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Gondaliya CPA

Corporate Tax Filing Experts

Tax Accountant for Engineering Consultants in Ontario and Across Canada

Your balance sheet is work you have already done and have not yet been paid for, and the Income Tax Act taxes it. The election in ITA section 34 to leave year-end work in progress out of income is available only to the professions that section names — accountant, dentist, lawyer, medical doctor, veterinarian and chiropractor — and engineers have never been on that list. A firm on a fixed-fee design contract billing at milestones carries months of unbilled effort at December 31 and is taxed on it, whether or not an invoice has gone out. We recognise revenue on percentage of completion against a cost-to-complete estimate we can defend, measure the scope change that was worked before it was approved, test every geotechnical, structural, mechanical, electrical and survey subconsultant against the CRA guide RC4110 factors and file the T4A slips behind them, and review each recharged disbursement for whether it is a reimbursement or an agency recovery before any tax is charged on it. Whether you run a solo consulting practice or a multidisciplinary firm, we handle the work in progress, the subconsultant chain and the holdback — with AFFORDABLE flat fees.

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AFFORDABLE Engineering Consultant Tax Accountant

An engineering practice gets one thing wrong before it gets anything else wrong, and it is the same thing every time: the books treat an invoice as the moment income arises. They do not. The election in ITA section 34 that lets a professional leave year-end work in progress out of income names the professions it applies to — accountant, dentist, lawyer, medical doctor, veterinarian and chiropractor — and engineering has never been among them. There is no election out of this. If you are eleven weeks into a fixed-fee design contract that bills on issue of drawings, the effort you have already spent is income at your year-end and the milestone calendar has nothing to do with it. Recognising revenue on percentage of completion is not a bookkeeping preference here, it is how the tax is measured, and the cost-to-complete estimate underneath it is the single judgment that sets both your financial statements and your tax bill. The second thing is the subconsultant chain. Geotechnical, structural, mechanical, electrical and survey work passes through your contract to your client, and it is usually the second-largest cost line in the practice. Every part of it has to be classified, reported and reviewed for tax. At Gondaliya CPA, we specialize in work in progress, percentage of completion and subconsultant reporting for engineering consultants, providing AFFORDABLE flat-fee support that keeps you CRA-compliant and stops you paying more tax than you owe.

As an engineering consultants accountant, we work with civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, geotechnical and geomatics practices across Ontario, from solo consultants to multidisciplinary firms, with year-round support rather than a once-a-year scramble. We tell you what each project has actually earned against what it has cost, how much unbilled effort is sitting on your balance sheet, where the holdback is, and where your subconsultant exposure sits.

Let us handle the numbers so you can focus on the drawings and the next contract.

Gondaliya CPA team - accounting and tax services for engineering consultants

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Accounting That Understands How an Engineering Practice Actually Works

An engineering consultancy sells effort and is paid on a milestone calendar that has nothing to do with when the effort was spent. Your largest asset is unbilled work, your second-largest cost is somebody else’s firm, a share of what you have earned is held back until a project is certified complete, and your year-end falls wherever it falls in the middle of all of it. At Gondaliya CPA, we understand that reality and provide practical, industry-focused solutions across Ontario.

📏

Work in Progress Is Income

There is no election out of it. ITA section 34 names the professions it covers and engineering is not one of them, so unbilled effort at year-end is taxed whether or not it has been invoiced.

📊

Percentage of Completion

Revenue on a fixed-fee contract follows effort, not invoices. The cost-to-complete estimate behind it drives the statements and the tax, so it is built properly and reviewed each month.

👥

The Subconsultant Chain

Geotechnical, structural, mechanical, electrical and survey fees pass through your contract. Classification on CRA guide RC4110, T4A slips and non-resident withholding all sit on that one line.

💰

Holdback and Cash Flow

Where the work is an improvement to land the Construction Act holdback applies to what you are owed. We track the receivable and show it separately instead of letting it hide in aged accounts.

Stay Compliant and Minimize Your Engineering Practice Tax

For an engineering consultant, staying onside with CRA and with your regulator and paying the least legal tax are the same job. We keep every filing on schedule while claiming every staff, software, instrument and subconsultant dollar the T2 allows, so nothing is missed and nothing invites a reassessment.

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Your Regulator, Your Entity and Your Dues

Engineering in Ontario is regulated by Professional Engineers Ontario under the Professional Engineers Act. What entity form your practice may use, and every ownership question that sits under it, is set by your regulator and is confirmed with them before anything is filed — we do not assume it and we do not assert it for you. On the tax side we open the CRA Business Number with its RT and RP accounts, and we put your regulator dues, your ACEC-Canada, Consulting Engineers of Ontario and OSPE memberships and your continuing professional development in the ledger as the deductible costs of earning income. Where the work is an improvement to land, the Construction Act holdback obligation is a cash-flow fact we plan around.

✅

CRA Obligations for Engineering Consultants

Staying compliant with CRA means more than one return a year. We manage GST34 returns at the 13% Ontario rate with place of supply applied on the client’s address, each recharged disbursement reviewed for whether it is a reimbursement or an agency recovery before tax is charged, fee adjustments run through ETA section 232 credit notes, year-end work in progress measured and brought into income because ITA section 34 gives engineering no way out, CAD workstations in Class 50 rather than Class 8, subconsultants tested against CRA guide RC4110 with T4A slips filed, Regulation 105 and T4A-NR considered on non-resident subconsultants, and payroll source deductions reconciled to the PD7A.

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Year-End Deliverables for Engineering Consultants

At year-end, an engineering corporation needs a proper trial balance and financial statements that carry unbilled work in progress as the asset it is, show the holdback receivable separately from ordinary trade receivables, state the cost-to-complete basis used on each open contract, and split the Class 50, Class 8, Class 12, Class 13 and Class 10 pools, plus a T2 with GIFI that ties to your HST returns. A lender reads the work in progress and holdback lines before it reads the bank balance. Our team prepares every deliverable on time.

Accounting & Tax Experts for Engineering Consultants

Gondaliya CPA engineering consultant accounting expertsGondaliya CPA engineering consultant tax experts
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Why Choose Our Accounting Services for Engineering Consultants?

1
🎯

Tax Planning — Work in Progress & Pools

We plan the year-end around the work in progress you cannot elect out of, split Class 50 workstations from Class 8 survey instruments, and protect the $500,000 Small Business Deduction.

2
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Consulting — Project Costing & Completion

Our bookkeeping costs each project against the fee it earns, maintains the cost-to-complete estimate every month, and shows which contracts are being delivered below the fee that was quoted.

3
🛡

CRA Representation — Subconsultants & WIP

When CRA challenges a work in progress figure, a subconsultant line or a personal services business screen, we prepare the response and pursue relief on Form RC4288 where a prior error caused the penalties.

4
🏢

Bookkeeping — Cash Flow & Sale

We build the cash flow that carries payroll through a milestone gap and a holdback, produce the statements your lender reads, and model the sale of the practice years ahead.

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Engineering Consultant Clients
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Engineering Consultant Tax and Accounting Services in Ontario

📄

Corporate Tax Filing (T2) for Engineering Consultants

Professional T2 preparation with year-end work in progress measured and brought into income, CAD workstations in Class 50, survey instruments in Class 8, and CRA compliance on every line.

💳

Bookkeeping & Accounting for Engineering Consultants

Books built on percentage of completion by project, with unbilled work in progress, subconsultant cost, recharged disbursements and the holdback receivable each carried in their own account.

💵

Payroll Services for Engineering Consultants

Engineers, technologists, CAD staff and subconsultants handled properly, with PD7A remittances, T4 and T4A slips filed on time and classification tested against CRA guide RC4110.

🧾

GST/HST Filing for Engineering Consultants

AFFORDABLE HST filing at the 13% Ontario rate with place of supply applied correctly and every recharged disbursement reviewed for reimbursement or agency treatment first.

📈

Tax Planning for Engineering Consultants

Smart tax planning on contract milestones against your year-end, instrument and workstation purchases across Class 8 and Class 50, the Small Business Deduction, and the exit structure.

⏳

Corporate Catch-Up Filing for Engineering Consultants

File overdue T2 and HST years, rebuild the work in progress and capital pools you never had, and get back into CRA compliance with accurate catch-up support.

🛡

CRA Audit Resolution for Engineering Consultants

Expert support on work in progress, subconsultant classification and personal services business reviews, handled with confidence from the first letter.

📊

CPA Financial Statements (Notice to Reader) for Engineering Consultants

CPA-compiled financial statements that lenders accept, carrying work in progress as an asset and showing the holdback receivable separately from trade receivables.

🏢

Incorporation Services for Engineering Consultants

Incorporation handled once your regulator has confirmed what entity form your practice may use, including NUANS, articles, share structure and the section 85 rollover.

📒

Catch-Up Bookkeeping Services for Engineering Consultants

Months or years of timesheets, project invoices, subconsultant bills and disbursement recharges reconstructed and reconciled, so your revenue and work in progress figures are finally accurate.

🌐

US Corporation & LLC Tax Filing for Engineering Consultants

Cross-border filing where clients, subconsultants, owners or shareholders sit outside Canada, covering withholding, NR4 reporting and T1135 obligations.

📜

Voluntary Disclosure Program for Engineering Consultants

Come forward on unfiled T4A slips, work in progress never reported or HST charged wrongly on a pass-through before CRA calls, cancelling penalties through a Voluntary Disclosures Program application.

Accounting & Tax Services Tailored for Engineering Consultants

Real, practitioner-level CPA expertise for civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, geotechnical and geomatics consulting practices across Ontario — built for a firm whose largest asset is work it has done and not yet billed.

  • We prepare your T2 with GIFI on Schedule 100 and Schedule 125, separating fixed-fee design revenue, hourly work, contract administration, expert witness fees and recharged subconsultant cost onto their correct lines so CRA’s matching reads your return properly.
  • We measure year-end work in progress on every open contract and bring it into income, because the ITA section 34 election that excludes it names accountants, dentists, lawyers, doctors, veterinarians and chiropractors, and not engineers.
  • We recognise revenue on percentage of completion for fixed-fee and milestone contracts, so the return reflects the effort actually spent in the year rather than whichever drawings happened to be issued before December 31.
  • We claim capital cost allowance on Schedule 8 with CAD and analysis workstations and servers in Class 50 at 55%, survey and field instruments in Class 8 at 20%, and application software in Class 12 at 100%.
  • We deduct your professional liability premium, regulator and association dues and continuing professional development as costs of earning income, and we set deliberately which of them the corporation pays and which you pay personally.
  • We run your books by project in QuickBooks Online or Xero, posting labour from timesheets at cost, subconsultant invoices, recharged disbursements and expenses against the contract they belong to instead of into one undifferentiated expense pile.
  • We maintain a cost-to-complete estimate on every open contract every month, because percentage of completion is only as good as that estimate and a stale one misstates revenue and tax in the same direction.
  • We carry unbilled work in progress as a balance-sheet asset rather than discovering it at year-end, so you can see at any point how much effort you have spent that the client has not yet been invoiced for.
  • We record the scope change that was worked before it was approved as what it is: unbilled effort with collection risk attached, tracked against the written approval you are chasing rather than quietly absorbed into overhead.
  • We track the holdback receivable separately where the work is an improvement to land, capture invoices through Dext, and keep the six years of records ITA section 230 requires so no input tax credit is lost.
  • We test your geotechnical, structural, mechanical, electrical and survey subconsultants against the CRA guide RC4110 factors, because a large subcontract line with no analysis behind it is the first thing a payroll auditor pulls.
  • We file T4A slips on the subconsultants and contract technologists who are genuinely contractors, so the fees you deducted are reported the way CRA expects instead of sitting in an unsupported subcontract total.
  • We run staff payroll for engineers, technologists and CAD operators, withholding income tax, CPP and EI and remitting on the PD7A by the 15th of the following month, because the late-remittance penalty reaches 10%.
  • Where a subconsultant is a non-resident performing services in Canada, we address Regulation 105 withholding and the T4A-NR reporting that follows, reviewing each payment on its facts rather than assuming a rate, a treaty outcome or a waiver.
  • We file your T4 slips and T4 Summary by the last day of February, reconcile them to the PD7A remittances made, and monitor Ontario payroll against the $1,000,000 Employer Health Tax exemption.
  • We file your GST34 returns at the 13% Ontario rate with place of supply applied on each client’s address, so a contract for a client in another province is charged at that province’s rate rather than yours.
  • We review every recharged disbursement and subconsultant pass-through for whether it is a reimbursement of your own cost or an agency recovery of the client’s, because that distinction changes what tax is charged on it.
  • We do not assume the answer runs one way across your recharges: the ETA subsection 123(1) definitions and CRA Policy Statement P-182R are applied to each arrangement on its own facts and the reasoning is documented.
  • We claim input tax credits under ETA section 169 on software licences, instruments, subconsultant fees, vehicles and office costs, and we make sure the credit side of a pass-through is treated consistently with how it was billed out.
  • We handle fee reductions, credits and write-downs on disputed invoices through ETA section 232 credit notes rather than netting them against sales, so an adjustment made two filing periods later corrects the right return.
  • We plan the milestone calendar against your fiscal year-end, because work in progress cannot be deferred by holding an invoice back and an unissued milestone changes your cash position without changing your taxable income at all.
  • We time instrument, vehicle and workstation purchases against your year-end, weighing the 55% Class 50 rate on CAD hardware against the 20% Class 8 rate on survey instruments and the 30% Class 10 rate on site vehicles.
  • We set the salary-versus-dividend mix for the owner, paying enough T4 salary to build RRSP room while the balance flows as dividends, so combined tax stays near the 12.2% Ontario small-business rate instead of 53.53%.
  • We keep your active income under the $500,000 Small Business Deduction limit using ITA section 125, and we screen a single-client incorporated consultant against the ITA subsection 125(7) personal services business test before it becomes a reassessment.
  • We plan at least two years ahead so your shares qualify for the $1.25M Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption under ITA 110.6, purifying retained cash that would otherwise fail the active-business asset test.
  • We reconstruct fee revenue, subconsultant cost and recharged disbursements from project files, timesheets, client invoices and bank deposits across your unfiled years, rebuilding the six years of records ITA section 230 requires.
  • Late filing costs 5% of the balance owing plus 1% per month up to twelve months, so we file your oldest unfiled T2 first to stop the penalty compounding and limit the arrears interest CRA charges.
  • We rebuild the work in progress position at each missing year-end from timesheets and contract status, because a catch-up filing that recognised revenue only on invoices issued has the income in the wrong years throughout.
  • We rebuild the capital pools across the missing years and move workstations, servers and software out of Class 8 into Class 50 and Class 12, recovering deduction that was understated in every single year it ran.
  • We file a Voluntary Disclosures Program application on Form RC199 before CRA contacts you, because a disclosure accepted under the general program cancels penalties in full and gives roughly 50% interest relief on the older years.
  • When CRA questions your year-end work in progress, we produce the timesheets, the contract status and the cost-to-complete estimates behind each open project, because that figure is the first number an engineering file is tested on.
  • When CRA challenges the subconsultant line, we produce the agreements, the invoices and the CRA guide RC4110 analysis for each geotechnical, structural, mechanical, electrical and survey firm you engaged during the years under review.
  • When CRA screens an incorporated consultant against the personal services business test in ITA subsection 125(7), we assemble the contracts, the client list and the working arrangements and argue the facts rather than conceding the label.
  • When CRA opens a full audit, we manage the file and answer the revenue, credit and payroll queries inside the deadlines, so a one-year review does not expand across the three prior years CRA is able to reopen.
  • We file the Notice of Objection within 90 days of a reassessment and pursue taxpayer relief on Form RC4288, cancelling penalties and interest that can top $15,000 where a prior accountant’s error caused them, protecting your Tax Court rights.
  • We prepare the CSRS 4200 compilation engagement financial statements a lender requires across two fiscal years for the operating line that carries payroll through a milestone gap, or for an acquisition of another practice.
  • Your compiled statement of financial position carries unbilled work in progress as an asset and shows the holdback receivable separately from ordinary trade receivables, because a lender reads those two lines before it reads your bank balance.
  • We state the basis on which each open contract was measured, so the percentage of completion figures in your statements are supported by a cost-to-complete estimate a reviewer can follow rather than by an unexplained number.
  • We build the statement of operations with fee revenue, subconsultant cost and recharged disbursements classified consistently across two years and tied to the T2 filed with CRA, so the bank accepts the file without further questions.
  • We deliver the compiled statements within 30 days of receiving your records and the year’s T2 figures, because a bonding or financing decision ahead of a proposal deadline does not wait for a slow accountant to catch up.
  • We start by confirming with your regulator what entity form your practice may use, because that question is regulator-specific, and we do not file anything on an assumption about ownership that we have not had confirmed.
  • Once the entity question is settled, we handle the incorporation itself including the NUANS search, the articles and the share structure, and we open the CRA Business Number with its RT and RP accounts.
  • We complete the section 85 rollover on Form T2057, transferring your existing work in progress, client list, instruments and equipment into the corporation at elected amounts, deferring the gain a straight sale would otherwise trigger.
  • We set the opening Class 50, Class 8, Class 12, Class 13 and Class 14.1 schedules from the rollover so the corporation starts with an asset base that is correct rather than rebuilt from memory years later.
  • We build the chart of accounts with work in progress, the holdback receivable, subconsultant cost and recharged disbursements in place from the first contract, so the records accumulate correctly instead of being rebuilt three years on.
  • We rebuild months or years of neglected books from project files, timesheets, client invoices, subconsultant bills and bank statements, so a practice that ran three large contracts without bookkeeping finally gets a ledger that ties.
  • We rebuild work in progress at each historical year-end from the timesheet record, which is the one correction that moves income into the right years on a practice that billed only when a milestone was reached.
  • We separate recharged disbursements and subconsultant pass-throughs out of the general expense pile and review how each was billed, because that is where the HST treatment on a backlog most often turns out to be wrong.
  • We rebuild the equipment, instrument and software schedule from purchase invoices and split it across Class 50, Class 8, Class 12 and Class 10, which is almost always pooled incorrectly when we inherit an engineering file.
  • We recover the input tax credits buried in unentered software, instrument, subconsultant and vehicle invoices across the backlog, because two years of unfiled purchases in a practice of any size can hide five figures of credits.
  • On fees earned from clients outside Canada, we review the place of supply and export rules against what was actually supplied and to whom, rather than treating a foreign billing address as an automatic answer either way.
  • Where a non-resident subconsultant performs services in Canada, we work through the Regulation 105 withholding and T4A-NR position payment by payment, and we assert no rate, no treaty outcome and no waiver result in advance.
  • Where a non-resident owns shares in your company, we handle the Part XIII withholding on dividends paid out of Canada and the NR4 reporting that follows, so nothing is missed at 25% or at the treaty rate.
  • We file Form T1135 where the owners’ foreign property costs more than $100,000, avoiding a penalty regime CRA applies whether or not any tax was actually owing on the holding itself in that year.
  • Where a US citizen is a shareholder of the company, we coordinate the Canadian and US returns, because their reporting obligations reach into a Canadian engineering corporation in ways most practice owners discover far too late.
  • We bring your company forward on subconsultant and contract technologist payments made for years with no T4A slips filed, because the per-slip penalties and the classification exposure both sit behind that one subcontract line.
  • We disclose years filed with no work in progress at all, which on a fixed-fee practice is a cumulative understatement of income rather than a timing difference that washes out on its own.
  • We correct HST charged or not charged on recharged disbursements and pass-throughs where no reimbursement-versus-agency analysis was ever done, fixing the net tax before a reviewer finds the same gap and assesses penalties on top.
  • We file your VDP submission on Form RC199 with a full reconstruction from project files, timesheets, client invoices and bank records, so a practice that outgrew its bookkeeping is not left facing an arbitrary CRA assessment.
  • We confirm your disclosure is genuinely voluntary before CRA contacts you — the single condition that makes it valid — and secure the roughly 50% interest relief on the older years, turning a prosecution risk into a managed correction.

Engineering Consultant Tax & Work in Progress Check

Six quick questions on your work in progress, your percentage of completion basis, your cost-to-complete estimate, your subconsultant reporting, your disbursement treatment and whether it is time to incorporate. No fee shown.

1. Is unbilled work in progress measured and carried on your balance sheet at year-end?

2. Is revenue on fixed-fee and milestone contracts recognised on percentage of completion?

3. Is a cost-to-complete estimate updated every month on each open contract?

4. Are subconsultants tested against CRA guide RC4110 with T4A slips filed behind them?

5. Have your recharged disbursements been reviewed for reimbursement or agency treatment?

6. Is your engineering practice incorporated?

Free CPA Consultation for Engineering Consultants

Case Studies: Engineering Consultant Accounting & Tax

Toronto Structural Engineering Firm — A Balance Sheet With No Work in Progress on It

The problem: A Toronto structural practice recognised revenue when it issued an invoice. Its contracts were fixed-fee with milestone billing, so income arrived in lumps that had nothing to do with when the work was done, and at each year-end the balance sheet showed no unbilled work in progress at all. The prior accountant had treated that as acceptable because the fees were not yet billable. The election in ITA section 34 that would have excluded year-end work in progress applies only to the professions the section names, and engineering is not one of them. The firm’s operating line had also been declined, because two years of statements showed income swinging by more than half with no asset behind the gap.

What we did: We rebuilt every open contract from the timesheet record, set a cost-to-complete estimate on each one, restated two years on percentage of completion under ASPE Section 3400, brought the unbilled work in progress onto the balance sheet, and corrected the prior returns voluntarily on Form RC199 before CRA raised it.

The result:

  • $417,000 of unbilled work in progress measured and carried
  • Penalties cancelled in full on a disclosure accepted before contact
  • $250,000 operating line approved on the restated statements

Mississauga Multidisciplinary Practice — The Subconsultant Line Nobody Had Tested

The problem: A Mississauga firm passed geotechnical, structural, mechanical, electrical and survey work through to its clients, and that pass-through was the second-largest cost in the business. Not one of those relationships had ever been tested against the CRA guide RC4110 factors, no T4A slips had been filed for any of them, and two of the specialists were non-residents who had performed services in Canada without Regulation 105 ever being considered. The whole line sat in the accounts as a single subcontract total with nothing behind it, which is precisely the profile a payroll review opens on.

What we did: We tested each engagement against the RC4110 factors and documented the reasoning, filed the outstanding T4A slips, reviewed each non-resident payment on its own facts for Regulation 105 and T4A-NR treatment without assuming a rate or a treaty outcome, and brought the missing years forward through a Voluntary Disclosures Program application.

The result:

  • 23 subconsultant engagements classified and documented
  • $18,400 of slip and remittance penalties cancelled
  • Non-resident payments now reviewed before the invoice is paid

Ottawa Municipal Engineering Practice — Disbursements, Pass-Throughs and a Holdback in the Dark

The problem: An Ottawa practice recharged printing, testing, permit and travel costs to its clients, and passed subconsultant fees through on top. Some recharges carried HST, some did not, and nobody could say why either way, because no one had ever asked whether a given recharge was a reimbursement of the firm’s own cost or an agency recovery of the client’s. Separately, the firm’s work was frequently an improvement to land, so a portion of what it had earned was held back until certification, and that receivable was buried inside the aged trade list where neither the owner nor the bank could see it.

What we did: We reviewed each category of recharge against the ETA subsection 123(1) definitions and CRA Policy Statement P-182R, documented the basis for each one rather than adopting a single rule, corrected the net tax through ETA section 232 credit notes where an adjustment was needed, and pulled the holdback receivable onto its own line with a collection date against each project.

The result:

  • Nine categories of recharge analysed and documented individually
  • $9,700 of net tax corrected before any CRA contact
  • Holdback receivable visible by project instead of buried in aged accounts

Our Simple Process

How We Work With Engineering Consultants

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, your open contract list with fee and stage, the timesheet export, client invoices and aged receivables, subconsultant agreements and invoices, disbursement recharge records, insurance and dues invoices, and bank statements.

Step 2

First 30 Days (Cleanup & Setup)

Set up QuickBooks Online or Xero with Dext and project costing, establish the work in progress and cost-to-complete basis on every open contract, rebuild the Class 50, 8, 12, 13 and 10 schedules, and run the RC4110 analysis.

Step 3

Monthly Close

Project costing against fee earned, work in progress and cost-to-complete updated, unapproved scope change tracked, holdback receivable aged, GST34 with disbursement treatment applied as documented, and subconsultant reconciliation.

Step 4

Quarterly Planning Review

Salary and dividend mix, milestone timing against the year-end, instrument and workstation purchases across Class 8 and Class 50, non-resident subconsultant reporting, the personal services business test where a single client dominates, and whether any novel method or software raises a technological-uncertainty question worth assessing.

Step 5

Year-End Close & T2 Filing

Trial balance, financial statements carrying work in progress as an asset with the holdback receivable shown separately, the percentage of completion basis stated, T2 with GIFI, and CRA preparation.

Get Your Engineering Practice Taxes Done Right Today

Transparent Pricing for Engineering Consultants

Affordable Pricing for Engineering Consultants

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 Engineering Consultant Accountant

Meet your lead engineering consultant accountant. As your practice and corporate tax adviser, you deal with the same two people every year.

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 engineering consultants, technical practices and professional service firms across Ontario and Canada.

Serving Engineering Consultants Across Ontario

Our CPA team provides specialized accounting and tax solutions for civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, geotechnical and geomatics consulting practices throughout Ontario. We understand why year-end work in progress is income with no election available to engineering, how percentage of completion and a cost-to-complete estimate drive both your statements and your tax, what the subconsultant chain has to carry behind it, and how the holdback shapes your cash flow where the work is an improvement to land.

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

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Brampton (ON)

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

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Scarborough (ON)

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

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Vaughan (ON)

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

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

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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Engineering Consultant Accounting & Tax FAQs

Should I incorporate my engineering practice?
Two questions have to be answered in order, and most advice skips the first one. The first is what entity form your practice may use at all, which is set by your regulator and is confirmed with them before anything is filed; we do not assume it and we will not assert it for you. The second is the tax question, and there the arithmetic is the ordinary one: roughly a 12.2% Ontario combined rate on the first $500,000 of active income against a personal rate reaching 53.53%, with the benefit turning on whether you earn more than you withdraw. There is a third consideration specific to a consulting practice, which is the ITA subsection 125(7) personal services business test where one client dominates your billings. When incorporating makes sense and your regulator has confirmed the form, we handle the section 85 rollover on Form T2057.
Do I have to report work in progress at my year-end as an engineer?
Yes, and there is no way out of it. The Income Tax Act contains an election in section 34 that lets certain professionals exclude year-end work in progress from income, and that section names the professions it applies to: accountant, dentist, lawyer, medical doctor, veterinarian and chiropractor. Engineers have never been on that list. So the effort your staff has spent on an open contract at your year-end is income to the corporation whether or not an invoice has been issued for it, and whether or not the milestone that triggers billing has been reached. This is the single most expensive misunderstanding we correct on engineering files, because a practice that bills at milestones and recognises revenue on invoices can be carrying months of unreported income and not know it.
How do I recognize revenue on a fixed-fee design contract?
On percentage of completion, measured on effort rather than on the billing schedule. Under CPA Canada Handbook ASPE Section 3400 a service contract of this kind is recognised as the work is performed, which means the revenue you report in a period is the share of the total fee that the work done in that period represents. The measurement depends entirely on the cost-to-complete estimate underneath it: if you believe you are seventy per cent through the effort, you have recognised seventy per cent of the fee, and if that estimate is stale or optimistic then both your financial statements and your tax bill are wrong in the same direction. We rebuild that estimate every month on every open contract rather than once a year, because it is the judgment that drives everything else on an engineering file.
What happens to a scope change I worked before it was approved?
It is unbilled work with collection risk attached, and it belongs in your records as exactly that. Engineering practices do additional work ahead of a signed change order constantly, because the project cannot wait for the paperwork, and that effort has real cost behind it in salaries already paid. Treating it as invisible until the change order arrives understates your work in progress and hides the exposure if the client ultimately disputes it. We track the unapproved scope separately from the contracted scope, carry it with a view on recoverability rather than at full value by reflex, and put it in front of you monthly so the conversation with the client happens while the work is still recent rather than at year-end when the memory has faded.
Am I a personal services business if I bill one client through my corporation?
That is a question of fact, and we will tell you what the test is rather than what your answer is. Under ITA subsection 125(7) a corporation is carrying on a personal services business where the incorporated employee would reasonably be regarded as an officer or employee of the client but for the existence of the corporation. The consequences are severe: no small business deduction, an additional tax on top of the full federal corporate rate, and a denial of almost every deduction other than salary and benefits paid to the incorporated employee. The profile CRA looks for is a consultant billing a single client, working that client’s hours, at that client’s site, with that client’s equipment. We document the actual facts of each engagement, tell you which of them drive the answer, and never assume the conclusion in either direction.
Do I file T4A slips for my subconsultants?
For the ones who are genuinely contractors, yes. First the relationship has to be tested against the factors in CRA guide RC4110: control over how and when the work is done, who supplies the tools, instruments and software, whether the worker can subcontract, and the chance of profit against the risk of loss. A geotechnical firm engaged for one investigation looks very different on those factors from a technologist who works your hours, at your desk, on your workstation, for no one else. Filing the slips supports the deduction you claimed and makes the classification question visible to you before a reviewer raises it, and on an engineering practice the subcontract line is usually the second-largest number in the accounts, which is precisely why it is the one that gets opened first. Missed slips for past years can be brought forward through a voluntary disclosure.
How do I pay a subconsultant who is outside Canada?
With the withholding and reporting position decided before the payment runs rather than after it clears. Where a non-resident performs services in Canada, Regulation 105 withholding is engaged, and the T4A-NR reporting that goes with it follows. What we will not do is quote you a rate, a treaty outcome or a waiver result in the abstract, because whether a particular payment is caught, and what any treaty does about it, depends on the facts of that engagement and on where the work was actually performed. A specialist who reviews a drawing from an office abroad and one who comes to a Canadian site to supervise a test are not in the same position. We review each payment on its own facts, document the basis, and make sure the slip that has to be filed is filed.
Do I charge HST on disbursements and subconsultant pass-throughs?
It depends on what the recharge actually is, and that is reviewed rather than assumed. There is a real distinction between a reimbursement of a cost you incurred as principal, which generally forms part of the consideration for your own supply, and an agency recovery of a cost you incurred as agent for your client, which does not work the same way. Which one applies changes what tax is charged on the recharge and what input tax credit you may claim on the underlying cost. The ETA subsection 123(1) definitions and CRA Policy Statement P-182R on agency govern the analysis, and the answer can differ between a printing charge, a permit fee, a testing invoice and a subconsultant fee on the very same project. We look at each category on your own arrangements, document the basis in writing, and apply it consistently on both the billing side and the credit side.
How is holdback treated in my accounts?
Where your work is an improvement to land, the Construction Act imposes a holdback obligation on the party paying you, which means a portion of what you have earned is retained until the project reaches the stage at which it may be released. We will not quote you a percentage or a number of days here, because those terms and the lien and notice deadlines that go with them are legal questions for your construction counsel and they are not something a website should be asserting. What we do is accounting: the holdback receivable is carried on its own line rather than buried inside ordinary aged receivables, tracked by project with the expected release event against it, and built into the cash flow forecast, because a practice can be profitable on paper and still unable to make payroll while a meaningful share of its earned fees sits in someone else’s account.
What CCA class are my CAD workstations, survey instruments and software?
CAD and analysis workstations, servers, storage, plotters and laptops generally belong in Class 50 at 55%. Application software licences go to Class 12 at 100%. Survey and field instruments such as total stations, GNSS rovers, levels, data loggers and testing gear go to Class 8 at 20%, alongside office furniture and fittings. An office leasehold goes to Class 13 over the term of the lease, site and field vehicles to Class 10 at 30%, and goodwill or an acquired client list to Class 14.1 at 5%. The error we inherit most often is everything pooled into Class 8, which understates the deduction on precisely the computing equipment that becomes obsolete first. Correcting it recovers real money, and the correction has to be made while the years are still open.
Is my professional liability insurance deductible?
The premium is deductible where it is incurred to earn income, and on an engineering practice it is one of the larger fixed costs in the business. The structural point matters more than the deduction, though. Most professional policies are written on a claims-made basis, which means the policy responds to a claim made while it is in force rather than to work performed while it was in force. That is why what happens when you change insurer, retire or sell the practice is a commercial question worth planning around rather than an administrative one. We will not state a limit, a deductible, a premium or a run-off period for you, because those are terms of your own policy and of the cover your regulator and your clients require; we make sure the cost is in the right place in the ledger and that the question is on the table before it matters.
What can an engineering consultant write off?
Salaries for engineers, technologists and CAD staff, subconsultant fees, professional liability premiums, regulator and association dues including ACEC-Canada, Consulting Engineers of Ontario and OSPE memberships, continuing professional development, software licences and subscriptions such as AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Revit and your analysis suite, project accounting tools, office rent, IT, reprographics and plotting, site vehicles and field travel, and the proposal and bid preparation you write off whether or not the bid is won. On capital, workstations and servers go to Class 50 at 55%, instruments to Class 8 at 20%, software to Class 12, a leasehold to Class 13, vehicles to Class 10 and goodwill to Class 14.1, all on Schedule 8. A bad debt on an unrecoverable fee is deductible under paragraph 20(1)(p). Where you develop a genuinely novel method, instrument or piece of software, whether the technological-uncertainty test for SR&ED is met is a question we assess on the actual work rather than a claim we assume.
How do I value my engineering practice if I sell it?
A buyer prices three things: the backlog of signed contracts, the client relationships behind the repeat work, and the people who deliver it. Work in progress and the holdback receivable are part of the price rather than an afterthought, and a practice whose work in progress has never been measured is discounted precisely because the buyer cannot tell what has been earned. The structure decides what you keep: a share sale can access the $1.25M Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption under ITA 110.6 where the shares qualify, which needs purification of retained cash and a two-year runway, while an asset sale puts goodwill and an acquired client list into Class 14.1 and triggers recapture where proceeds exceed undepreciated capital cost. What entity form the purchaser or any holding structure may take is a question for your regulator, and we confirm it with them rather than assuming it.

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Engineering Consultant Accounting & Tax Done Right.

Year-end work in progress measured and brought into income because the ITA section 34 election names professions that have never included engineering, revenue recognised on percentage of completion against a cost-to-complete estimate rebuilt every month, unapproved scope change tracked instead of absorbed, subconsultants tested against the CRA guide RC4110 factors with T4A slips filed and Regulation 105 reviewed payment by payment on non-residents, every recharged disbursement analysed for reimbursement or agency treatment under ETA subsection 123(1) and CRA Policy Statement P-182R before tax is charged, CAD workstations in Class 50 at 55% instead of pooled in Class 8, and the holdback receivable shown on its own line where the work is an improvement to land. AFFORDABLE flat fees, no hourly billing. Licensed CPA Ontario. 1300+ five-star reviews. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee.



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