Trades accountant in Markham

For a one-owner Markham trades business, monthly bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 with statements usually cost from $450 to $650 a month all-in. 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.

The work Markham contractors do

Markham is one of York Region’s nine local municipalities, in the heart of the Greater Toronto Area, alongside Richmond Hill, Whitchurch-Stouffville and Vaughan. The trades businesses we work with here are mostly owner-run: renovation and custom-home builders, electricians, plumbers and HVAC contractors, flooring and finishing trades, landscapers, and the firms that fit out offices, labs and light-industrial space for the technology, life sciences and manufacturing employers the City lists among its key sectors. Many work on both sides of the region boundary, and some take subcontracts from larger general contractors across the GTA.

That mix matters for the accounting. A renovation contractor working directly for homeowners deals with deposits, change orders and a WSIB exception that may or may not apply. A commercial subtrade deals with holdbacks, progress draws, proper invoices and payment terms set by the general contractor. A trade with a fleet of vans and expensive equipment lives on its CCA schedule and its vehicle logs. We set the books up around which of those you are.

One tax on the invoice, and the cash it creates

Ontario applies a single 13% harmonized sales tax rather than a federal tax plus a separate provincial one. That is a genuine simplification: a Markham contractor does not have to decide whether a provincial sales tax is a cost buried in materials or a line on the invoice. The tax is charged on the supply and recovered on the inputs through input tax credits.

What replaces that question is a cash question. The full 13% is collected on progress billings and deposits, and remitted only when the return is due. Between remittances the contractor holds a significant amount of tax money, and money held is money that gets spent unless the process prevents it. A separate bank account for HST, or a monthly transfer equal to the net tax on the period’s billings, solves it. See the input tax credits guide.

Compulsory coverage reaches the owner

Ontario extends mandatory workplace insurance coverage into construction at the ownership level. Under the province’s expanded compulsory coverage rules, independent operators, sole proprietors, partners and executive officers of corporations carrying on business in construction generally must register with the WSIB and carry coverage. The exceptions are limited; the notable one is a business that does only home renovation work for a homeowner who hires and pays it directly. Employees always require coverage.

For an owner-operator, this is the obligation most commonly missed, because in many other lines of work an owner without employees has nothing to register. General contractors will also ask subtrades for a WSIB clearance before paying, so a lapse can hold up money as well as create a liability.

Statutory holdback and a payment clock

Ontario’s construction legislation requires a portion of the contract price to be held back on a project. It also sets prompt payment obligations that follow a proper invoice, and provides for adjudication of payment disputes. The accounting effect of holdback is the same as anywhere: earned revenue that is not yet collectible sits in receivables, and holdbacks retained from your own subtrades are costs already incurred that belong in the period the work happened. Our construction holdbacks guide covers the entries.

The effect of the payment rules is specific: the invoice, and what makes it a proper one, becomes the event that starts a clock. Billing that was merely untidy becomes billing that delays cash. For a Markham subtrade waiting on a general contractor, invoice discipline is a working-capital issue rather than an administrative one.

Subtrade reporting is federal, and applies here too

The T5018 requirement is federal, so a Markham construction business that pays others for construction services reports those payments to the CRA. Many trades use a long tail of small subcontractors, which makes the underlying question — is this a subcontractor or an employee — more live, not less. The factors that decide it are control, ownership of tools, the ability to subcontract and the chance of profit or loss, and the consequences of guessing wrong land on the payer as unremitted CPP, EI and income tax.

Vehicles, tools and CCA

Trucks, vans, trailers and equipment are usually a contractor’s largest purchases. Larger items are capitalized and claimed through CCA rather than expensed, and the timing of a purchase around year-end changes the first-year claim. A vehicle used partly for personal driving needs a log separating business from personal kilometres; without one the claim is exposed, and a company-owned vehicle used personally can create a taxable benefit for the owner. Vehicle and mileage deductions covers the rules.

Instalments, seasonality and a compressed build window

Exterior trades in York Region lose time to winter, and even interior trades see work bunch up around spring and summer. Revenue arrives unevenly while tax obligations arrive on a calendar. Corporate instalments set from a prior-year formula routinely mismatch a construction company’s cash. A strong season can create both a large balance owing and an instalment schedule that starts before the next season’s receivables arrive. Modelling that in autumn is straightforward; discovering it in spring is not. See corporate tax instalments.

What is covered

One Chartered Professional Accountant handles the whole file:

• T2 corporate return and year-end financial statements
• HST registration, filing and input tax credit reconciliation
• Statutory holdback schedules, receivable and payable sides
• T5018 information returns and worker classification review
• Job-costed bookkeeping and progress billing cut-off
• Vehicle logs, CCA planning and owner pay
• Instalment planning built around the actual draw calendar

Remote, with no office in Markham

EverStone has no Markham location. Engagements run entirely online: video meetings, e-signature and secure document exchange, with receipts sent from a phone at the job site. Corporate tax is federal law with a provincial layer, so the work is not tied to a postcode. See accounting for Ontario businesses, or our Toronto accountant page for the nearest large city.