Accountant in Brooklin.

No. Most Brooklin clients do a mix. The first meeting is usually in person at our Whitby office (about 10 minutes down Baldwin or Thickson) so we can walk through your situation properly. After that, regular check-ins are by video for most clients, and year-end and tax-strategy meetings are in person again if you prefer.

Year-round: bookkeeping reconciled to your bank, payroll and source deductions if you have a crew, HST filings, and the quick-method evaluation that usually saves trades a few thousand dollars a year. Year-end: the corporate T2 and your personal T1 filed together, with vehicle, equipment and tool deductions set up so they hold up to CRA scrutiny. We build the cash-flow plan around a season that runs hard in summer and slows in winter.

You'll have a rental income and expenses schedule on your T1 from the year you start renting. Net rental income (gross rent minus mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, utilities you pay, repairs and management) is taxed at your marginal rate. We usually find deductions first-time landlords miss, flag whether to claim CCA (depreciation) based on your situation, and protect the principal residence designation on the home you moved out of.

Usually once your business income comfortably exceeds what you need to live on each year, because the small business deduction gives you a much lower corporate tax rate on the earnings you leave in the company. Your employment income, your spouse's income, your mortgage and your savings goals all factor in. We model both options with your real numbers in the first meeting.

Not always, and we'll tell you straight. If you're a sole proprietor with simple income and a few expenses, you can often file your own T1 with the business schedule for the first year or two. An accountant starts paying for itself once any of these is true: you've registered for HST, you have staff or subcontractors, you're weighing whether to incorporate, or you're leaving money in the business and want the tax planning that goes with it. Most Brooklin owners come to us right around that point, and we're happy to have the honest conversation about whether you're there yet.

It depends on how much work your situation actually needs, and we quote it as a fixed fee up front so there are no surprises. The main things that move the price are whether you're incorporated (a T2 corporate return is more than a sole-proprietor T1), whether you have HST filings and payroll, and how much monthly bookkeeping you want us to handle versus doing yourself. A straightforward personal return with a small side business sits at the low end; an incorporated business with staff, HST and monthly books sits higher. You'll get the exact number for your situation before any work starts.

Fixed-fee, quoted up front. You'll know the cost of your T1, any HST filings, the corporate side if you have one and any monthly bookkeeping before we start. No surprise invoices, no hourly billing.