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Steven Alexander CPA Inc.accounting. advisory. growth.
Resources · For business owners

Incorporating your business, the ins and the outs.

Somewhere between your first good year and your fifth, someone tells you it’s time to incorporate. What they rarely explain is why, when, or what changes the morning after. Incorporating creates a second taxpayer — a separate legal person that earns, owns, owes and files on its own. That’s the whole benefit and the whole cost. Here’s the honest version: what you gain, what it runs you, the structure and year-end decisions you only get to make once, and everything on the list before and after you file.

Where to start: if you’re still deciding, read the case for and against and when it actually pays, then run your own numbers in the sole proprietor vs. incorporation calculator. If you’ve already decided, skip to what it costs, choosing your year-end, and the to-do list.

The concept

You’re not renaming your business — you’re creating a second person

A sole proprietorship is you. A corporation is a separate legal person that happens to be owned by you. That single distinction drives every pro, every con, and every extra form on the list below.

Sole proprietor
The business and you are the same taxpayer

Revenue less expenses lands on your personal return as business income on Form T2125, taxed at your personal rates — up to 53.50% in BC for 2026. The money is already yours the moment it’s earned; there’s nothing to “take out.” Business debts are your debts.

Corporation
The business is its own taxpayer; you are a shareholder

The company earns the income, files its own return (a T2), and pays corporate tax — 11% in BC on the first $500,000 of active business income. Money only becomes yours when it’s deliberately paid out as salary or dividends, and that’s a second, separate tax event.

The two-layer system is the whole point. Canada’s tax system is designed so that corporate tax plus personal tax on the payout roughly equals what you’d have paid earning the money personally. That principle is called integration, and it means incorporation almost never makes the same dollar permanently cheaper. What it does is let you choose when the personal layer happens, who receives it, and in what form. Every tax advantage below is a version of that timing-and-flexibility idea.
The honest ledger

What you gain, and what it costs you

Incorporation is oversold to people who don’t need it and undersold to people who do. Read both columns before you decide — the right answer depends far more on your profit, your spending, and your risk than on your industry.

The case for

Six reasons owners incorporate, in roughly the order they matter.

Tax deferral on profit you don’t spend

Active business income up to $500,000 is taxed at 11% inside a BC corporation, against personal marginal rates that reach 53.5%. Every dollar you leave in the company keeps roughly 89 cents working instead of 47. You pay the personal layer when you take it out — but you choose the year, and in the meantime the deferred tax is compounding for you.

Control over how and when income lands

Salary, dividends, or a blend. Paid this year or next. Smoothed across a lumpy business so you don’t spike into the top bracket in a good year and waste the low brackets in a bad one. Dividends can also be paid to a spouse or adult family shareholder — where the tax on split income rules permit it, which is a real constraint, not a formality.

Limited liability

The corporation contracts, borrows and gets sued in its own name. Creditors generally reach its assets, not your house. It’s real protection — but read the con column, because the exceptions are the ones that actually bite owner-managers.

The capital gains exemption on a sale

Sell qualifying small business corporation shares and each individual shareholder can shelter up to $1,275,000 of the gain (2026, indexed annually). It only exists for shares — a proprietor selling a business has no access to it at all. Qualifying takes planning and time, so it’s worth raising early even if a sale feels far off.

Continuity, credibility and transferability

The company survives you, can be sold or passed down, and can take on a partner or investor by issuing shares. Some prime contractors, government buyers and larger clients simply won’t contract with an unincorporated supplier.

Planning tools that only exist in a corporation

Holdco structures to move retained earnings out of the operating risk, individual pension plans, corporate-owned insurance, estate freezes, and family trusts. None of these are available to a proprietor at any price.

The case against

The costs and constraints that don’t make it into the sales pitch.

It costs real money, every year, forever

Roughly $1,500–$4,000 a year for the T2 and financial statements, plus a separate bank account, separate books, payroll or dividend filings, and a minute book someone has to keep current. That cost doesn’t scale down in a slow year.

The deferral is worthless if you spend everything

If your business earns $120,000 and you need all $120,000 to live, incorporating changes your total tax by very little — and you’ve added several thousand dollars of annual cost to get there. The benefit lives in the profit you leave behind.

Startup losses get trapped

A proprietorship’s losses reduce your other personal income — employment income, a spouse’s income on a joint plan, investment income. A corporation’s losses sit in the corporation until it has profit to absorb them. If you expect to lose money for a year or two, that argues for waiting.

You can’t just take the money

Cash you pull without declaring salary or a dividend becomes a shareholder loan that has to be cleared, generally within a year of the year-end it arose in — or CRA can tax the whole balance as income. It’s the single most common source of surprise tax bills for new incorporations.

Passive income inside the company gets punished

Once investments inside the corporation throw off more than $50,000 a year of passive income, your small business deduction is clawed back — $5 of the $500,000 limit for every $1 over, gone entirely at $150,000. Worth modelling before you park a large portfolio inside. See the passive income: corporate vs. personal tool.

Limited liability has holes — and it’s hard to undo

Personal guarantees on your lease and line of credit, director liability for unremitted payroll deductions and GST, unpaid wages, and your own negligence all cut straight through the corporate veil. And winding a corporation up costs money and can trigger tax — it’s far easier to start as a proprietor and incorporate later than the reverse.

The tax question

When it actually pays — and it’s not the number you think

The usual rule of thumb is “incorporate at $100,000 of profit.” That’s the wrong question. The number that matters is the gap between what your business earns and what you need to take home. That gap is the only thing the deferral works on.

A worked example: $220,000 of profit, $120,000 of lifestyle

Meet a BC contractor whose business nets $220,000 before any pay to herself. She and her family live on $120,000. Either way, that first $120,000 gets taxed to her personally at the same rates — salary or business income, the result is broadly similar. The interesting money is the $100,000 she doesn’t need.

The $100,000 she doesn’t need to spend As a sole proprietor Incorporated
Profit above her personal draw $100,000 $100,000
Tax paid on it this year $42,100 $11,000
Effective rate on that slice 42.1% 11.0%
Left to reinvest or save $57,900 $89,000
Extra capital working for her, this year — $31,100

Illustrative, 2026 BC + federal rates. The sole-proprietor figure is the blended marginal tax on income from $120,000 to $220,000 (the 38.29%, 40.70%, 43.99% and 46.09% bands); the corporate figure is the 11% BC small business rate on active business income. Ignores CPP, the small business deduction grind, and personal credits.

Read that $31,100 carefully — it’s a loan, not a gift. When she eventually pays that $89,000 out as dividends, the personal layer arrives, and total tax across both layers lands within a point or two of the 42.1% she’d have paid as a proprietor. Integration working as designed.

The real win is that $31,100 compounding in the meantime, and her ability to pick a low-income year to bring it out — a sabbatical, a slow year, retirement, or spread across a decade. Over ten or fifteen years, that timing is worth a great deal. Over one year, it’s worth almost nothing.

Probably worth it

Profit consistently runs $50,000+ above what you draw. Or you’re carrying meaningful liability. Or you’re building something you intend to sell. Or a client contract requires a corporation.

It depends

Profit and draw are close, but you expect that to change soon. Or you want a spouse in the structure. Or the liability picture is about to shift — a first employee, a lease, a big contract. Worth modelling, not assuming.

Probably not yet

You spend everything you earn. Or you’re still losing money and those losses are sheltering other personal income. Or revenue is unproven. Stay a proprietor and revisit in a year — you can always incorporate later.

Run your own numbers. The sole proprietor vs. incorporation calculator compares both paths side by side on 2026 BC and federal rates, with your actual profit and your actual draw. It’s the fastest way to see whether the gap in your business is big enough to be worth the annual cost.
The one-time decision

Getting the structure right the first time

Incorporating is easy. Incorporating correctly is where the money is made or lost — because the share structure you set up on day one determines who can be paid, how, and what a future sale or reorganization will cost. Fixing it later is a reorganization, with reorganization fees.

A single operating company

You own the shares, the company runs the business. Simple, cheap, and right for most owners starting out.

Even here, ask for more than one class of shares in the articles. Multiple classes cost nothing extra to create at incorporation and give you room later to bring in a spouse, declare different dividends to different shareholders, or freeze value — without going back to a lawyer to amend.

Holdco over Opco

A holding company owns the shares of the operating company. Retained profits get moved up to the Holdco as tax-free inter-corporate dividends, out of reach of the operating company’s creditors.

It also helps keep the operating company “pure” for the capital gains exemption. Adds a second T2 and a second set of fees — usually worth it once there’s real cash piling up, rarely worth it on day one.

Adding a family trust

A discretionary trust holds shares and lets dividends be allocated flexibly among beneficiaries, and can multiply the capital gains exemption across a family on a sale.

Powerful, and correspondingly complex: annual T3 filings, the tax on split income rules that restrict paying adult family members who don’t work in the business, and the 21-year deemed disposition. Not a starter structure.

Sketch it before you file it. Our corporate structure builder lets you drag individuals, corporations, Holdcos and trusts onto a canvas, set ownership percentages and share classes, and see the common worked examples with the tax reasoning behind each one. Bring the picture to your lawyer and your accountant — a diagram everyone agrees on before the articles are drafted saves a reorganization later.
If you already own business assets, decide how they move before you incorporate. Transferring equipment, vehicles, a client list or built-up goodwill into your new corporation is normally treated as selling them at fair market value — which can trigger tax on years of accrued gains before you’ve seen a dollar. A Section 85 rollover lets you move them across at tax cost instead and defer that tax, but it’s a joint election with a filing deadline and real consequences if it’s missed. This has to be planned before the assets move, not after.
The budget

What it costs — up front and every year after

Two numbers to budget for: the one-time cost of getting incorporated properly, and the permanent annual cost of being a corporation. The second one is the one people underestimate.

Item Typical range What you’re paying for
One-time — getting set up
BC name approval $30 A Name Request through BC Registries. Allow a few days; reserved names are held for 56 days.
BC incorporation application $350 The government filing fee that brings the company into existence. Same fee whether you file it or your lawyer does.
Legal — straightforward incorporation $1,500–$2,500 Articles, share structure, directors’ and shareholders’ resolutions, share certificates and a minute book. This is the fee that buys you a structure you won’t have to unwind.
Shareholders’ agreement (if more than one owner) $1,500–$4,000+ Who decides what, what happens on a death, a divorce or a falling-out, and how someone exits. Optional right up until the day it isn’t.
Section 85 rollover (only if assets move) $2,000–$5,000+ Legal transfer documents plus the accounting work: valuing each asset, setting elected amounts, and filing the T2057 election on time. Skip it and you may pay tax on gains you haven’t realised.
Accounting setup $1,000–$2,000 Opening balance sheet, chart of accounts, closing out the proprietorship, CRA program accounts, payroll setup, and the first conversation about salary vs. dividends.
Every year — being a corporation
BC annual report & annual minutes $43 + ~$500 The registry filing itself is only $43.39, due each year on the anniversary of incorporation — miss it long enough and the company can be struck from the register. Most owners have their lawyer handle it alongside the annual directors’ and shareholders’ resolutions and the minute book update, which is where the roughly $500 goes. It’s the corporate housekeeping that keeps your minute book current for a future sale, refinancing or reorganization.
T2 return + financial statements $1,500–$4,000 The corporate tax return, the year-end adjustments, and a compilation engagement — the standard level of financial statement for an owner-managed company. Complexity, cleanliness of the books and the number of accounts drive where you land in the range.
Review or audit (only if required) $5,000–$25,000+ A step up in assurance, usually demanded by a lender, a bonding company, a franchisor or an outside shareholder — not by CRA. The compilations vs. reviews vs. audits guide explains what each one actually delivers.
Payroll & slips $400–$1,500 Monthly source deduction remittances, T4s if you take salary, T5s if you take dividends — all due by the end of February for the preceding calendar year.
Bookkeeping varies Not new — you needed books as a proprietor too — but the standard is higher, because the corporation’s balance sheet now has to stand on its own. See the bookkeeping process.
Realistic first year, no rollover $5,000–$11,000 Setup plus your first full year of compliance, single company, no shareholders’ agreement. Roughly $2,500–$6,000 a year thereafter.

Ranges are typical BC market rates as at August 2026 for an owner-managed business, and are given so you can budget — not as a quote. Government fees are from BC Registries and change from time to time. Professional fees vary with complexity, and a set of books that arrives clean costs materially less to work with than one that doesn’t.

Yes, you can incorporate yourself online for $380. BC Registries will happily let you. What the legal fee buys is the part you can’t see on the form: a share structure with room to add a spouse or a Holdco later, articles that don’t block a future freeze, and a minute book that exists when a buyer’s lawyer asks for it in due diligence. Self-incorporations that get reorganized two years later almost always cost more in total than doing it properly once.
The other one-time decision

Choosing your year-end date

A corporation gets to pick its own fiscal year-end — any date, as long as the first year ends within 53 weeks of incorporation. You choose it by filing your first T2, and after that changing it needs CRA’s approval and a genuine business reason. It’s a small decision that shapes your calendar for as long as the company exists.

First, the mechanics that follow from the date

ObligationWhen it’s due
T2 corporate returnSix months after year-end — regardless of whether you owe anything.
Balance of tax owingThree months after year-end for a CCPC claiming the small business deduction; two months otherwise. Note this is before the return is due — interest starts running while you’re still preparing the filing.
Corporate instalmentsMonthly or quarterly through the year once your tax owing passes the threshold. Not required in your first year.
Accrued bonusDeductible in the year accrued only if it’s actually paid within 179 days of year-end.
T4 and T5 slipsEnd of February, for the preceding calendar year — these never move with your fiscal year-end.
BC annual reportOn the anniversary of incorporation, which is a separate date from your year-end.
Option A

Calendar year-end — December 31

The default, and the right answer for most service businesses.

In its favour

  • One year to think in. Corporate year, personal year, T4/T5 slips, GST periods and every benchmark you’ll ever compare yourself to all run on the same calendar. No mental translation.
  • Personal and corporate planning line up. The salary-and-dividend mix you decide for the corporate year is the same year that shows up on your T1, which makes the planning conversation far more direct.
  • Fewer moving deadlines. Your year-end, your slips and your personal return all cluster in one stretch — annoying, but you only have to remember one season.
  • Cleanest handover from a proprietorship, which already ends December 31 — no stub period to reconcile in year one.

Against it

  • It lands in the middle of accounting busy season. A December 31 year-end reaches your accountant at exactly the moment every personal return in the country does. Expect longer turnaround and less appetite for planning conversations between January and April.
  • Deadlines stack up. Slips by the end of February, corporate balance by March 31, personal return by April 30 — all inside nine weeks.
  • Your inventory count and your holiday fall in the same fortnight if you carry stock.
Best forConsultants, trades, professional services, anything without a strong seasonal shape — and anyone who values simplicity over the last few points of optimisation.
Option B

Off-calendar year-end

Any other month-end. Chosen deliberately, it earns its keep.

In its favour

  • It can match your business’s natural cycle. A landscaper closing at October 31 ends the year with the season finished, receivables collected and the yard empty. A retailer at January 31 gets past Christmas and the January clearance before counting anything. The financial statements actually describe a complete cycle.
  • Wider choice of which personal year your bonus lands in. A bonus accrued at year-end is deducted by the company in that year but taxed to you when you receive it, within 179 days. With a year-end between roughly July and November, that 179-day window straddles December 31 — so you can choose the calendar year the income falls into, and shift it to whichever year suits your personal bracket.
  • Off-season attention. A June or September year-end gets worked on when your accountant has time to actually look at it, which is where planning happens rather than just compliance.
  • Your own workload spreads out — year-end paperwork doesn’t collide with your personal return.

Against it

  • Two calendars in your head, permanently. Corporate year ≠ personal year ≠ slip year. Every conversation needs a moment of translation, and it’s a common source of confusion for owners and bookkeepers alike.
  • Slips and GST don’t follow you. T4s and T5s remain calendar-year, so you still have a February deadline unrelated to your year-end. GST periods can usually be aligned — ask for it at registration.
  • Benchmarking gets harder. Industry data, lender covenants and comparables are almost all calendar-year.
  • The first stub period can be awkward — a short first year means a full set of fees for two months of activity.
Best forSeasonal businesses, anyone carrying inventory, businesses whose contracts renew on a cycle, and owners actively managing which year their personal income lands in.
Try it

Pick a year-end and see what it does to your calendar

Drag the slider to any month-end and the deadlines below update. Every date follows from that one choice — and the last panel tells you whether your bonus window gives you a choice of personal tax year.

Fiscal year-end December 31, 2026

Dates assume a fiscal year ending in 2026, and a CCPC claiming the small business deduction.

Fiscal year-end
Dec 31, 2026
The date everything else counts from.
Balance of tax owing
Mar 31, 2027
3 months after — interest runs from here, before the return is even due.
T2 return filed
Jun 30, 2027
6 months after, whether or not you owe anything.
Accrued bonus paid by
Jun 28, 2027
179 days after — miss it and the deduction is lost.

A corporation not claiming the small business deduction pays its balance two months after year-end rather than three. T4 and T5 slips are always due by the end of February for the preceding calendar year, whatever your fiscal year-end is — and your BC annual report runs off your incorporation anniversary, a third date again.

A few things people don’t think about until it’s locked in:

Don’t pick a month-end that lands in your busiest weeks — you’ll be counting inventory and chasing paperwork when you can least afford to. Ask to align your GST reporting period with your fiscal year at the time you register; retrofitting it later is a phone call you don’t need. If you’re incorporating mid-year, weigh a short first stub period (a clean start, but a full year’s fees for a few months) against a long one of up to 53 weeks. And remember your BC annual report runs off your incorporation anniversary, not your year-end — two dates to diarise, not one.

The list

What to actually do, in order

Incorporating is one afternoon of filing surrounded by a month of housekeeping. Here’s the sequence that keeps the housekeeping from turning into cleanup.

Before you file

Run the numbers and talk to your accountant CPA

Start with the sole proprietor vs. incorporation calculator so you arrive at the conversation with your own figures. Then decide the timing — incorporating part-way through a year means two sets of books for that year, which is sometimes worth it and sometimes worth waiting three months to avoid.

Agree the structure — on paper, before anyone drafts anything CPALawyer

Who owns shares, in what classes, in what proportions, and why. Whether a Holdco or a trust belongs in the picture now or later. Sketch it in the corporate structure builder and get your lawyer and accountant looking at the same diagram — this is the single highest-leverage hour in the whole process.

Decide how existing assets will move CPA

Equipment, vehicles, inventory, client lists, goodwill. If there are meaningful accrued gains, a Section 85 rollover needs to be planned before the transfer, not discovered after. If your assets are modest and close to their tax cost, this may be a non-issue — but confirm that rather than assuming it.

Choose the name and the year-end You

Submit a Name Request to BC Registries ($30) and check the name is actually available as a domain and on the platforms you use before you fall in love with it. Pick your fiscal year-end using the trade-offs above — and write the reason down, because someone will ask in three years.

Filing and first setup

Incorporate Lawyer

Articles, incorporation application ($350), first directors’ and shareholders’ resolutions, share subscriptions, share certificates and a minute book. Get a digital copy of everything and store it somewhere you’ll find it — a buyer’s lawyer will ask for the whole package one day.

Open the corporate bank account — and stop using the old one You

The single most valuable habit you can build in week one. Every dollar of business money runs through the corporate account from the changeover date. Mixed accounts are where shareholder loan problems come from, and untangling them a year later costs more in fees than the discipline costs you in inconvenience.

Register with CRA and set up My Business Account CPAYou

The corporation gets its own business number and a corporate income tax account (RC0001) automatically. You then add the program accounts you need: RP for payroll if you’ll take a salary or hire anyone, RT for GST/HST once you pass $30,000 of revenue in four consecutive quarters — or voluntarily from day one if you want to claim input tax credits on startup purchases — and RZ for information returns.

Set up My Business Account yourself and authorise your accountant through Represent a Client. And register the corporation separately with WorkSafeBC, for PST if you sell taxable goods, and for your municipal business licence — your proprietorship’s registrations don’t carry over.

Move everything that has your old name on it You

Insurance policies, leases, supplier and trade accounts, client contracts, merchant and payment processing, vehicle registration and financing, subscriptions and software. Anything left in the proprietorship’s name is a contract the corporation isn’t party to — which quietly undermines the limited liability you just paid for.

Update your website, branding and paperwork You

The full legal name, including “Ltd.” or “Inc.”, needs to appear on your invoices, contracts, quotes and website footer, and your GST number has to be on every invoice for your clients to claim their input tax credits. Refresh the email signatures, the proposal template, the signage and the vehicle wrap while you’re in there. It’s a good excuse to make the whole set consistent.

Start a clean set of books from day one CPA

A new file for the corporation, an opening balance sheet that reflects whatever came across from the proprietorship, and a final T2125 to close the proprietorship out. Don’t continue the old file with a new name — the corporation’s balance sheet has to be able to stand on its own from its first day. How that process works.

Once you’re running

Settle your compensation plan — salary, dividends, or both CPA

This is the decision you’ll revisit every year, and it’s not just about tax. Salary creates RRSP room and CPP contributions and is deductible to the company; dividends skip CPP but build no RRSP room, and they interact with childcare benefits and personal instalments differently. The salary vs. dividends calculator models the trade-off on your numbers.

Keep the shareholder loan account honest You

Every personal expense paid from the corporate account and every draw taken without a declared salary or dividend lands here. Review the balance quarterly, not at year-end — a balance owing to the company has to be cleared within a year of the year-end it arose in, or it becomes taxable income. The full mechanics.

Diarise the dates You

Year-end. Balance of tax three months later. T2 six months later. Slips at the end of February. BC annual report on your incorporation anniversary. GST on its own cycle. Personal instalments if your own tax owing has passed the threshold — the instalment schedule tool works out whether you’re in and what’s due when.

Book the year-end planning conversation before the year ends CPA

Almost every lever — the bonus accrual, the dividend mix, the capital purchase, the RRSP contribution — has to be pulled before your year-end date, not when the file arrives in your accountant’s inbox four months later. Six to eight weeks out is the right time.

Loose ends

Questions that come up every time

Should I incorporate provincially in BC or federally?

Most BC owner-managed businesses incorporate provincially under the BC Business Corporations Act. Federal incorporation gives nationwide name protection, but you still have to register extra-provincially in each province you actually operate in — including BC — which means a second set of filings and a second annual fee.

Unless you have a genuine multi-province footprint or a brand name you must lock down nationally, provincial is simpler and cheaper. You can continue a BC company federally later if the situation changes.

Can I just incorporate myself online?

Yes — BC Registries will take your $350 and your $30 name request without asking whether you’ve thought about share classes. The filing genuinely is straightforward.

What you’re buying from a lawyer is the structure underneath it: articles that don’t box you in, more than one class of shares so a spouse or a Holdco can be added without amending, and a minute book that exists. The most common reason we see people paying for a reorganization is a self-incorporation with a single class of common shares issued to one person.

Can I change my year-end later if I pick the wrong one?

Not freely. Your first T2 return effectively sets your fiscal year-end, and changing it afterwards requires CRA’s approval — generally granted only for a sound business reason, such as aligning with a new parent company or a genuine change in your business cycle. “It would save me tax” is specifically not one.

Which is why it’s worth ten minutes of thought at the start rather than a request letter later.

What happens to my sole proprietorship?

It ceases on the day the corporation takes over. You file a final T2125 with your personal return covering the stub period from January 1 to the changeover date, the assets either transfer at fair market value or roll across under Section 85, and the proprietorship’s GST account is closed or transferred.

Note the corporation needs its own GST number, business licence, WorkSafeBC registration and insurance — nothing carries over automatically.

Does incorporating really protect my personal assets?

Against ordinary trade creditors and most contractual claims against the business, yes — and that’s meaningful. But the exceptions are exactly the ones owner-managers run into: personal guarantees on your lease, line of credit and equipment financing; director liability for unremitted payroll source deductions and GST; unpaid wages and vacation pay; and your own negligence, which follows you personally whatever the company’s name is.

Treat incorporation as one layer of protection alongside good insurance, not as a replacement for it.

Do I have to pay myself a salary?

No. You can take dividends instead, or a mix. Salary is deductible to the corporation, creates RRSP contribution room and CPP entitlement, and requires payroll registration, monthly remittances and a T4. Dividends require none of that, cost no CPP, and build no RRSP room.

There’s no universal right answer — it depends on your income level, whether you want the RRSP room, how you feel about CPP, and whether you’re claiming benefits that test against net income. The salary vs. dividends calculator puts numbers on it.

When do I need to register for GST?

Once the corporation’s taxable revenue exceeds $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, registration is mandatory. The corporation is a new person for this test — your proprietorship’s history doesn’t carry over, and neither does its GST number.

Registering voluntarily from day one is often worth it anyway: you can claim input tax credits on your startup purchases, and business customers don’t care because they claim the GST back.

I have a business partner. What changes?

Everything gets more important. The share split, whether shares are held personally or through each partner’s own Holdco, and above all a shareholders’ agreement covering deadlock, departure, disability, death and how someone gets bought out.

Partners agree easily at the start, which is precisely the moment to write down what happens when they don’t. Retrofitting an agreement during a disagreement is expensive and rarely produces a fair result.

Thinking it through

Let’s work out whether it’s your year

Incorporating is a good decision at the right time and an expensive one a year early. Bring your numbers — profit, what you draw, where you want to be in five years — and we’ll work through the tax, the structure and the year-end together, then handle the setup end to end. Start with the incorporation calculator if you want a head start.

Book a 30-min chat Send us an email
A conversation starter, not advice. The rates, fees and ranges on this page are 2026 BC figures given for orientation, and every number here simplifies something. Whether incorporating helps you, what structure fits, and which year-end to choose all depend on facts this page can’t know — and some of these decisions are difficult to reverse. Use this to understand the shape of the decision, then let’s look at your actual situation before anything gets filed.
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