather than defaulting to December. Read it before the first return is filed.
• Setting up CRA My Business Account — the portal where every account, balance and filing lives. Do this early; the identity verification takes longer than you expect.

Step three: the accounts that come with revenue

• GST/HST registration — when registration becomes mandatory, when to do it voluntarily, and how the account is opened. Read it as revenue approaches the threshold.
• Opening a payroll account — the RP account, the remittance schedule and what has to happen before the first pay run. Read it before you pay anyone, including yourself.
• The GST/HST hub — the full annotated set of sales tax guides, if registration is now on your list.
• The payroll hub — the same for payroll, if you are about to hire.

Step four: the first year of filings

• The corporate tax hub — the T2, its deadlines and the planning that precedes it, annotated the same way as this page. Your next stop once the first year end is in sight.
• Bookkeeping mistakes to avoid from day one — the habits that make the first year end cheap instead of painful. Genuinely worth reading in month one.
• Bookkeeper, accountant or CPA? — who does what, and which of them a new corporation actually needs. Read it before hiring anyone.
• What the first 90 days look like — how an engagement with this firm actually starts, if you would rather not do the setup alone.

Structures you may grow into, or out of

• Holding companies — when a second corporation adds protection or deferral, and the far more common case where it just adds cost. Read it only once there are retained earnings to protect.
• Business advisory — structuring, planning and the decisions that do not fit neatly into a filing deadline.
• Dissolving a corporation — how to wind up cleanly if the structure turns out to be wrong, without leaving CRA accounts open behind you.

The single most common mistake in this whole sequence is incorporating early for reasons that turn out to be social rather than financial. If you are not certain yet, run the calculator, read the timing guide, and let the numbers decide.