Book Consultation

Gondaliya CPA

Equipment Finance Tax Experts

Tax Accountant for Equipment Finance Companies in Ontario and Across Canada

Most finance businesses live on the exempt side of the HST rules. A lessor does not. When you lease equipment you are supplying tangible personal property, so your lease payments are taxable: you charge 13% HST on them and you recover the HST on the machines you bought to put on lease. When you lend against equipment instead, the interest is an exempt financial service under ETA section 123(1), with no tax charged and credits restricted. Write both and you are a mixed supplier running two opposite tax profiles out of one ledger, and the input tax credits have to be apportioned on a fair and reasonable basis. We split the book, set the HST right, and run the asset side properly: every unit in its capital cost allowance class, the half-year rule applied, recapture and terminal losses planned on disposal, and residual assumptions tracked against what units actually fetch. Flat-fee, no hourly billing, CPA Ontario, 1300+ five-star.

1300+
5-Star Google Reviews
✅ REGISTERED CPA FIRM – VERIFY NOW

AFFORDABLE Equipment Finance Tax Accountant

An equipment finance company is taxed unlike almost anything else in the finance sector, and the reason is simple. Leasing equipment is a supply of tangible personal property, which is taxable, so you charge 13% HST on lease payments in Ontario and, as a taxable supplier, you claim input tax credits on the equipment and the inputs used to make those supplies. Lending against equipment is the mirror image: interest on the loan is an exempt financial service under ETA section 123(1), no tax is charged, and credits on the inputs used to earn it are restricted. Most lessors write both, often for the same customer in the same week, which makes them mixed suppliers whose input tax credits must be apportioned on a fair and reasonable basis, with the method documented and applied consistently. Getting that split wrong in either direction, tax never charged on a taxable lease, or credits never claimed because the owner assumed the whole book was exempt, is the most expensive mistake in this industry.

Then there is the asset side, which a pure lender never touches. Equipment on lease is depreciable property, never inventory. It sits in a capital cost allowance class, Class 8 at 20% or Class 10 at 30% for qualifying vehicles, with the half-year rule in the year of acquisition. When a unit comes off lease and is sold, the difference between the proceeds and the undepreciated capital cost lands as recapture under ITA 13(1) or as a terminal loss. Lease profit is made or lost on residual realisation, and that number is nowhere in the lease document. At Gondaliya CPA we work with equipment lessors, vendor finance programs, specialty and municipal lessors and asset-based finance companies across Ontario, on flat fees, all year.

Let us run the tax and the asset ledger so you can price deals and fund them.

Gondaliya CPA team - accounting and tax services for equipment finance companies

Our Official Partners

Google Reviews
CPA Ontario
QuickBooks
Wagepoint
Xero
Stripe
Rotessa
Hubdoc
ADP

Accounting That Understands How an Equipment Finance Company Actually Works

An equipment finance company carries a tax profile no ordinary service business has. Your lease revenue is taxable and carries HST; your loan interest is an exempt financial service; you are usually making both kinds of supply out of one ledger. Your largest asset is a fleet of depreciable property spread across capital cost allowance classes, and every contract ends in a disposal that produces recapture or a terminal loss. At Gondaliya CPA we understand how a lessor actually earns money and provide practical, asset-aware solutions across the GTA and all of Ontario.

💰

Taxable Lease Revenue

Leasing equipment supplies tangible personal property. You charge 13% HST on lease payments and recover the tax on the machines you buy.

💵

Exempt Loan Interest

Interest on a loan secured by equipment is an exempt financial service under ETA section 123(1), so credits on inputs used to earn it are restricted.

📈

Depreciable Fleet

Units on lease are depreciable property, not inventory, sitting in Class 8 at 20% or Class 10 at 30% with the half-year rule.

🛡

Residual and Recapture

Lease profit is decided at end of term, and disposals above undepreciated capital cost bring recapture under ITA 13(1).

Stay Compliant and Minimize Your Equipment Finance Tax

For a lessor, staying onside with CRA and paying the least legal tax are the same job. We keep every filing on schedule while classifying your lease revenue, your interest income and your fleet the way the rules actually require, so nothing is missed and nothing invites a reassessment.

📋

Taxable Leases, Loan Interest and the Mixed Supplier Problem

A lease of equipment is a taxable supply of tangible personal property: you charge 13% HST on lease payments and you claim input tax credits on the equipment and inputs used to make those supplies. Interest on an equipment-secured loan is a different thing entirely, an exempt financial service under ETA section 123(1), with no tax charged and credits restricted. A company writing both is a mixed supplier, and its input tax credits must be apportioned on a fair and reasonable basis, with the method documented and applied the same way every period. We build that split and stand behind it.

✅

CRA Obligations for Equipment Lessors

Staying compliant means more than one return a year. We manage the HST on taxable lease billings, the input tax credit apportionment across the two halves of your book, capital cost allowance on Schedule 8 with the half-year rule in the acquisition year, recapture and terminal losses as units come off lease, interest on your funding line deducted under ITA 20(1)(c) with principal excluded, T4 payroll and PD7A source deductions, and WSIB from the first hire. By watching what CRA actually reviews on a lessor file, we reduce your exposure.

📈

Year-End Deliverables for Lessors

At year-end an equipment finance corporation needs a trial balance and financial statements that carry the fleet as depreciable property at cost less accumulated depreciation, split lease revenue from interest income, show the funding line and its covenants, and disclose the residual assumptions behind the portfolio, plus a T2 with GIFI on Schedule 125 and Schedule 100 and a Schedule 8 that ties to the equipment register. Where a funder is involved you also need CPA-compiled financial statements. We prepare every deliverable on time.

Accounting & Tax Experts for Equipment Finance Companies

Gondaliya CPA equipment finance accounting expertsGondaliya CPA equipment finance tax experts
  • AFFORDABLE + Fully Registered CPA Firm
  • Business and Corporate Tax Expert
  • Small & Medium Business Expert
  • Accounting, bookkeeping, and tax filing
  • Certified CPA
  • 1300+ 5-star Google reviews
  • 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
  • 60-Day Fees Matching Policy

Why Choose Our Accounting Services for Equipment Finance Companies?

1
🎯

Tax Planning — Residual, Recapture & Rate

We keep active income under the $500,000 Small Business Deduction at roughly 12.2% in Ontario, time disposals so recapture under ITA 13(1) is absorbed by additions to the same class, and plan the eventual share sale around the $1.25M Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption.

2
💳

Consulting — Lease Book vs Loan Book

Our bookkeeping keeps taxable lease revenue and exempt interest income on separate lines, maintains a unit-level equipment sub-ledger with cost, class and residual, apportions input tax credits on a documented basis, and accretes finance income across the term.

3
🛡

CRA Representation — HST & CCA Audit

When CRA questions your HST on lease billings, your input tax credit apportionment, who is entitled to claim capital cost allowance, or a recapture figure on disposal, we prepare the response, rebuild the class from the original additions, and pursue relief on Form RC4288 where a prior error caused the penalties.

4
🏢

Bookkeeping — Payroll & Portfolio Growth

We run T4 payroll for credit, documentation and remarketing staff with PD7A remittances and records of employment, register you with WSIB from the first hire, and model the profit level at which incorporating pays for itself.

★
Fully Licensed CPA Ontario
★
1300+ ★★★★★
Google Reviews
★
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
★
60-Day Fees-Matching Policy
ACTIVELY ACCEPTING
Equipment Finance Clients
Includes personal T1 filing for you and your family
Convenient Availability
Weekend and evening support until 9 PM
Always Within Reach
Just a call away when you need us

Equipment Finance Tax and Accounting Services in Ontario

📄

Corporate Tax Filing (T2) for Equipment Finance Companies

T2 preparation with GIFI, lease and interest revenue on the right Schedule 125 lines, and Schedule 8 capital cost allowance on every unit you own.

💳

Bookkeeping & Accounting for Equipment Finance Companies

Lease-book and loan-book bookkeeping with a unit-level equipment sub-ledger, monthly reporting and statements built for a lessor.

💵

Payroll Services for Equipment Finance Companies

T4 payroll for credit, documentation and remarketing staff, with PD7A remittances, records of employment and vacation pay handled correctly.

🧾

GST/HST Filing for Equipment Finance Companies

AFFORDABLE HST filing that charges 13% on taxable lease billings, recovers your input tax credits, and reports the loan side on its own footing.

📈

Tax Planning for Equipment Finance Companies

Planning around residual realisation, recapture timing, the Small Business Deduction, funding-line interest and the eventual sale of the company.

⏳

Corporate Catch-Up Filing for Equipment Finance Companies

File overdue T2, HST and payroll years, rebuild the capital cost allowance schedule, and get back into CRA compliance without guesswork.

🛡

CRA Audit Resolution for Equipment Finance Companies

Expert support on HST, input-tax-credit apportionment, capital cost allowance and recapture reviews, with RC4288 relief handled with confidence.

📊

CPA Financial Statements (Notice to Reader) for Equipment Finance Companies

CPA-compiled statements your funder accepts, presenting equipment on lease as depreciable property and splitting lease revenue from interest income.

🏢

Incorporation Services for Equipment Finance Companies

Full incorporation including NUANS, articles, share structure, HST registration, and the section 85 rollover of equipment you already own.

📒

Catch-Up Bookkeeping Services for Equipment Finance Companies

Reconstruct months or years of lease billing and unit-level cost records, rebuild the equipment register, and restore monthly reporting.

🌐

US Corporation & LLC Tax Filing for Equipment Finance Companies

Cross-border filing for lessors with US customers or subsidiaries, covering Forms 1120, 1120-F and 5472 alongside your Canadian returns.

📜

Voluntary Disclosure Program for Equipment Finance Companies

Come forward on unreported lease revenue or uncharged HST through the CRA Voluntary Disclosures Program, filing Form RC199 before an audit starts.

Accounting & Tax Services Tailored for Equipment Finance Companies

Real, practitioner-level CPA expertise for equipment lessors, vendor finance programs, specialty and municipal lessors, asset-based finance companies and equipment-secured lenders across Ontario — built for how a lease book and a loan book actually run side by side.

  • We prepare your T2 with GIFI so lease revenue, finance income and interest income land on the correct Schedule 125 lines, and the equipment you own and lease out appears on Schedule 100 as depreciable property rather than inventory.
  • We claim capital cost allowance on Schedule 8 for every unit on lease, with general equipment in Class 8 at 20% and qualifying vehicles in Class 10 at 30%, applying the half-year rule in the year each unit is acquired.
  • When a unit comes off lease and sells above its undepreciated capital cost, we compute recapture under ITA 13(1), or the terminal loss where a class is emptied, and timing a replacement purchase into that class absorbed $31,000 of recapture for one lessor.
  • We deduct the interest on your own funding line under ITA 20(1)(c) while keeping principal repayments out of the expense account, a split prior preparers get wrong often enough that correcting it moved $18,400 of deductions into the right years.
  • We keep your active income under the $500,000 small business deduction limit so the first half-million of lease and finance profit is taxed near 12.2% in Ontario, and we watch the associated-corporation rules before CRA grinds that limit down.
  • We build a chart of accounts that keeps the lease book and the loan book on separate revenue lines from day one, because the two carry opposite HST treatments and a single blended account makes your return impossible to support.
  • We set up an equipment sub-ledger so every unit on lease carries its cost, its CCA class, its accumulated depreciation and its expected residual, which is the only way to see what a unit is actually worth when it comes back.
  • We recognise finance income across the term of each contract instead of taking it up front, and restating this moved $46,000 of income out of the first year and into the periods it was actually earned for one lessor.
  • When a unit is repossessed we book it as an asset event, not a bad-debt event: the equipment returns to your books at a supportable carrying value and is re-leased or remarketed, which is a completely different entry from writing off a receivable.
  • We capture supplier invoices, delivery and installation costs, inspection fees and freight through Dext and attach each one to the right unit, so a $27,000 pool of capitalisable cost is documented rather than lost to a missing receipt.
  • We run payroll for your credit, documentation and remarketing staff with source deductions remitted on the PD7A schedule CRA assigns you, because a late remittance carries a graduated penalty that reaches 10% of the amount you were required to send.
  • We file your T4 slips and T4 Summary by the last day of February and reconcile them to every PD7A remitted during the year, so the year-end totals match and CRA never opens a payroll discrepancy review on your file.
  • We register you with WSIB from your first hire and keep the classification and reported earnings current, because coverage obligations start with the first employee, and a gap found years later is far more expensive to unwind than registering on time.
  • We monitor Ontario employer health tax so you begin remitting only once your payroll passes the $1,000,000 exemption, and we correct the filings of lessors who registered early and paid EHT on payroll that was never subject to it.
  • We handle commission and bonus pay for your originators, issue records of employment on separation, track vacation pay under the Employment Standards Act, and one lessor recovered $6,100 in over-remitted source deductions once the register was rebuilt.
  • A lease of equipment is a taxable supply of tangible personal property, so we set your billing to charge 13% HST on lease payments in Ontario and file returns that report that tax correctly every single period.
  • Because those supplies are taxable, we claim the input tax credits you are entitled to on the equipment you buy to put on lease and on the inputs used to make the supplies, which is money most lessors leave on the table.
  • The loan side is the opposite: interest on a loan secured by equipment is an exempt financial service under ETA section 123(1), so no HST is charged on that interest and credits on the inputs used to earn it are restricted.
  • Writing both makes you a mixed supplier, so we build an apportionment of your input tax credits on a fair and reasonable basis, document the method in writing, and then apply it consistently period after period.
  • Where you lease into another province we determine the place of supply for that contract and set the rate accordingly rather than defaulting to Ontario, and correcting one blanket 13% billing practice returned $14,700 to customers and closed the exposure.
  • Residual value is where lease profit is actually made or lost, so we model the end-of-term outcome on every deal, purchase option exercised, renewal or remarketing, and show you the after-tax yield rather than the yield in the contract.
  • We plan disposals across the fiscal year so recapture under ITA 13(1) on units sold above undepreciated capital cost is offset by additions to the same class, which for one lessor deferred $22,800 of tax into a later year.
  • We set the salary and dividend mix so active income stays inside the $500,000 small business deduction at roughly 12.2% in Ontario rather than being drawn out and taxed at a top personal rate of 53.53%.
  • We structure the debt on your funding line so the interest stays deductible under ITA 20(1)(c) and traceable to the equipment it financed, because a commingled draw used partly for personal purposes is the first thing a reviewer unwinds.
  • We plan the eventual sale of the company so a gain on qualified small business corporation shares can be sheltered under the $1.25M lifetime capital gains exemption, and we purify the balance sheet years ahead of a sale rather than weeks before.
  • When several T2 years are outstanding we file them in order, rebuilding the capital cost allowance schedule year by year so the undepreciated capital cost carried into the current year is defensible instead of simply guessed.
  • We reconstruct disposals from bills of sale and remarketing records so every unit that left the fleet is matched to proceeds, and the recapture or terminal loss falls in the year it belongs rather than being dumped into the latest return.
  • We file the overdue HST returns alongside the T2s, because a lessor who never charged tax on a taxable supply usually also never claimed the credits on the equipment, and the two corrections have to be worked together.
  • We bring payroll current at the same time, filing the missing T4 slips and Summaries and reconciling them to the PD7A record, so a graduated late-remittance penalty reaching 10% is argued down rather than simply paid.
  • Where penalties and interest have built up we apply for relief on Form RC4288 under the taxpayer relief provisions, and one lessor four years behind filed everything and had a five-figure penalty balance substantially reduced.
  • The audit that finds equipment lessors most often is the HST one: a reviewer asks why tax was not charged on lease payments, or why credits were claimed against income that was never taxable, and we answer with the contracts.
  • When your input tax credit apportionment is challenged, we produce the written method, show it was applied consistently across periods, and demonstrate that the basis chosen was fair and reasonable for the mix of business you actually wrote.
  • Where CRA questions who is entitled to claim capital cost allowance on a unit, we set out the substance of the arrangement, who bears the risks and rewards of ownership, rather than resting on how the document happens to be titled.
  • On a recapture reassessment we rebuild the class from the original additions forward and prove the undepreciated capital cost the auditor is working from is wrong, and one lessor saw a proposed $38,000 income inclusion cut to under $9,000.
  • We handle the correspondence, meet the deadlines in the proposal letter, file the notice of objection where the assessment is wrong, and pursue relief on Form RC4288 where penalties and interest arose from a prior preparer error.
  • We compile financial statements that present equipment held on lease as depreciable property carried at cost less accumulated depreciation, never as inventory, which is the presentation a funder reads before extending or renewing your facility.
  • The statements separate lease revenue from interest income so a reader can see the two halves of your book, and so the HST position behind each half is visible instead of buried in one blended revenue line.
  • Whether a contract is a true lease or in substance a conditional sale drives who holds the asset on the balance sheet, and we test that by the substance of the arrangement rather than by what the agreement happens to be called.
  • We disclose the residual value assumptions sitting behind the fleet, because a funder who cannot see what you expect units to be worth at end of term cannot size a facility, and one lessor limit rose by $400,000 once they could.
  • Finance income is presented as earned across the term of each contract rather than recognised at inception, so the statements show an earnings pattern that matches the cash the portfolio actually produces month after month.
  • We handle the full incorporation, NUANS search, articles, minute book and share structure, so your lease and loan book is written inside a corporation taxed near 12.2% on the first $500,000 of active income in Ontario.
  • Where you already own equipment personally and want it inside the company, we transfer it on a section 85 rollover filed on Form T2057 so the move happens at an elected amount instead of triggering a gain on day one.
  • We set the share structure so a future sale can qualify for the $1.25M lifetime capital gains exemption, and we review the asset tests early because the mix of leasing and lending in your company affects whether the shares will qualify.
  • We register the corporation for HST from the start, because a lessor making taxable supplies needs a number before it can charge tax on lease payments or claim credits on the first machines it buys.
  • We model the break-even honestly: incorporation costs a flat $35 with us plus annual T2 filing, so if your lease profit is fully drawn out each year the deferral is worth little and we will tell you to wait.
  • We reconstruct months or years of lease billing, receipts and unit-level cost records from bank statements, supplier invoices and contract files, so the books behind your overdue returns are built on documents rather than on estimates.
  • We rebuild the equipment sub-ledger from scratch where none existed, assigning each unit its cost, class and in-service date, which for one lessor uncovered $63,000 of capital additions that had been expensed and never depreciated.
  • We separate the lease book from the loan book retroactively, period by period, so the HST returns that follow can charge tax on one stream and report the other correctly instead of averaging the two together.
  • We set up QuickBooks Online or Xero properly once the history is clean, with recurring lease billing, the equipment register and the funding-line schedule all in place, so the catch-up is the last one you ever need.
  • We keep six years of supporting records organised the way section 230 of the Income Tax Act requires, so when a reviewer asks for the file on a unit sold three years ago it takes minutes rather than weeks.
  • Lessors with equipment on lease to US customers or a US subsidiary face a second filing system, and we prepare Forms 1120 or 1120-F alongside your Canadian T2 so that the two returns tell the same story.
  • Where a US corporation is 25% foreign-owned or transacts with a related Canadian party, Form 5472 reporting applies, and we prepare it with the intercompany lease and funding flows documented rather than reconstructed under pressure.
  • We apply the Canada-United States tax treaty to determine where your lease and finance income is taxable and claim foreign tax credits on the Canadian side, so that the same profit is not taxed twice over.
  • We review whether US state filing obligations arise from equipment physically located in a state, because a machine sitting on a customer floor in another jurisdiction is a fact that state tax authorities pay attention to.
  • We coordinate the two year-ends, the two depreciation systems and the currency translation so the fleet is not depreciated on one basis in Canada and an incompatible basis in the United States, saving one group $11,500 in duplicated adjustments.
  • Where lease revenue or HST went unreported for years, the Voluntary Disclosures Program lets you come forward before CRA finds you, and we file the application on Form RC199 with the corrected figures attached.
  • An application must be genuinely voluntary, complete, and relate to information at least one year past due, so we assess whether you qualify before you disclose anything rather than after the door has already closed.
  • Voluntary is the condition lessors lose most often: once CRA has contacted you about the period, or an audit of a customer has already reached your contracts, the opportunity is usually gone for good.
  • Complete means every year and every stream, so we rebuild the lease billing, the interest income and the disposals together, because a partial disclosure that leaves one year out can put the whole application at risk.
  • A successful application reduces penalties and part of the arrears interest, and for a lessor who had never charged tax on $340,000 of lease billings the relief and the recovered credits together were worth over $40,000.

Equipment Lease & HST Check

Six quick questions on your HST on lease billings, input tax credits, the lease-versus-loan split, capital cost allowance on the fleet, residual tracking and whether it is time to incorporate. No fee shown.

1. Are you charging 13% HST on your lease payments?

2. Are you claiming input tax credits on equipment bought to put on lease?

3. If you also write loans, do you apportion credits on a documented basis?

4. Is capital cost allowance being claimed on every unit you own on lease?

5. Do you track an expected residual value on each contract?

6. Is your equipment finance business incorporated yet?


Free CPA Consultation for Equipment Finance Companies

Case Studies: Equipment Finance Accounting & Tax

Brampton Equipment Lessor — HST Never Charged on Lease Billings

The problem: A Brampton company leasing food-processing equipment had never charged HST on a single lease invoice. The owner had simply assumed finance income was not taxable. In fact a lease of equipment is a taxable supply of tangible personal property, so 13% HST was owed on every payment billed in Ontario, and because the company thought its supplies carried no tax it had never claimed a dollar of input tax credits on the machines it bought.

What we did: We quantified the uncollected tax across the open periods, corrected the billing so lease invoices carried HST, and rebuilt the purchase history of the fleet to claim the credits that had never been taken.

The result:

  • Lease billing corrected to a taxable footing
  • Input tax credits recovered across the fleet
  • Net exposure a fraction of the gross figure

Cambridge Lessor — Fleet Expensed Instead of Capitalised

The problem: A Cambridge lessor of construction and material-handling equipment had been expensing every machine in the year of purchase. Units on lease are depreciable property, not inventory, so the returns showed enormous losses while the fleet was built and nothing to deduct afterwards. There was no equipment register, no capital cost allowance schedule, and no record of what had been sold off lease or what it fetched.

What we did: We rebuilt the fleet from purchase invoices, assigned each unit to its CCA class, ran the half-year rule in the correct acquisition years, and reconstructed every disposal so recapture and terminal losses landed where they belonged.

The result:

  • $63,000 of capital additions restored to the schedule
  • Recapture and terminal losses placed in the right years
  • Unit-level equipment register built and maintained

London Lessor — One Ledger for Two Opposite Tax Profiles

The problem: A London company wrote both equipment leases and equipment-secured loans, often for the same customers, and ran every dollar through one revenue account. Nobody could tell which HST returns covered taxable lease billings and which covered interest that is an exempt financial service under ETA section 123(1). Input tax credits on shared overhead were claimed in full, with no apportionment, no method written down and no consistency between periods.

What we did: We split the ledger into a lease book and a loan book, restated the affected periods, and built an input tax credit apportionment on a fair and reasonable basis, with the method set out in writing.

The result:

  • Lease and loan revenue now reported separately
  • Documented input tax credit apportionment in place
  • Method applied consistently period after period

Our Simple Process

How We Work With Equipment Finance Companies

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 and HST returns, the lease and loan contracts, equipment purchase invoices, disposal records, funding-line agreements, payroll and T4 records, and bank statements.

Step 2

First 30 Days (Cleanup & Setup)

Set up QuickBooks Online or Xero, split the lease book from the loan book, build the unit-level equipment sub-ledger, and set the HST billing and input tax credit apportionment.

Step 3

Monthly Close

Lease billing and HST reconciliation, finance income accreted over the term, equipment additions and disposals posted, funding-line interest split from principal, payroll and PD7A remittances.

Step 4

Quarterly Planning Review

Capital cost allowance position by class, recapture exposure on planned disposals, residual assumptions against actual realisations, salary and dividend mix, and input tax credit apportionment review.

Step 5

Year-End Close & T2 Filing

Trial balance, financial statements carrying the fleet as depreciable property, Schedule 8 tied to the equipment register, T2 with GIFI, payroll slips, and CRA preparation.

Get Your Equipment Finance Taxes Done Right Today

Transparent Pricing for Equipment Finance Companies

Affordable Pricing for Equipment Finance Companies

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 Equipment Finance Accountant

Meet your lead equipment finance accountant. As your HST, capital cost allowance 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 equipment finance and small-business owners across Ontario and Canada.

Serving Equipment Finance Companies Across Ontario

Our CPA team provides specialized accounting and tax solutions for equipment finance companies throughout Ontario. We understand how taxable lease billings, exempt interest income, input tax credit apportionment, capital cost allowance on the fleet and end-of-term disposals actually flow through a lessor, what CRA looks at on a mixed-supplier file, and where the real margin sits once residuals are realised.

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, Canada

+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

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Ottawa (ON)

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

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Etobicoke (ON)

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

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Hamilton (ON)

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

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Guelph (ON)

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

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Windsor (ON)

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

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

North York (ON)

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

+1 (647) 212-9559

9:00 AM – 8:30 PM (Mon – Sun)

Equipment Finance Accounting & Tax FAQs

Should I incorporate my equipment finance company?
Incorporating gives you limited liability, a 12.2% Ontario combined rate on the first $500,000 of active business income, the ability to split income between salary and dividends, and access to the $1.25M Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption on a future share sale, none of which a sole proprietorship offers. As a sole proprietor your lease and finance profit is taxed at your full personal rate, reaching 53.53% in Ontario, whether you draw it or leave it in the business. For a lessor there is a second reason that matters more than it does for most trades: the equipment you buy sits on the balance sheet for years, and a corporation is a far cleaner place to hold depreciable property, carry a funding line and account for disposals than a personal return is. The decision still turns on whether you consistently earn more than you need to withdraw, because that surplus is what a corporation lets you defer. Incorporation brings annual T2 filing and higher compliance cost, so it is not free. When the answer is yes, we handle the incorporation and the section 85 rollover of equipment you already own on Form T2057.
Do I charge HST on lease payments?
Yes. A lease of equipment is a taxable supply of tangible personal property, so you charge 13% HST on the lease payments you invoice in Ontario, the same way you would on any other taxable supply. This is the single most common error we correct on an equipment finance file. An owner reasons that the business is a finance business, assumes the revenue therefore carries no tax, and bills customers without HST for years. The correction is painful, because the tax was owed whether or not it was collected. It does cut both ways, though: a supplier making taxable supplies also recovers the HST paid on the equipment itself, and that recovery is often large enough to offset a meaningful part of the assessment. We correct the billing going forward, quantify the exposure behind you, and claim the credits that were never taken.
Is an equipment loan treated differently from a lease?
Completely differently, and that is the heart of this page. When you lease, you supply tangible personal property and the supply is taxable. When you lend against equipment instead, you are supplying a financial service, and interest on that loan is exempt under ETA section 123(1): you charge no HST on the interest, and the input tax credits on inputs used to earn it are restricted. The same customer, the same machine and the same week can produce two opposite tax outcomes depending on which paper was signed. That is why the first thing we do on an equipment finance file is read the contracts and split the book, because a general ledger that blends the two streams cannot produce a defensible return for either of them.
Can I claim input tax credits if I write both leases and loans?
Partly, and the split has to be built rather than assumed. On the leasing side you are making taxable supplies, so you claim the HST paid on the equipment you buy to put on lease and on the inputs used to make those supplies. On the lending side the financial service is exempt, so credits on inputs used to earn that interest are restricted. A company writing both is a mixed supplier, and the Excise Tax Act requires the credits on shared overhead, rent, software, professional fees, to be apportioned on a fair and reasonable basis. What matters in a review is not which formula you picked but that you can show the method, explain why it is reasonable for your book, and demonstrate that you applied it the same way every period. We build that method, document it, and keep it consistent.
Who claims capital cost allowance on leased equipment?
On a true lease, the lessor owns the asset and claims the capital cost allowance on it. That is the defining economic feature of leasing: you carry the machine on your balance sheet, you take the depreciation, and the customer deducts the lease payments instead. Equipment held on lease is depreciable property and never inventory, no matter how quickly units turn over. It sits in a CCA class, typically Class 8 at 20% for general equipment or Class 10 at 30% for qualifying vehicles, with the half-year rule applying in the year a unit is acquired. Where the substance of the arrangement is a conditional sale or a financing arrangement rather than a lease, the treatment differs and the deduction may not be yours at all, which is why the paperwork gets read before the schedule is prepared.
What is the difference between a true lease and a conditional sale?
A true lease leaves ownership with you and gives the customer the use of the equipment for a term. A conditional sales contract transfers the equipment to the customer and takes back security, with the payments really being instalments on a purchase price. The distinction matters because it decides who holds the asset, who claims the depreciation, and how the revenue is characterised. It turns on the substance of the arrangement, not on what the document is titled. Calling an agreement a lease does not make it one if everything about it, the economics, the obligations and what happens at the end, points to a sale. We read the actual terms, form a supportable view, and document the reasoning while the file is being set up rather than after a reviewer has raised it.
Why does residual value matter so much to lease profit?
Because that is where the profit on a lease is genuinely made or lost, and it is the one number that never appears in the lease document. You priced the contract on an assumption about what the unit would be worth when it came back. If the assumption was right, the deal earns what you modelled. If the market moved, or the equipment came back in worse condition than expected, or the customer walked away from a purchase option you were counting on, the realised yield is nothing like the quoted one. We track the assumed residual on every contract against what actually happened at end of term, so you can see which asset classes are earning what you think they are earning and reprice the ones that are not.
How is an end-of-term purchase option handled?
It depends on what happens, and the accounting and the tax both follow the event. If the customer exercises the option and buys the unit, that is a disposal: the proceeds go against the undepreciated capital cost of the class, and recapture or a terminal loss can result. If the customer renews, the unit stays on your books and keeps depreciating. If the unit comes back and is remarketed, you have an asset to sell and the same disposal mechanics apply whenever it goes. A purchase option priced far below the expected market value is also one of the facts that can point toward the arrangement being a sale in substance rather than a lease, so we look at how the options are priced across your standard paper, not just on the one deal in front of us.
What happens when I repossess equipment?
You get an asset back, not a bad debt. That distinction sounds academic and is worth real money. A defaulted lease usually means the unit returns to your possession, comes back onto the books at a supportable carrying value, and is then re-leased or sold. The accounting entry is an asset event, and what you eventually realise on the unit flows through the capital cost allowance class when it is disposed of. Treating the whole exposure as a write-off understates your assets and overstates your loss, and it is the wrong answer when a funder or CRA looks at the file. There are costs around a repossession, recovery, transport, refurbishment, storage and registration fees among them, and we make sure those are captured against the right unit so the true cost of the default is visible.
What is recapture when I sell a unit off lease?
Recapture arises under ITA 13(1) where the proceeds on a disposal exceed the undepreciated capital cost remaining in the class. In plain terms, you deducted depreciation faster than the equipment actually lost value, and CRA takes that excess back into income in the year of the sale. The mirror image is a terminal loss, which arises where a class is emptied and there is still undepreciated capital cost left in it. For a lessor this is not an occasional event, it is the normal end of every contract, and it is exactly where optimistic residual assumptions get tested against the market. We plan disposals across the fiscal year and time replacement purchases into the same class, because additions absorb proceeds and can keep a recapture pickup from landing all at once.
When do I recognise finance income on a lease?
Across the term, not up front. The yield on a lease is earned as the customer has the use of the equipment and as your capital stays out, so the income belongs to the periods over which the contract runs. Taking it into income at inception overstates the year you wrote the deal, understates every year after it, and produces statements that do not match the cash the portfolio is actually generating. It also distorts your tax position in both directions. We set the books up so finance income accretes over the term, and where a previous bookkeeper front-loaded it, we restate the affected periods so the earnings pattern reflects how the portfolio really behaves.
What can an equipment finance company write off?
The equipment you own and lease out is not written off at all in the year you buy it, it is capitalised and depreciated through capital cost allowance, and that is the biggest single item on the return. Around that, the deductible operating costs are the ordinary ones: interest on your funding line under ITA 20(1)(c) but never the principal, credit bureau and appraisal costs, legal fees on documentation, registration fees, transport and refurbishment on returned units, storage, software and the asset management system, salaries and source deductions, office rent, professional fees and reasonable vehicle costs for inspections. The judgment calls are usually about timing rather than eligibility: whether a cost attaches to a unit and is capitalised, or belongs in the period as an expense. We make that call consistently and document it.
I have never filed a T2 for my equipment finance company. What should I do?
File, and file before CRA contacts you, because the options narrow sharply once they do. We take the years in order, rebuild the capital cost allowance schedule from the original equipment purchases forward so the undepreciated capital cost carried into the current year is defensible, match every disposal to its proceeds, and prepare each outstanding return. The HST returns are done at the same time, since a company that never filed a T2 has usually never filed those either, and the credits on the equipment are often large enough to change the size of the final bill. Where relief is available we apply on Form RC4288, and where the situation qualifies as voluntary, complete and at least one year past due, the Voluntary Disclosures Program on Form RC199 is the better route. We will tell you plainly which one fits.

Related Industries We Serve

Accountant for Private Lenders

  • Exempt interest income and restricted credits
  • Corporate tax planning and financial statements
  • Bookkeeping and loan portfolio accounting

Accountant for Factoring Companies

  • HST treatment of fee and discount income
  • T2 corporate returns and GIFI
  • Bookkeeping and portfolio reporting

Accounting for Small Businesses

  • Corporate tax planning for small businesses
  • Business tax filing and financial statements
  • Payroll and bookkeeping services

Accountant for Incorporated Businesses

  • T2 corporate returns and GIFI
  • Salary, dividend and SBD planning
  • Compilation statements and incorporation

Equipment Finance Accounting & Tax Done Right.

T2 filing, 13% HST charged on taxable lease payments with input tax credits recovered, capital cost allowance on the fleet, recapture and terminal losses on disposal, residual tracking, payroll and incorporation under one roof. Exempt loan interest under ETA section 123(1) is reported on its own footing, with a fair and reasonable input tax credit apportionment built for mixed suppliers. AFFORDABLE flat fees, no hourly billing. Licensed CPA Ontario. 1300+ five-star reviews. 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee.


Scroll to Top