Plain-language guides to the money stuff that matters.
Registered accounts, how income is actually taxed, and the questions that come up once your business is past the kitchen-table stage. Each guide breaks down the mechanics in plain language and pairs it with an interactive tool so you can see how it would work for you.
The accounts that matter.
Tax-Free Savings Account
Tax-free growth, withdraw anytime, room restored January 1. The account every Canadian over 18 should be using.
- How contribution room actually works
- Why withdrawals don't lose room (after Jan 1)
- Interactive room visualizer — try a scenario
Registered Retirement Savings Plan
Tax-deferred growth and an immediate tax refund. Best when your income today is higher than it will be in retirement.
- How contributions reduce your tax — try the marginal-rate game
- Spousal RRSPs & the attribution rule (with a real-world example)
- Home Buyers' Plan & Lifelong Learning Plan
First Home Savings Account
The newest registered account — a hybrid of TFSA and RRSP designed to help first-time buyers save for a home. Contributions are tax-deductible and withdrawals for a qualifying home purchase are tax-free.
- $8,000 annual / $40,000 lifetime contribution limit
- How to combine FHSA + HBP for first-home purchases
- Interactive first-home savings simulator
Registered Disability Savings Plan
One of the most generous savings programs available — government grants and bonds matched up to 300%, with a $200,000 lifetime contribution cap.
- The CDSG (grant) and CDSB (bond) explained
- How to qualify with the Disability Tax Credit
- Interactive grant simulator with 20-year projection
Registered Education Savings Plan
Government grants up to $7,200 per child, plus tax-deferred growth, designed to fund post-secondary education for your kids.
- Maximizing the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG)
- The catch-up rule for late starters
- Interactive grant maximizer with growth projection
RRSP vs TFSA vs Non-registered
Same yearly contribution, same return — three accounts, three very different after-tax outcomes. A clean per-dollar comparison, including the two RRSP refund paths.
- Side-by-side after-tax results at retirement
- The RRSP refund: reinvest it vs spend it
- The deferred tax owing on your RRSP, throughout
How things work.
The mechanics behind your money — how income is actually taxed, and how a tax return is built, line by line.
How income is taxed
Employment, business, rental, interest, capital gains, dividends — where your dollar comes from can change its tax bill by more than half. A plain-language tour, with a live calculator.
- The tax personality of each income type
- Why interest is the most-taxed dollar you own
- Live “same money, taxed several ways” calculator
How a T1 actually works
Follow a real personal tax return from total income down to refund — every line, credit and bracket on one worked example. It demystifies the form most Canadians never actually read.
- Total income → net → taxable, step by step
- How credits and the dividend gross-up actually land
- The 2026 BC + federal brackets, in context
Rental income & the T776
Rent is taxable — but only on what’s left after your expenses. A line-by-line tour of every deduction on Form T776, with worked examples, plus the current-vs-capital rule and renting part of your home.
- Interactive line-by-line expense explorer
- Current vs. capital — the classic rental error
- Splitting expenses when you rent part of your home
Self-employment & the T2125
Freelance, consult or run a trade? You’re taxed on net profit. A line-by-line tour of every deduction on Form T2125, with worked examples, the 50% meals rule and the home-office deduction.
- Interactive line-by-line expense explorer
- The 50% meals rule & current vs. capital
- The home-office deduction, and when to incorporate
Section 85 rollovers
Incorporating? Moving your assets into the company normally triggers tax on years of built-up gains. A Section 85 rollover defers it — worked through with a landscaping business and five real assets.
- The elected amount, from tax cost to fair value
- Interactive 5-asset example: gains, recapture & the loss trap
- Boot, the T2057 election, and what to watch
What’s a business worth?
The three main ways to value a business — income, asset and market — with worked examples, how goodwill is calculated, and the pros and cons of an asset sale versus a share sale for buyer and seller.
- Three valuation approaches, reconciled on one example
- How goodwill falls out (residual & excess earnings)
- Asset sale vs. share sale — and the capital gains exemption
Estate planning, step by step
Canada has no estate tax — it has a deemed sale of everything you own on the day you die. The eight-stage process for getting a BC estate plan in order, from the statement of net worth to the review cadence.
- Printable 44-item estate planning checklist
- What happens to each asset: RRSP, TFSA, cottage, company shares
- BC probate fees, WESA, wills variation & beneficiary designations
What you have to file — and who checks it.
Registration thresholds, the structure decisions that bring their own filings, and the three levels of assurance a bank or a shareholder might ask for. The obligation side of running a business, in plain language.
GST registration — the $30,000 rule
The small-supplier threshold is a rolling four-quarter test, not a calendar year — and crossing it in a single quarter changes the rules mid-invoice. When you must register, and when registering early pays.
- Interactive threshold checker — enter five quarters, see where you stand
- The two crossing scenarios and their very different clocks
- The case for registering voluntarily before you must
BC PST registration — who must register
No $30,000 threshold here: most BC sellers must register before their first taxable sale. What’s taxable, the narrow small-seller carve-out, out-of-province rules — and the October 2026 expansion to professional services.
- Decision helper — three questions to a verdict
- Taxable vs exempt, with every PST rate in one table
- The Oct 1, 2026 professional-services change, explained
Incorporating your business
The whole process, honestly: what you gain and what it costs, when the tax deferral is actually worth having, choosing your structure and year-end date, and everything on the list before and after you file.
- Pros and cons side by side — including the ones nobody mentions
- Real cost ranges, one-time and every year after
- Interactive year-end picker — every deadline from one date
The shareholder loan account
The running tab between you and your corporation — how draws and contributions move the balance, and why it’s cleared each year with a bonus or dividend.
- Draws vs contributions — which way the balance points
- Four everyday examples + a worked year on the tab
- The one-year rule, and bonus vs dividend to clear it
Compilations vs Reviews vs Audits
Three engagement levels, three very different deliverables and costs. Which one does your bank, your shareholder, or the CRA actually need from you?
- Side-by-side comparison across 10 factors
- What each engagement does (and doesn’t) verify
- When you’d need each — with typical use cases
BC ETG Eligibility Worksheet
Free industry-specific screening worksheet for the BC Employer Training Grant. 15 minutes to a real answer on whether it’s worth applying.
- Industry-specific flows (carpentry, landscaping, HVAC, services)
- Red flags & the renewal-and-maintenance trap
- Decision tree: apply, modify, or skip
How the business actually runs.
The other half of the picture — the roles, systems and rhythms behind the numbers. How reliable books get built, what a finance function looks like at your size, and where the profit actually comes from.
People, Process, Product
The three levers Marcus Lemonis made famous on The Profit. Why each one matters, the order they belong in, and the key things to monitor in each.
- The 3 Ps explained for a growing business
- What to monitor in each — people, process & product
- Where profit actually comes from
The organizational chart
Nine functions across five org charts, from one person to twenty-plus — who holds each one at every size, and the ones that quietly come back to the owner.
- Five charts: solo, first hires, crew, team, company
- A matrix of all nine functions at every stage
- Where the CPA, lawyer and banker sit at each size
The bookkeeping process
A step-by-step storyline of how reliable financial information is built — and the moment controllership hands off to advisory.
- The four roles: admin, bookkeeper, controller, CFO
- A responsibility ladder that redraws for your headcount
- Controllership (looking back) vs advisory (looking forward)
Your finance department
An interactive map of a small business finance function — what feeds it, the five software layers inside it, and the decisions it hands back.
- The stack: Xero, Dext, Plooto, Loop, treasury
- The weekly and monthly rhythm that runs it
- Which layer to add next — and which to skip for now
AI prompts for your business
How to write a prompt that actually works — plus five copy-and-paste Claude prompts for the marketing and admin jobs you keep putting off.
- The 5 ingredients of a great prompt
- Marketing: a content engine & on-brand customer replies
- Admin: SOPs, hiring posts & overdue-invoice nudges
Business spend platform selector
Six questions — how you’re set up, where you’re registered, what you spend abroad, your cash floor, whether you need to carry a balance — to the corporate card and spend platform that fits how you actually pay.
- Interactive selector — one recommendation, one runner-up
- Float, Ramp, Loop and Airwallex, compared side by side
- Where Dext Payments belongs — and where it doesn’t
Working on the owner, not just the books.
Past a certain point the business isn’t the constraint — you are. Tired, over-committed, doing $40 work at 11pm. These are the frameworks we actually use with owners, built as worksheets you can fill in and take away.
The Four-Week Edit
Four weeks of setup that carry the next six months — envision, delete, install, track. Fill it in on screen, then download your own plan as a PDF. Adapted from Dan Martell’s framework for owner-operators.
- Write the next six months as though it already happened
- Time audit and friend inventory — what to actually cut
- Downloadable PDF plan, saved in your browser as you go
The owner’s operating rhythm
The meeting cadence that keeps a small business honest — what you look at daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly, and who else needs to be in the room for each one.
- A Friday review that takes 20 minutes, not two hours
- The monthly numbers conversation, scripted
- Quarterly reset — what actually gets re-decided
The delegation ladder
What to hand off first, what it costs, and how to tell the difference between a task you should delegate and one you should delete. Pairs with our hiring cost calculator.
- Rank your tasks by what your hour is worth
- Delegate, automate, or delete — a decision rule
- What “done” has to look like before you let go
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* The rates, brackets and limits behind these tools — with sources — live on our tax rates & data sources reference.