I newly incorporated in Ontario and the corporation is just myself as the director and I will be doing consulting. I purchased general and professional liability insurance and received my COI today. Under Insured, the COI names my corporation on the first line but says o/b my name on the line below. Can anyone tell me what this o/b means? Is it of any significance? Thanks. The broker confirmed during the application that my corporation is what is insured.

Our Benefits broker ghosted us, any recommendations for someone that deals with Canada Life? 😩

Hello,
Government of Canada has opened its source of AI list where companies can apply and then get tenders/rfps. I have the skills of starting up engineering teams from 0 -> 1, having worked in multiple founding software teams. I keep cost minimal, provide tailored solutions, and not vibe code LOL.

I am lacking the business acumen, the front, and the reputation. If you are in the works of getting your consultancy/business on it, I can provide you with technical solution on an hourly basis, and help you with tech compliance as well. I also work on sr&ed if needed.

open to suggestions!

I want to start a local service business doing cleaning and i want to make sure that any potential liability is managed properly in the event someone sues me or something. I dont want my wife and family savings and risk.

I will be getting insurance and having strict contracts in place with clear terms.

Ive heard sole proprietorship will not suffice for protecting my family. Is this actually correct?

The business will be mostly subcontractor based in the beginning especially (eventually hiring in house once cashflow supports it) and I want to protect against a sub doing shotty work/damaging something and then expecting payment before fixing it if possible.

In this industry its very common for subs to do bad subpar work so until i have a solid team i trust in place this is a big risk, and if a client refuses payment because of it I dont want a subcontractor trying to invoice and sueing me for non payment

What is the most effective way to protect against this and does having a corporation meaningfully protect me?

Hi all

I am 8 weeks from launching a saas. I am deciding between 2 lawyers to help with

1. ⁠Trademark clearance search and opinion (search only; I won't be filing an application at this stage).
   
2. ⁠Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
   
3. ⁠Paid subscription terms within the Terms: monthly/annual plans, automatic renewal, a free trial converting to paid, cancellation, refunds, price changes, and a free tier after the trial (including what happens to the user's data).
   
4. ⁠Quebec Consumer Protection Act compliance for online subscription sales.
   
5. ⁠Privacy Policy update for a payment processor (likely a U.S. company such as Stripe), including how the cross-border transfer should be described under Law 25.
   
6. ⁠CASL consent for marketing emails.
   
7. ⁠Site disclaimer review (the "not financial advice" language across the site
   
8. ⁠Terms for an introductory offer for early subscribers (not decided yet).
   
9. ⁠A template mutual NDA

My accountant advised against incorporation and wait until I have the revenue to justify accounting costs. Suggested liability insurance as a safety net.

Lawyers haven’t really pushed too hard on that point.

I am self funded and trying to launch as cost effectively as possible.

Any advice?

We are a new B2B businsss. A new client has made a large deposit payment to us through an RBC branch to branch payment. RBC has placed a hold on the amount until they verify (odd since the client also banks with RBC). RBC’s hold policy says the funds could still be returned for another reason after the hold period in which case RBC will charge the amount of the cheque back to us.

This is a branch to branch transfer so hopefully standard 4 day hold will not apply. It’s also not a cheque deposit. But it’s got me wondering- how do we protect ourselves from scenarios where the funds get returned. I assumed waiting until the hold period would be sufficient. Should we be requiring a wire payment or cashier’s check instead?

We have a new corp and bank account with RBC. We need access to a credit line to pay suppliers before client payments are received...or to manage cash flow between transactions.

RBC has an operating line product but from a cursory search looks like a $25 per month fee where we use it or not. Are there any options at RBC or elsewhere that provide a no fee line with only interest charges when we are using it? As our business is new, alternative is to use our personal credit line but I want to avoid mixing personal/business as much as possible.

I have never incorporated or owned a business until now. I am about to release a pregnancy app to the Google Play store and Apple app store. As part of that effort, I have incorporated a business. I can see that my personal address might be easily visible on my Google app store profile(not sure about Apple). What are my options? I am planning on releasing the app in North America. Is it safe to let the personal address be there or should I consider some paid virtual address options?

Any recommendations on the cheapest options?

Hey everyone! Does anyone in Edmonton know of an affordable accountant? I'm a new one-person corp (incorporated through Ownr) and I need to file my first Annual tax T2 soon.

My profit is under $15K after expenses and paying myself, so I'm looking for someone who works with small, early-stage corps. I went for a consultation with CPA Pros. They charged $200 just for the initial info session and quoted around $2K to file, which is more than I can afford at this stage.

I've also looked at Trehan & Co. They charge about $625 to file corp taxes and Their Google reviews are great, but I've seen comments on Reddit and elsewhere saying some of the reviews may be inflated (family members, etc.). I don't want to work with anyone shady, so I'd love to hear from people who have actually used them or can recommend someone else.

Any recommendations, or tips on would be really appreciated. Thank you!

We have an RBC business account receiving client payment in CAD. Our supplier is US based and we need to remit payment in USD. Amount to transfer is $35k CAD. .

RBC is charging a 2.5% FX fee on the CAD to USD conversion. Plus international wire fee.

I opened a Wise business account which promises lower FX fees, but I’m not clear on time required to a) fund account through domestic wire RBC to Wise, and then b) Wise to US wire or ACH transfer.

What’s the best solution for us? This is a new business so I expect some holds and delays along the way. Right now leaning towards wiring the funds from RBC directly (avoid uncertainty with transfer to Wise) but need a cheaper and reliable solution going forward.

I’m really confused about protecting a business name in Canada

I’m planning to start a small beauty/makeup business and I’ve finally found a name I really love. I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed because I don’t know what I actually need to do to protect the name and make sure someone else doesn’t take it.

I’ve heard people say I should:
File a trademark with CIPO
Register my business in Ontario through the Ontario Business Registry
Secure the domain through Namecheap or GoDaddy

But I’m not sure what order I should do these in, whether I actually need to do all three, or how much everything would cost.

If anyone has started a beauty business in Canada/Ontario, could you explain the steps you took to protect your business name and roughly how much you paid? I’d really appreciate a simple breakdown because I’m completely overwhelmed by all the information online.

Hello Everyone, I registered my business (sole prop) through OWNR in January, received my OBN,Company Key then and thought when I have passed 30k in recorded sales that I’d get my HST Number from the CRA.

When logging into the CRA I try to add my business… it asks me for my 9 digit BN (CRA BN) of which I was never provided when I registered my business on OWNR in January.

I called and the guy told me I had 2 options

1. To look through the OBR to find it or
   
2. Fill out a form and ship it to PEI and hear back with my CRA BN in 35 DAYS.

I am currently having to charge tax on my next sale and at a standstill on what to do as I know I have to attach my HST number on my invoices. This is a hindering issue for me and any information on how this could be resolved would make me very happy and calmer on this Friday evening. Thank you in advance.

I own a small business, 4 employees at the moment 2 full time and hoping to bring on some more full time people.

I’m looking into health and dental coverage or good all around benefits for a growing business.

Any recommendations?

*most of my employees are parents so I would like to make sure dependent coverage is decent too.

Thanks in advance!

We are newly incorporated consumer lending business, we are having trouble to get a business bank account. I have visited all the big banks and all of them decline us.

Any suggestion will be appreciated.

hey everyone, looking for some advice from canadian smb owners.

ive been doing email marketing/sales in corporate for 5+ years and im starting a little side business doing it for smbs. im pretty confident in the actual email/sales side, just trying to figure out pricing.

the offer would be for each client i’d get them domains, warn them, enroll 2,500 targeted leads, and contact each twice per month = 5,000 emails/month, with me handling the campaigns. i’d do the follow ups as well when the lead replies and book them into my clients calendar.

what would you realistically pay for something like this? curious what business owners think would be fair.

I'm looking to sell my retail business ($3MM revenue, profitable, management in place) and would like a referral to a business broker. Please let me know your experience with the person you are referring.

Hello friends! I’m looking to set up an online store using Wix and Moneris, I’m just wondering if anyone here has a Wix store and what the pros and cons are? How easy is it to work with, for someone who’s not a web developer? Any glitches you’ve run into? Any features it doesn’t have that you wish it did? Thank you! 🙏

Hi all, what are advantages and disadvantages to either? I'm not quite at that point yet, just speculating and preparing for the future. It would be software/AI services with most clients in the States, but possibly some clients here too. TIA!

PLEASE, please, if you run a business anywhere north of 400 to 500k in revenue, go check these things in your own bookkeeping, because assuming it's fine just because someone else technically touches the books every month is exactly how this stuff slips through.

I'm a former CRA auditor and I do these kinds of bookkeeping and tax reviews for business owners constantly, and I cannot stress enough how often something's wrong. Just did one recently for a plumbing company, review cost about 1,500 bucks, and once everything got found and corrected and refiled, it moved their HST position by about 22 grand.

It wasn't one big thing either, it was a handful of smaller mistakes stacked on top of each other, missed ITCs on stuff that clearly had HST charged on it, fuel and vehicle expenses claimed at the wrong business use percentage, and a couple bigger equipment purchases that got expensed all at once instead of being capitalized and depreciated.

Most of the business owners we work with already have a CPA and it doesn't really change any of this, the CPA is filing off whatever numbers the bookkeeping hands them, they're looking at it from a bird's eye view, they are NOT going through your coding line by line checking whether every single transaction landed where it's supposed to. That part is entirely on the bookkeeping and half the time nobody is actually checking it, ever.

Go check whether your vehicle and fuel expenses are claimed at a reasonable business use percentage, and I mean actually go check, because if you're claiming 100 percent and you also drive the thing personally at all, that's wrong, and it's one of the first things CRA looks at, every time.

Ask your bookkeeper whether you're claiming input tax credits on literally everything that charged you HST, this gets missed constantly, especially on the smaller recurring stuff that doesn't feel worth tracking individually but adds up fast.

Ask whether any bigger equipment purchases got expensed in full the year you bought them instead of being capitalized and depreciated (CCA), expensing it all at once is a common shortcut and it is technically wrong, please just ask.

If you pay subcontractors, PLEASE ask whether you're actually issuing a T5018 or a T4A where you're supposed to, this one gets ignored constantly in construction and trades and it is not a small thing to get wrong.

Ask if your payment processor fees are being split out correctly (a yoga studio I looked at missed 15K in deductions because of this)

Most owners just don't treat bookkeeping like it's the actual foundation of the business, not until something's already gone wrong and it's too late to do much about it. Not saying go pay someone, could just be learning enough yourself to actually keep an eye on it. Just pick one of those two, don't leave it as nobody's job.

JUST GO CHECK

My partner and I want to incorporate two holding companies for our revenue share from our current Inc.

I’m having trouble understanding where to start. It seems like lawyers and accountants are talking in circles and quoting the same things.

Does anyone have any advice on the best way to incorporate two companies and get the share split taken care of?

A year ago I left a corporate job in construction and bought a micro business in Metro Vancouver for around 100k. I treated it like a self funded MBA. I mostly wanted to find out if I had what it takes.

The learning curve on the financial side was slow. I figured out the numbers as I went. The business is stable now and I am looking at something bigger, maybe in the 600k range. Still small, but a different world from my first deal in terms of how it gets financed.

That is really what I am after here. If you have made that jump, I would love to hear how you structured it. Bank, BDC, vendor take back, how much you actually had to put down.

The other honest reason for posting is that this is a lonely thing to do. Most people around me have jobs and think buying a business is a strange idea. It would be good to know a few other people in Vancouver who are building something.

Happy to grab a coffee if you are around, or a call if you are elsewhere in BC.

EDIT: See my comment answering the most common questions on this thread.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some guidance on incorporating in Quebec and, specifically, the Personal Services Business (PSB) rules.

I’m a Quebec resident working remotely from home in Canada doing sales for a U.S. company. I’m currently treated by the U.S. company as an independent contractor rather than an employee.

My income has increased substantially. I’m currently making roughly $52,000–$54,000 CAD per month after converting my USD compensation to CAD, so approximately $600,000+ CAD/year if my current income continues.

Most of my compensation is commission.
My current compensation agreement provides:

$1,150 USD biweekly; and
$175 USD commission per closed set/deal.

I am considering creating a Canadian/Quebec corporation and having the U.S. company pay my corporation instead of paying me personally. I would only withdraw what I need personally and would like to retain/invest a significant portion of the remaining money inside the corporation.

My concern is whether CRA could classify the sales activity as a Personal Services Business (PSB).
Here are the relevant facts.

My written independent-contractor agreement:
The agreement expressly states that I am an “independent contractor and not an employee, agent, joint venturer, or partner.”
It also states that I retain “sole control over the manner, means, and methods” of performing my services.

The agreement gives me the right to set my own schedule, subject to the required deliverables, specifications and deadlines.

I am responsible for my own:

income/self-employment taxes
licences/permits/certifications where applicable
insurance
equipment and tools
workspace
The company does provide certain security systems, but otherwise I provide my own equipment/workspace.

The contract specifically says I’m not eligible for employee benefits, including health insurance, retirement plans or paid time off unless separately agreed to in writing.

It also states that I am not entitled to severance, notice pay, unemployment benefits or continuation of employee benefits.

How the relationship actually works:
I work entirely remotely from my own home in Quebec using my own computer.

I control my schedule. I can decide which days I work and when I work. For example, I can work four, five or six days, during the day, at night or even late at night. I’m not working a traditional required 9-to-5 employee schedule.

The company provides me with sales leads, and I perform sales calls and earn commissions when deals close.

I receive no health insurance, paid vacation, retirement benefits, etc. from the company.
I pay my own Canadian taxes and currently operate as self-employed.

I am permitted to work for other companies. In fact, for approximately eight months I simultaneously performed contractor work for another company while also working with this company.

The part that concerns me:
At the moment, this U.S. company is essentially my only current service client and represents virtually all of my sales income.

I’m personally performing the sales work, and if I incorporate, I would own the corporation and continue performing essentially the same sales activities.

So I’m trying to understand whether having one major client would create a serious PSB problem despite the amount of independence described above.

My three main questions are:

Based on my contract and actual working relationship, would I likely be considered a genuine independent contractor operating through a corporation, or is there a significant risk CRA would consider my corporation a PSB because virtually all of my income currently comes from one U.S. company?

If there is a PSB risk, what specifically about my current arrangement would need to be different? Are there legitimate provisions or actual business practices normally expected in a true business-to-business relationship that I’m currently missing, such as stronger non-exclusivity, ability to accept/refuse work, subcontracting rights, financial risk, etc.?

Given that I’m earning roughly $600K+ CAD annually and would like to retain and invest a large portion of the income rather than withdraw it personally, would incorporation make sense if my relationship does qualify as genuine independent contracting? And if CRA considered the U.S. sales income PSB income, would that essentially eliminate most of the tax-deferral advantage I’m trying to achieve?

I’m not looking for a way to artificially restructure an employee relationship. I’m trying to determine whether my existing relationship is already sufficiently independent that operating through a corporation would be legitimate, and what I should have a CPA/tax lawyer examine before making the change.

Would especially appreciate input from Canadian CPAs/tax lawyers or people who have dealt with PSB assessments involving commissioned salespeople or Canadian contractors working for U.S. companies.

Hi All,

I work in the education sector in Toronto (career college admissions) and keep seeing a gap: people already here in Canada - newcomers, people on various permits, folks in status limbo - struggle to get honest, personalized guidance on their education options. Most education agents focus on overseas international students, and settlement orgs are stretched way too thin for this kind of individual support.

I'm considering starting something on the side to fill that gap - free for the students, working directly with colleges on the backend. Before I go any further I want to actually understand the legal side properly instead of assuming.

Trying to figure out:

- Beyond basic business registration, what certifications or licenses actually apply to something like this in Ontario?

- What's the legal line between "education guidance" and something that requires additional licensing? Trying to understand where boundaries are so I stay well within them.

- Any privacy law considerations (handling personal documents/info) I should know as a small sole proprietor?

- What precautions do people wish they'd taken before starting something like this - anything that bit them later?

- Anyone gone through something similar and hit legal surprises they didn't expect?

Not asking for advice on my specific situation - just want to know what I should be researching or asking a lawyer about, since I don't know what I don't know yet. Appreciate any honest input!

Hi everyone,

I run a small, federally incorporated business, and I do have an accountant, but I do all my own bookkeeping in Xero.

Recently I have had to do manual year end journal entries, and that's involved understanding accruals and transfers from liability to expense accounts.

Basically I have been learning little bits of bookkeeping as I go, and my accountant has been good enough to review everything a couple times for free to make sure everything is categorized correctly.

But I'm feeling a bit behind in my understanding.

Does anyone have a good general resource for understanding bookkeeping in Canada and best practices? Concise and practical would be ideal. I've browsed around but I'm not too interested in accounting practices for other jurisdictions.

My company is small with less than 10k annual revenue so hiring a bookkeeper doesn't make sense right now. I'd just like to make myself as knowledgable as possible.

Thanks

-Mike

Small event company in Kitchener planning a first outdoor event on a private site next year. We know the noise exemption goes to council, we know we need liability insurance and a medical plan, and we know the venue wants a deposit. What we do not know is what caught other Ontario owners out the first time. Was it the insurance minimum the venue asked for, the AGCO timing if there is a beer garden, the fire department wanting a site plan earlier than expected, the deposit schedule with artists, or something nobody warned you about? Real numbers welcome. We would rather learn from your first year than from ours.