Trades accountant in Vancouver

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.

Knowing who the customer actually is

On a strata building the party that signs, the party that pays and the party that benefits are frequently three different things. A repair authorized by a strata corporation, funded from a contingency reserve and performed inside an individual unit produces an invoice that has to name someone. Getting that wrong creates a receivable nobody accepts and a tax treatment that does not match the transaction.

Rental and mixed-use buildings raise the same problem: a property manager instructs the work, but the owner is the contracting party. Settling who the contracting party is before mobilising decides who owes the money and how revenue is recorded.

Renovation, and where GST gets complicated

Most renovation is a straightforward taxable supply of services. The harder question is when work on residential property is extensive enough to change the tax character of the property. Federal law draws that line, and it matters for builders renovating to resell rather than for owner-occupiers.

A trades company that only invoices homeowners for services rarely meets it. One that takes an interest in a property, or works for a developer, does. The line is fact-specific, so raise it before the deal is structured.

Progress billings across a year-end

Vancouver renovation contracts often run past a quarter or a fiscal year, so the year-end cut-off decides the tax bill. Work done but unbilled is earned revenue; amounts invoiced ahead of the work are not. GST is generally payable on the earlier of invoicing and payment, so a deposit can put remittable tax in your hands long before the revenue exists. Treat deposits as spendable cash and you create your own shortfall, usually in a bad quarter.

Holdbacks in a lien province

BC lien law holds back money on a project and releases it after a set period. Two effects follow. Receivables include amounts earned but not yet collectible, worth knowing before the next job. Holdbacks you retain from your subtrades are costs already incurred; leaving them out overstates the margin on that job. Multi-trade renovations run both at once, and only a schedule keeps them straight. The construction holdbacks guide goes deeper.

Subtrade slips and classification on dense sites

Renovating occupied buildings uses many specialized subtrades briefly, multiplying the parties paid for construction services, the T5018 reporting and the risk that someone is really an employee. Short engagements make records harder to rebuild, not classification less important. Separating subtrade labour from materials at entry beats any year-end effort. See subcontractor or employee.

What is covered

One Chartered Professional Accountant handles the whole file:

• Contract and receivable structure on strata and managed-property work
• Progress billing, deposit and year-end cut-off treatment
• Holdback schedules on both the receivable and payable side
• GST filing, reconciliation and input tax credit review
• T5018 information returns and worker classification review
• T2 corporate return and year-end financial statements

Remote, and there is no Vancouver office

EverStone works online, with no Vancouver office: video, e-signature and secure document exchange, which beats an hour of city driving. One CPA prepares the return and answers questions all year. For provincial context, see construction accounting in BC.