Proactive Tax Planning for Incorporated Businesses
The biggest tax savings come from decisions made before year-end, not after. We work with you through the year to structure how you pay yourself, time income and expenses, and use every legitimate strategy available to your corporation.
That’s what EverStone CPA does for incorporated owners across BC and in Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba.
Quick answer: Corporate tax planning is the year-round work of deciding how income leaves the company and when: salary versus dividends, timing of bonuses, capital purchases, income splitting where permitted, and use of the small business deduction. It is done before year-end, not after. EverStone builds a plan alongside the T2 filing. Fees are fixed and agreed in writing; published fees show where each service starts.
See your own numbers first. Enter your company’s profit in our 2026 pay planner: it works out corporate tax, CPP and personal tax at every salary level for 2026 and shows the split that leaves you the most.
Try the numbers first with our salary vs dividend calculator.
Filing a return records what already happened; tax planning changes what happens next. Most incorporated owners overpay not because their return is wrong, but because no one looked ahead — at how they draw income, when they buy assets, or how the corporation is structured. Our tax-planning service is a year-round relationship: we know your numbers, flag opportunities before deadlines close them, and make sure the tax outcome is deliberate rather than accidental.
What tax planning with us looks like
- Salary vs. dividend planning tuned to your income, RRSP goals and cash needs
- Timing of income, bonuses and asset purchases around your year-end
- Income splitting with family members within the TOSI rules
- Using the small-business deduction and managing passive income
- Planning for the lifetime capital gains exemption on a future sale
- Coordinating your corporate and personal tax as one picture
The decisions that actually move your tax bill
Tax integration means salary and dividends often land close on tax alone — the real savings come from the structural choices around them. These are the levers we work with most.
How you pay yourself
Salary builds RRSP room and CPP; dividends skip CPP and simplify admin. The right mix depends on your income, your retirement plan and your cash needs — and it’s a decision worth revisiting every year, not setting once and forgetting.
Timing around year-end
Whether to buy equipment before or after your fiscal year-end, when to declare a bonus, and how to time income can shift tax between years and defer it meaningfully. These windows close at year-end, which is why planning has to happen before it.
Income splitting — within the rules
Paying reasonable salary to a family member who genuinely works in the business, or navigating the tax-on-split-income (TOSI) rules on dividends, can lower household tax. Done carelessly it invites reassessment; done properly it’s legitimate.
Small-business rate & passive income
Active business income under the limit is taxed at the low small-business rate, but too much passive investment income inside the corporation can grind that benefit away. We help you manage the balance as retained earnings grow.
Planning for the eventual sale
The lifetime capital gains exemption can shelter a large gain when you sell qualifying shares — but only if the corporation qualifies, and qualification is something you set up years in advance, not at closing.
Working with EverStone, start to finish
We learn your numbers
An enquiry and a look at your corporate and personal picture — income, structure, goals — so advice is specific to you, not generic.
We build the plan
We map out how you’ll draw income, time key decisions, and structure the year, with a fixed quote before any work begins.
We check in through the year
Planning isn’t a one-time meeting. We revisit before year-end and whenever a big decision comes up, so opportunities aren’t missed.
Tax planning connects directly to your corporate tax and business advisory work. Start with our guides on salary vs dividends and whether to leave money in the corporation.
One of the most common planning questions has a free tool: the salary vs dividends calculator.
Tax planning questions
Isn’t salary vs dividends basically a wash because of tax integration?+
When is the best time to do tax planning?+
Can I split income with my spouse or kids?+
Do you do both corporate and personal planning?+
Is this worth it for a small corporation?+
What does a tax planning engagement actually involve?+
Does planning still help once my fiscal year is already over?+
Why clients stay with EverStone
Rated 5.0 on Google across 21 client reviews.
“…have been completing my bookkeeping, taxes and financials for the last 2 years and they have been amazing. Thank you!”
“Personal. Professional. Responsive. Plus he saved me a bundle!”
“…We switched to him last year for both our personal and small-business taxes — responsive, knowledgeable and quick.”
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The planning decisions with the largest effect on an owner-managed corporation: bonus versus dividend at year end, the tax on split income rules, when a holding company is worth the cost, the lifetime capital gains exemption, associated corporations and the shared SBD.
Related reading
Keep up with what changed this year.
The forms and the dates
The instruments are ordinary and the timing is everything: the salary-versus-dividend split and its T4 or T5 consequences, the small business deduction and the passive-income grind that reduces it, capital cost allowance and the half-year rule on year-end purchases, RRSP room created by salary, and the corporation’s year-end date itself, which can be chosen once. The output is a written plan before the year-end, not an explanation after it.
Who this is for in the Fraser Valley
Planning conversations in the Fraser Valley tend to be about the same handful of decisions: an Abbotsford or Chilliwack farm or trades corporation deciding between salary and dividends before the year-end, a Langley professional weighing a holding company, a Mission owner timing an equipment purchase for the capital cost allowance. None of them is answered well in April. They are answered in the autumn, with the year’s numbers in front of both of us.
Want a CPA’s answer on a tax planning question before committing to anything? The 45-minute Advice Call is a flat fee of $225 + GST for one question, credited against your first invoice if you engage us within 60 days.
What sets the fee
Planning is quoted as a fixed fee for a defined piece of work — a salary-versus-dividend decision, a holding-company question, a year-end date review — after we review your enquiry that establishes which question it is. What moves the fee is the number of entities involved and whether a written plan with figures is wanted or a decision memo will do. For clients on a monthly bookkeeping or controller engagement the autumn planning conversation is included in that fee.
Other corporate tax work
The rest of what this covers, and the page each one is on.
Ready to plan ahead instead of react?
We’ll build a year-round tax plan around your corporation and revisit it before every deadline. Send an enquiry to a CPA.
“…have been completing my bookkeeping, taxes and financials for the last 2 years and they have been amazing. Thank you!”