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Gondaliya CPA

Campground Corporate Tax Experts

Tax Accountant for Campgrounds in Ontario and Across Canada

We treat a short-term stay of under one month as a taxable supply and charge 13% on it, determine and document the treatment where a stay runs longer than that instead of assuming an answer, record the accommodation tax your municipality levies as money held in trust rather than sales, release the seasonal fees banked in March across the camping season they buy, apply tax on a deposit when the deposit lands against the invoice, and split your water, septic, road and washroom spending between capital and repair before the return is filed. Whether you run a tent and trailer campground, a waterfront property with cabins and yurts, a group and youth camping ground or a rural family campground, we handle the season, the sites and the infrastructure — with AFFORDABLE flat fees.

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AFFORDABLE Campground Tax Accountant

A campground earns its year in about fifteen weeks and pays for it in fifty-two. The gate money arrives between the May long weekend and Thanksgiving; the property tax, the septic contract, the water system, the road gravel, the loan principal and the insurance arrive regardless of whether anybody is on site. That compression is the whole business, and it decides every question an owner actually has: whether the washroom rebuild pays for itself, what a site earns once services and staffing are loaded against it, and whether the seasonal cheques banked in March are profit or a liability owed across the entire summer. Two tax points shape the books more than anything else. A short-term stay of under one month is a taxable supply for GST/HST, charged at 13% in Ontario, while a stay that runs longer than a month is not automatically the same answer and has to be determined on the facts of that arrangement rather than assumed. And where a municipality levies an accommodation tax, the money is collected in trust and remitted, never earned. At Gondaliya CPA, we specialize in seasonal revenue recognition, short-term accommodation tax and infrastructure capital cost allowance for campgrounds, providing AFFORDABLE flat-fee support that keeps you CRA-compliant and stops you paying more tax than you owe.

As a campground accountant, we work with tent and trailer campgrounds, waterfront properties with cabins and yurts, group and youth camping grounds and rural family campgrounds across Ontario, with year-round support rather than a once-a-year scramble. We tell you what the season actually earned, what your infrastructure is worth on the books, and where your accommodation tax and payroll exposure sits.

Let us handle the numbers so you can focus on the season and the property.

Gondaliya CPA team - accounting and tax services for campgrounds

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Accounting That Understands How a Campground Actually Works

A campground carries financial pressures a year-round business never faces. You take most of your money in a fifteen-week window and pay bills for fifty-two, you bank seasonal fees months before you deliver the camping they buy, you collect a tax that was never yours to earn, and the largest cheques you write go into wells, beds, poles and gravel that CRA reads as capital. Gondaliya CPA builds the accounting around that calendar rather than against it, for campground owners right across Ontario.

Fifteen Weeks, Fifty-Two Bills

The gate earns from the May long weekend to Thanksgiving. Property tax, insurance, loan principal and the septic contract arrive in all twelve months.

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The Under-One-Month Line

A short-term stay of under one month is a taxable supply at 13%. Where a stay runs longer, the treatment must be determined on its own facts.

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Tax You Collect, Not Earn

Where your municipality levies an accommodation tax, it is collected in trust and remitted. Running it through sales reports revenue you never had.

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Spring Cheques, Summer Revenue

Seasonal fees banked in March are deferred revenue, released across the camping they buy, not income on the day the cheque cleared.

Stay Compliant and Minimize Your Campground Tax

A campground that files everything on time and a campground that pays the least legal tax are, in practice, the same campground. Every income tax, HST and accommodation tax deadline is calendared and met, and every site, infrastructure and payroll dollar the return permits is claimed, so nothing slips and nothing draws a second look.

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Sites, Store and the Accommodation Tax

A short-term stay of under one month is a taxable supply, so once your taxable revenue passes the $30,000 small-supplier threshold over four consecutive calendar quarters you must register and charge 13% on nightly and weekly sites. Where a stay runs longer than a month the answer does not follow automatically; it has to be determined on the facts of that arrangement and documented in the file. Firewood, propane and store goods are ordinary taxable retail. Where your municipality levies an accommodation tax — the rate runs to roughly 4% on transient stays in many Ontario municipalities — you are holding somebody else money: it goes to a trust liability on collection, gets remitted, and never touches the income line. Your municipal licence, water testing, septic servicing and inspection fees are real annual costs that belong in the ledger.

CRA Obligations for Campgrounds

Staying compliant with CRA means far more than one return a year. We manage GST34 returns with short-term sites at 13%, deposits handled under ETA subsection 168(9), seasonal fees carried as deferred revenue and released across the season, buildings in Class 1, equipment and furnishings in Class 8 at 20% and internal roads and surfaces in Class 17, capital separated from repair on water, septic and electrical work, WSIB from the first hire, T4 and T4A slips filed, records of employment issued when the season ends, and source deductions reconciled to the PD7A. Those are the lines a reviewer turns to before anything else once a campground file is opened.

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Year-End Deliverables for Campgrounds

At year-end, a campground corporation needs a proper trial balance and financial statements that carry the land and the buildings separately from the roads, the services and the equipment, the deferred revenue on seasonal fees stated as the liability it actually is, the accommodation tax shown as a trust balance rather than revenue, and receivables on group bookings set out, plus a T2 with GIFI that ties to your HST returns. The lender reads the land and the improvements very differently, so that split is not cosmetic. Our team prepares every deliverable on time.

Accounting & Tax Experts for Campgrounds

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Why Choose Our Accounting Services for Campgrounds?

1
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Tax Planning — Infrastructure & Capital Cost Allowance

We know the property: Class 1 buildings, Class 8 at 20% on equipment and furnishings, Class 17 on roads and surfaces, and capital kept apart from repair. We protect the $500,000 Small Business Deduction.

2
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Consulting — Season Costing & Revenue Mix

Our bookkeeping separates site, cabin, group and store revenue, releases seasonal fees across the season they buy, and shows what the year really earned once off-season costs are loaded against it.

3
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CRA Representation — Accommodation & Capital Audit

When CRA questions your short-term accommodation position or a capital-versus-repair call on the water and septic systems, we prepare the response and pursue relief on Form RC4288 where a prior error caused the penalties.

4
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Bookkeeping — Off-Season Cash Flow & Sale

We build the cash plan that carries a fifteen-week business through fifty-two weeks of bills, produce the statements your lender reads, and model the sale of the property years ahead.

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Campground Tax and Accounting Services in Ontario

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Corporate Tax Filing (T2) for Campgrounds

Professional T2 preparation with buildings in Class 1, roads and surfaces in Class 17, seasonal fees carried as deferred revenue, and CRA compliance on every line.

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Bookkeeping & Accounting for Campgrounds

Site, cabin, group and store revenue tracked separately, the accommodation tax held as a trust liability, and financial statements built from reconciled records.

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Payroll Services for Campgrounds

Seasonal crew payroll with WSIB from the first hire, PD7A remittances, T4 and T4A slips filed on time, and records of employment issued at season end.

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GST/HST Filing for Campgrounds

AFFORDABLE HST filing with short-term sites taxed at 13%, longer arrangements determined on their facts and documented, and every input tax credit recovered.

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Tax Planning for Campgrounds

Smart planning on infrastructure timing across Class 1, Class 8 and Class 17, the Small Business Deduction, and the sale of the property years ahead.

Corporate Catch-Up Filing for Campgrounds

Overdue T2 and HST years filed in order, the capital pools and season records rebuilt from source documents, and your CRA standing restored.

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CRA Audit Resolution for Campgrounds

Expert support on short-term accommodation, capital-versus-repair and seasonal payroll audits, handled with confidence from the very first CRA letter.

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CPA Financial Statements (Notice to Reader) for Campgrounds

CPA-compiled financial statements your lender accepts, carrying land, buildings, surfaces and equipment separately at net book value.

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Incorporation Services for Campgrounds

NUANS search, articles, share structure and CRA account setup, plus the section 85 rollover that moves the property in at elected amounts.

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Catch-Up Bookkeeping Services for Campgrounds

Seasons of gate sheets, reservation exports, supplier invoices and payroll reconstructed and reconciled, so your asset schedule is finally accurate.

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US Corporation & LLC Tax Filing for Campgrounds

Filing for campground families with an American in the ownership, non-resident shareholders, Part XIII withholding, NR4 slips or foreign property to report.

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Voluntary Disclosure Program for Campgrounds

Come forward on unremitted accommodation tax, HST never billed or summer crew paid in cash before CRA calls, cancelling penalties through a Voluntary Disclosures Program application.

Accounting & Tax Services Tailored for Campgrounds

Real, practitioner-level CPA expertise for tent and trailer campgrounds, waterfront properties with cabins and yurts, group and youth camping grounds and rural family campgrounds across Ontario — built for a business that earns in fifteen weeks and pays for it across fifty-two.

  • We prepare your T2 with GIFI on Schedule 100 and Schedule 125, keeping site fees, cabin and yurt bookings, store and firewood sales and group-area rentals on their own lines so CRA reads your campground the way it actually earns.
  • We claim capital cost allowance on Schedule 8 with the washroom block, store and office buildings in Class 1, site furnishings, mowers and maintenance equipment in Class 8 at 20%, and your internal roads and hard surfaces in Class 17.
  • We carry the seasonal fees banked in March as deferred revenue on the balance sheet and release them across the months of camping they buy, so the T2 reports the season you delivered rather than the day the cheque cleared.
  • We split your water, septic and electrical spending between capital and repair before filing, because a $60,000 well and distribution replacement is capital while the season chlorination, testing and pump servicing is deductible in the year you pay it.
  • A mower, a service vehicle or a block of site furnishings that leaves the property is a disposal, so we settle the recapture against undepreciated capital cost and take the terminal loss where a class empties below its balance.
  • We build your chart of accounts so nightly site fees, seasonal fees, cabin and yurt bookings, group-area rentals, store and firewood sales and the accommodation tax each sit on their own line rather than in one blended camping total.
  • We post the accommodation tax you collect to a liability account rather than to sales, so the roughly 4% held for the municipality never inflates the revenue you are taxed on and never disappears before the remittance is due.
  • We reconcile your reservation system to the bank every month, matching Campspot, CampLife or Firefly bookings against deposits, so a $3,000 gap between what the gate recorded and what landed is found in July rather than the following March.
  • We hold the seasonal fees collected in spring in deferred revenue and release them month by month across the camping season, because a $180,000 spring intake is a liability you owe in campsites, not profit earned in April.
  • Fuel, propane, chlorine, gravel and repair invoices go into Dext as they arrive and get reconciled every month, which keeps the six years of records ITA section 230 asks for and stops credits vanishing into an off-season shoebox.
  • We test whether your gate staff, groundskeepers and washroom cleaners are employees or contractors on the real facts of control, tools and financial risk, because a large casual-labour line with nothing behind it is what a payroll auditor opens first.
  • We run seasonal payroll in Wagepoint, withholding income tax, CPP and EI and remitting on the PD7A by the 15th of the following month, because the graduated late-remittance penalty reaches 10%, which at the top of that scale is $900 on a $9,000 remittance.
  • We issue records of employment when the season ends and your summer crew leave, because most of them will file for benefits that autumn and a missing record turns into a phone call you do not want in October.
  • We register your WSIB coverage before the first hire, because mowing, tree work, pool and beach supervision and washroom cleaning are exactly the activities an unregistered employer cannot afford an injury on.
  • February closes the payroll year: the T4 slips and Summary are filed by its last day, proved back against what the campground actually sent CRA on the PD7A, and Ontario wages are checked for the $1,000,000 Employer Health Tax exemption.
  • A short-term stay of under one month is a taxable supply, so we register you once taxable revenue passes $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters and charge 13% in Ontario on nightly and weekly sites.
  • Where a stay runs longer than a month the treatment is not automatically the same, so we read the actual agreement, make the determination on its facts and document it in your file rather than letting a price list decide it.
  • Store goods, firewood and propane are ordinary taxable retail at 13% and belong in their own department with their own margin, rather than folded into site revenue where nobody can see what the shop actually earns across a season.
  • Taking a deposit is not the same as being paid, so ETA subsection 168(9) puts the tax at the moment you apply that money to the invoice rather than the March afternoon a camper phones to hold a week.
  • We recover the input tax credits on your well and septic work, road gravel, mowers, propane, store inventory, electricity and equipment repairs, which on a campground rebuilding a washroom block is often $20,000 or more in one filing year.
  • We time washroom, road and electrical upgrades against your fiscal year-end so the capital cost allowance lands in a year it is worth something, rather than in a year the season already left you with nothing to shelter.
  • Owner compensation gets planned rather than guessed: we decide each year how much comes out as T4 wage, how much as dividends and how much stays in the company at roughly 12.2% instead of a personal rate that tops out at 53.53%.
  • We keep active income inside the $500,000 Small Business Deduction limit under ITA section 125 and watch the associated-corporation rules where the land sits in one company and the camping operation runs in another.
  • We build the off-season cash plan, because a business that earns in fifteen weeks still pays property tax, insurance, loan principal and electricity for fifty-two, and the instalments CRA expects do not pause between Thanksgiving and May.
  • A campground is usually sold once, so we start the $1.25M Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption work under ITA 110.6 two years before you list, clearing investments and surplus cash off the balance sheet while there is still time.
  • We reconstruct site fees, seasonal fees, cabin bookings and store sales from bank deposits, the reservation system and the gate records across your unfiled years, rebuilding the six years of records ITA section 230 requires.
  • The penalty on a late T2 starts at 5% of the balance owing and adds 1% for each month it stays unfiled, to a twelve-month ceiling, so the oldest year goes in first and the compounding stops there.
  • We rebuild the capital cost allowance pools across the missing years, putting buildings in Class 1, equipment and furnishings in Class 8 at 20% and internal roads and surfaces in Class 17, which on a $750,000 asset base recovers deduction nobody ever claimed.
  • We separate the accommodation tax collected from the sales recorded across the backlog, because a catch-up filing that ran it through revenue reports income the campground never had and overstates tax on money owed to the municipality.
  • Where the arrears are large, we go in through the Voluntary Disclosures Program on Form RC199 before CRA reaches you, because acceptance cancels the penalties outright and can remove part of the interest on the oldest years.
  • When CRA questions the HST on your sites, we produce the registrations, the stay lengths and the agreements behind each supply, because the under-one-month boundary is exactly where a campground review begins.
  • Where longer arrangements are in the file, we show the determination that was made, the facts it rested on and the date it was documented, instead of leaving a reviewer to assume the campground simply stopped charging tax.
  • When capital and repair is the issue, we set out what was replaced, what was maintained and what was upgraded on the water, septic and electrical systems, with the invoices and the scope behind every line.
  • On a full audit we take over the correspondence and answer every revenue, payroll and asset query inside the stated deadline, keeping a one-season look from widening into the three earlier years CRA remains entitled to reopen.
  • A reassessment gets a Notice of Objection inside the 90-day window, and where a prior bookkeeper mistake created the penalties and interest we pursue relief on Form RC4288, which on a neglected file can be worth $15,000 on its own.
  • We prepare the CSRS 4200 compilation engagement statements a lender asks for across two fiscal years, which is what a campground needs when it refinances the property or borrows to rebuild a washroom block.
  • Your compiled balance sheet carries land, buildings, roads and equipment separately at net book value, because a lender underwriting a campground reads the land and the improvements very differently from the mowers.
  • The deferred revenue you are holding on seasonal fees shows as the liability it is, so the lender sees that a strong March bank balance is money owed in campsites rather than profit already earned.
  • We build the statement of operations with site revenue, cabin and group bookings, store and firewood margin and off-season costs classified the same way across both years and tied to the T2 you filed with CRA.
  • Compiled statements land within 30 days of us having your records and the year T2 figures, because a spring financing decision on a $400,000 infrastructure project cannot sit waiting on an accountant.
  • We incorporate your campground in Ontario or federally, giving you limited liability across a property the public walks on and roughly the 12.2% Ontario small-business rate on the first $500,000 of active income against up to 53.53% personally.
  • We complete the section 85 rollover on Form T2057, moving the land, buildings, roads, equipment and goodwill into the corporation at elected amounts so a straight transfer does not trigger the capital gain.
  • We set the opening Class 1, Class 8 and Class 17 schedules from the rollover, so the corporation begins with an asset base that is documented rather than reconstructed from memory five years later.
  • We open the corporation CRA Business Number, HST and payroll accounts inside the first 30 days and make sure the municipal accommodation tax account, your insurance and your utility accounts move to the new entity before the season starts.
  • We set the chart of accounts with site, cabin, group and store revenue separated, the accommodation tax as a trust liability and seasonal fees in deferred revenue from the first booking, so the records build correctly from day one.
  • We rebuild months or years of neglected books from bank deposits, the reservation system, gate sheets and supplier invoices, so a campground that ran three seasons on a cash box and a notebook finally has a ledger.
  • We rebuild the asset schedule line by line from purchase invoices and split it across Class 1, Class 8 and Class 17, which is almost always wrong or missing entirely when we inherit a campground file.
  • We pull the accommodation tax back out of revenue across the caught-up months and restate it as a liability, so the campground stops paying income tax on roughly 4% that was never its money.
  • We recover the input tax credits buried in unentered gravel, lumber, propane, well and septic invoices, which on a campground that spent two years catching up on infrastructure regularly runs past $25,000.
  • Summer wages and casual-labour cheques get matched back to the PD7A and to the T4 and T4A filings across every caught-up month, so the T2 rests on what the crew were paid rather than on an estimate.
  • Where a US visitor pays for a site in Ontario, the supply happened here and carries Ontario tax, so we do not let a foreign billing address turn a domestic camping stay into a zero-rated one.
  • A dividend paid to a shareholder living outside Canada carries Part XIII withholding at 25% unless a treaty lowers it, and we prepare the NR4 slips that have to follow that payment out of the country.
  • We file Form T1135 where the owners foreign property passes the $100,000 threshold, which catches more campground families than they expect once a Florida condo or a US account is in the picture.
  • An American shareholder or an owner holding US citizenship changes the whole picture, so we line the Canadian and US filings up together rather than letting each be prepared in isolation and discovering the overlap years later.
  • We reconcile the two sets of returns so foreign tax credits actually land, and tax paid once on the same income offsets tax in the other country instead of being written off as a cost of doing business.
  • We bring a campground forward where the accommodation tax was collected from campers but reported as revenue and never remitted, because money held in trust and then spent is the exposure a disclosure is built to fix.
  • We disclose HST that should have been charged on sites, cabins and the store after taxable revenue passed $30,000, calculating the 13% never billed and the years it quietly accumulated across.
  • We come forward on summer crew paid in cash for years with no T4 slips, no source deductions and no records of employment, because that exposure grows every season it is left alone.
  • We file the submission on Form RC199 with a full reconstruction from the reservation system, gate records and bank statements, so a campground that outgrew its bookkeeping is not handed an arbitrary assessment instead.
  • We confirm the disclosure is genuinely voluntary, complete and at least one year past due before it goes in, because those are the conditions that make it valid and turn a prosecution risk into a managed $30,000 correction.

Campground Season & Tax Check

Six quick questions on your HST on sites, the under-one-month boundary, the accommodation tax you hold in trust, your seasonal fees, your capital pools and whether it is time to incorporate. No fee shown.

1. Are you charging 13% HST on stays of under one month?

2. Has the treatment of stays running longer than a month been determined and documented?

3. Is the accommodation tax you collect recorded as a liability rather than revenue?

4. Are seasonal fees carried as deferred revenue and released across the season?

5. Are buildings, surfaces and equipment in separate capital cost allowance classes?

6. Is your campground incorporated?

Free CPA Consultation for Campgrounds

Case Studies: Campground Accounting & Tax

Parry Sound Waterfront Campground — The Spring Cheque Problem

The problem: A waterfront campground near Parry Sound banked its whole spring seasonal intake in March, and the bookkeeper recorded every dollar of it as March income. The internal statements showed a spectacular first quarter and a long loss afterwards, the owners could never say whether a season had actually made money, and because the fiscal year-end fell in August the corporation had twice reported income it had not yet earned and funded instalments a full year ahead of need. Nothing at all was carried as a liability, even though the camping those cheques bought had not been delivered.

What we did: We built a deferred revenue schedule off the seasonal agreements, restated two years so the fees released month by month across the camping they bought, tied the closing deferred balance back to the bookings behind it, and reset the instalment base.

The result:

  • Two years restated with seasonal fees in deferred revenue
  • Freed $9,600 of instalments funded a full season early
  • Closing deferred balance now ties to the bookings behind it

Haliburton Family Campground — Roads, Wells and the Repair Account

The problem: A family campground in the Haliburton Highlands had spent two seasons rebuilding the property: a replacement septic bed on the north loop, a new well pump and distribution line, and roughly nine hundred metres of regraded and regravelled internal road. Every dollar of it had gone into the repairs and maintenance account. The T2 showed an operating loss the bank simply did not believe, the capital pools sat empty, and CRA had opened a query on the largest of the three invoices.

What we did: We went back to the scope written on each invoice, separated genuine maintenance from replacement and upgrade, opened Class 1, Class 8 and Class 17 pools, restated both years, answered the CRA query with the invoices behind every line, and recovered the input tax credits nobody had claimed.

The result:

  • Capital and repair separated invoice by invoice across two seasons
  • Recovered $14,200 in unclaimed input tax credits
  • CRA query closed with no adjustment to the restated years

Tobermory Campground and Cabins — Four Years and Nobody Filing

The problem: A campground with eight cabins outside Tobermory had not filed a T2 in four years. The gate ran on a cash box and a paper day sheet, cabin bookings came through an online system nobody ever exported, summer staff were paid in cash with no slips and no records of employment, and the owners had assumed a business open for only fifteen weeks did not really need to file. HST had never been registered even though site and cabin revenue had passed the threshold three seasons earlier.

What we did: We reconstructed four seasons from bank deposits, the booking export and the day sheets, registered for HST from the correct historical date, rebuilt the payroll year by year with slips and records of employment, and filed everything through a voluntary disclosure before CRA made contact.

The result:

  • Four unfiled T2 years reconstructed and filed in order
  • HST registered from the correct historical date
  • Penalties cancelled through an accepted voluntary disclosure

Our Simple Process

How We Work With Campgrounds

Know Exact Fees within 2 Minutes NOW

Our clear, efficient process ensures every step is transparent, building trust and long-term client relationships.

Here’s a simplified process approach:
Step 1

Kickoff (Document Request)

Collect prior T2 returns, the reservation system export, gate and seasonal fee records, HST and accommodation tax filings, supplier and infrastructure invoices, payroll records, the property tax and loan documents, and bank statements.

Step 2

First 30 Days (Cleanup & Setup)

Set up QuickBooks Online or Xero against Campspot, CampLife or Firefly, separate site, cabin, group and store revenue, open the trust liability for the accommodation tax, and rebuild the Class 1, 8, 17 and 10 schedules.

Step 3

Monthly Close

Reservation-to-bank reconciliation, the deferred revenue release on seasonal fees, accommodation tax liability tracking, GST34 with short-term sites at 13%, and payroll and PD7A reconciliation.

Step 4

Quarterly Planning Review

Salary and dividend mix, timing of infrastructure spending against the year-end, capital-versus-repair calls on water, septic and electrical work, and off-season cash flow against twelve months of fixed costs.

Step 5

Year-End Close & T2 Filing

Trial balance, financial statements with the deferred revenue and the trust liability stated, capital pools settled with recapture and terminal loss, T2 with GIFI, and CRA preparation.

Get Your Campground Taxes Done Right Today

Transparent Pricing for Campgrounds

Affordable Pricing for Campgrounds

Know Exact Fees within 2 Minutes NOW

We believe in clear, upfront pricing so you know exactly what to expect. All fees include HST.

  • Tax Preparation (Corporation) — From $400
  • Tax Return Filing (Corporation) — From $400
  • Tax Compliance Audit — FREE CRA audit support for our clients
  • Tax Strategy — FREE for our clients
  • Accounting Base Plan — From $100 per month
  • Bookkeeping Management — Free for our Accounting clients
  • Financial Reporting — Free for our Accounting clients
  • Business Formation — Flat $35
  • Incorporation Process — Flat $35
  • Entity Setup Assistance — Flat $35
  • Full-Service Payroll — From $125 per month

Payment is by Interac e-Transfer to info@gondaliyacpa.ca only. Security question: Not Applicable, as auto-deposit is enabled.

Meet Your Lead Campground Accountant

Meet your lead campground accountant. The same two people handle your season, your HST and your T2 every year, so nothing ever has to be explained twice.

Sharad Gondaliya CPA

Sharad Gondaliya, CPA

Principal

Bio

647-212-9559
sharad@gondaliyacpa.ca

Vandana Goel CPA

Vandana Goel, CPA

Accounting Specialist

Bio

647-250-0242
vandana@gondaliyacpa.ca

What Our Clients Say

1300+ five-star reviews from campground, cabin, recreation and seasonal business owners across Ontario and Canada.

Serving Campgrounds Across Ontario

Our CPA team provides specialized accounting and tax solutions for campgrounds, cabin and yurt operations and seasonal recreation properties throughout Ontario. We understand why a stay of under one month is taxed differently from a longer arrangement, why the accommodation tax you collect is not revenue, when a spring cheque becomes income, and what CRA looks at first when it opens a campground file.

Toronto (ON)

55 Queen St E Ste 1205, Toronto, ON M5C 1R6, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Mississauga (ON)

2100 Camilla Rd #716, Mississauga, ON L5A 2J8

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Brampton (ON)

4 Starhill Crescent, Brampton, ON L6R 2P9, Canada

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Scarborough (ON)

24 Clementine Square, Scarborough, ON M1G 2V7, Canada

+1 (647) 212-9559

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Vaughan (ON)

19 Cabinet Crescent, Woodbridge, ON L4L 6H9, Canada

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Oshawa (ON)

210 Durham St, Oshawa, ON L1J 5R3, Canada

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Ottawa (ON)

2090 Neepawa Ave a314, Ottawa, ON K2A 3L6, Canada

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Etobicoke (ON)

60 Stevenson Rd #1601, Etobicoke, ON M9V 2B4, Canada

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Hamilton (ON)

70 Starling Dr, Hamilton, ON L9A 0C5, Canada

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Guelph (ON)

1155 Gordon St, Guelph, ON N1L 1S8, Canada

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Windsor (ON)

4387 Guppy Ct, Windsor, ON N9G 2N8, Canada

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North York (ON)

150 Graydon Hall Dr #912, North York, ON M3A 3B2, Canada

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Campground Accounting & Tax FAQs

Should I incorporate my campground?
Incorporating gives you limited liability on a property the public walks, drives and swims on, and it brings the corporate rate: roughly 12.2% combined in Ontario on the first $500,000 of active income, against a personal rate that reaches 53.53%. The real test is whether the campground earns more than the family draws out, because that surplus is what a corporation lets you defer. There is a second reason on a capital-heavy property: clean Class 1, Class 8 and Class 17 pools and a balance sheet a lender can actually underwrite. Where it makes sense, we handle the section 85 rollover on Form T2057 so the land, buildings and equipment move in at elected amounts.
Do I charge HST on campsite fees?
Yes, once you are registered. A short-term stay of under one month is a taxable supply, so a nightly or weekly campsite is taxable, and in Ontario that means 13%. You must register once your taxable revenue passes $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, and most campgrounds cross that line in their first real season. Registration is not only a cost. It also lets you recover input tax credits on gravel, lumber, propane, store inventory, electricity, equipment and the well and septic work, which on a campground is a substantial annual recovery. We pin down the date registration was actually required, file from there forward, and keep you off both hooks: remitting more than you owe, or being assessed for tax you never collected.
What happens when a stay runs longer than a month?
The under-one-month boundary is the starting point, not the whole answer. Where a stay runs longer than a month, the treatment does not automatically follow the short-stay result, and it is not something you can read off a price list. It has to be determined on the facts of the actual arrangement: what is being supplied, what the agreement says, how long the camper has the site, and what else comes with it. Our job is to make that determination properly, write down the reasoning and the facts it rested on, and keep it in the file. A campground that simply assumed an answer has nothing to show a reviewer, and that is where the cost usually appears.
How should a campground handle the Municipal Accommodation Tax?
Where your municipality levies it, the tax applies to transient stays at roughly 4% in many Ontario municipalities. You add it to the camper bill, hold it, and remit it. It is not the same thing as HST and it is not part of what you earn. Because you are holding it for somebody else, it belongs in a liability account in trust rather than in sales, and the remittance schedule runs separately from your HST filing. We set the bookkeeping up so the two never blend together and so what you owe is visible at any point in the season rather than discovered at the end of it.
Is the accommodation tax I collect my income?
No. It is money collected in trust and remitted, never revenue you earned. Campgrounds that run it through the sales account report income they never had, pay corporate tax on it, and then find the remittance has to come out of real profit later. The fix is simple and it is the first thing we change on a new file: the tax goes to a liability when it is collected and clears when it is remitted, so your revenue line shows camping, cabins and the store and nothing else. Where prior years were recorded the wrong way, we restate them and recover the tax you overpaid.
When do seasonal fees become revenue?
Across the season they buy, not on the day the cheque clears. A seasonal fee taken in March is money you owe in camping between opening weekend and closing, so it sits in deferred revenue and releases month by month as the season is actually delivered. This is the single biggest reason a campground internal numbers mislead its owner: a strong bank balance in April is a liability, not a profit, and a year-end that falls mid-season will overstate income badly if the release has not been done. We build the schedule, run the release monthly, and tie the closing deferred balance to the bookings sitting behind it.
How do I account for a spring booking deposit?
Two separate questions sit inside that one. For HST, taking a deposit is not the same as being paid: ETA subsection 168(9) puts the tax at the point the money is applied to the invoice, not the day the week was reserved. For accounting, money taken against a future stay is deferred revenue and not income, which matters most at a campground where much of the forward book is taken before the gate even opens. Your balance sheet should carry what is being held against nights nobody has stayed yet, and in April that figure is often larger than the bank account suggests.
Do I charge HST on firewood and store sales?
Firewood and propane are ordinary taxable retail and carry 13% in Ontario, the same as in any other shop. The store is a line-by-line matter, because retail grocery rules apply to what is on the shelf and not everything a camper picks up is taxed the same way. What matters for your books is that the shop is its own department with its own cost of goods and its own margin. Folded into site revenue it hides whether the store makes money at all, and it makes the HST return harder to prove. We set the point-of-sale system up so each line reports the tax it actually carried.
What CCA class are my buildings, roads and washrooms?
Buildings, including the washroom block, the store and the office, generally belong in Class 1. Your internal roads, parking areas and other hard surfaces generally go to Class 17. Equipment and furnishings, meaning mowers, tractors, picnic tables, fire rings, office equipment and cabin furniture, go to Class 8 at 20%. Vehicles sit in Class 10 at 30% and software in Class 12. Getting this split right matters more at a campground than almost anywhere else, because so much of what you own is neither a building nor a machine but a surface, and surfaces are the part most bookkeepers put in the wrong place or expense outright.
Is a new septic bed a repair or a capital cost?
It depends on whether you restored what was already there or replaced and improved it. Pumping the tank, chlorinating the well, patching a washroom floor and repairing a broken line are maintenance, and they come off in the year you pay them. Replacing a septic bed, drilling a new well, rebuilding a distribution system or upgrading the electrical service out to the sites is capital, and it goes into a class and depreciates. The distinction is worth real money in both directions: expensing a capital project invites a reassessment, and capitalising genuine maintenance defers a deduction you were entitled to now. We look at the scope on the invoice, not the size of the cheque.
Are my seasonal staff employees, and what do I file at season end?
Most gate staff, groundskeepers and cleaners are employees on the facts, whatever the summer arrangement gets called, because you set the hours, supply the equipment and carry the risk. That means source deductions, T4 slips and a T4 Summary by the last day of February reconciled to the PD7A you actually remitted, and WSIB coverage from the first hire. It also means records of employment when the season ends, because your crew will be filing for benefits that autumn and a missing record becomes your problem in October. Where somebody genuinely is a contractor, we document why and file a T4A rather than guessing.
What can a campground write off?
Seasonal wages and WSIB premiums, property tax, insurance, electricity and fuel, propane for resale and for the buildings, water testing and chlorination, septic servicing, road grading and gravel, mowing and tree work, pool and beach supplies, store inventory, reservation software and merchant fees, advertising, professional fees, the municipal licence and interest on the property loan. On capital, buildings go to Class 1, internal roads and hard surfaces to Class 17, equipment and furnishings to Class 8 at 20%, vehicles to Class 10 at 30% and software to Class 12, all claimed on Schedule 8. Where a group booking is invoiced and never paid, paragraph 20(1)(p) allows the bad debt.
I have never filed a T2 for my campground. What now?
File, and file the oldest year first. The late-filing penalty starts at 5% of the balance owing and adds 1% for every month the return stays outstanding, to a twelve-month ceiling, with arrears interest compounding behind it, so waiting only makes the number worse. We reconstruct the unfiled years from bank deposits, the reservation system and the gate records, rebuild the capital cost allowance pools that were never opened, separate the accommodation tax from revenue, and file the returns in order. Where the exposure is large, we go in through the Voluntary Disclosures Program on Form RC199 first, which cancels penalties on an accepted disclosure that is voluntary, complete and at least one year past due.

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Campground Accounting & Tax Done Right.

T2 filing with buildings in Class 1, equipment and furnishings in Class 8 at 20% and internal roads and surfaces in Class 17, a short-term stay of under one month charged at 13% with longer arrangements determined on their facts and documented, the accommodation tax your municipality levies held in trust and remitted rather than booked as income, seasonal fees carried as deferred revenue and released across the camping they buy, deposits handled under ETA subsection 168(9), and capital kept apart from repair on the water, septic and electrical systems. AFFORDABLE flat fees, no hourly billing. Licensed CPA Ontario. 1300+ five-star reviews. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee.



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