What Your Accountant Actually Needs from You (and When)
Updated September 23, 2026 · 19 min read · Ledg
Every year, the same thing happens. Your accountant sends an email asking for your documents. You scramble for two weeks. They follow up. You send half the files. They ask clarifying questions. You dig through old emails. The return finally gets filed, and you swear next year will be different.
Here's how to actually make it different: what your accountant needs, the dates that decide when they need it, what to do in the three months before your year-end, and the mistakes that turn a simple file into an expensive one.
This page is written for a corporation filing a T2. A sole proprietor's year-end runs through the personal return and Form T2125 instead; see how to file T2125.
The complete document checklist
Your accountant needs these items to prepare your corporation's T2. Provide the applicable items and flag anything that does not apply or is missing.
Books and statements
| Document | What it is | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|
| General ledger for the full fiscal year | Every transaction, categorized, as one export from your bookkeeping | Your bookkeeping tool |
| Trial balance and chart of accounts | The closing balance of every account, and the list of accounts you used | Your bookkeeping tool |
| Bank statements (all 12 months) | Every account the corporation uses | Your bank's online portal |
| Credit card statements (all 12 months) | Every business card | Your credit card provider |
| Loan statements | Business loans, lines of credit | Your lender |
| Investment statements | Corporate investment accounts, if the corporation holds any | Your brokerage |
The general ledger and trial balance are what turn a pile of statements into books. Without them, your accountant is building them for you.
Income
| Document | What it is |
|---|---|
| Invoices issued during the year | Every sale, from your invoicing tool or records |
| Unpaid invoices at year-end | Your accounts receivable list, invoice by invoice |
| Contracts with major clients | Terms, rates and dates for the work behind the revenue |
Expenses and assets
| Document | What it is |
|---|---|
| Receipts for every expense | Proof of each business purchase, from your email, phone or files. Include the business purpose and attendees where relevant |
| Invoices for equipment, furniture and computers | Capital purchases, which are claimed through capital cost allowance rather than expensed |
| Vehicle logbook (if you claim a vehicle) | Odometer at the start and end of the year, and each business trip's date, destination, purpose and kilometres |
| Home office details | Square footage of the office and of the whole home, the year's household bills, and any rental agreement |
The logbook contents come from CRA's motor vehicle records page. After one full-year logbook sets a base year, CRA accepts a three-month sample log in later years as long as business use stays within 10% of the base year. More in vehicle expenses and our vehicle expense guide.
Payroll, dividends and the shareholder loan
| Document | What it is | When it's needed |
|---|---|---|
| T4 slips and T4 Summary | Salary paid to yourself or employees, and the annual payroll summary | If you paid salary |
| Payroll remittance records | CPP, income tax and any EI sent to CRA, month by month | If you paid salary |
| T5 slips | Dividends paid | If you paid dividends |
| Dividend resolutions | The directors' resolutions declaring each dividend, with the amounts paid | If you paid dividends |
| Shareholder loan ledger | Every amount you borrowed from or lent to the corporation, every repayment, and the year-end balance | Always |
Last year's paperwork
| Document | What it is |
|---|---|
| Prior year's Notice of Assessment | CRA's assessment of last year's return |
| Previous year's financial statements | The opening balances, and the comparative figures for this year |
| GST/HST returns filed | Every return for the year, monthly, quarterly or annual |
When your accountant needs everything
Timing depends on your fiscal year-end. Three dates matter, and only one of them is the filing deadline.
The table shows ordinary calendar rules before weekend and holiday adjustments; apply the actual year's calendar.
| Fiscal year-end | Tax balance due (2 months) | Tax balance due, qualifying CCPC (3 months) | T2 filing deadline (6 months) |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 31 | February 28 (29 in a leap year) | March 31 | June 30 |
| March 31 | May 31 | June 30 | September 30 |
| June 30 | August 31 | September 30 | December 31 |
The filing deadline. The T2 is due within six months of the end of the tax year. When the year ends on the last day of a month, it is due on the last day of the sixth month after (CRA, when to file your corporation income tax return).
The payment deadline. The balance of tax is generally due two months after year-end. It moves to three months when all of these apply (CRA, balance-due day):
- the corporation is a CCPC throughout the tax year;
- it claimed the small business deduction for the current or the previous tax year; and
- its taxable income for the previous tax year did not exceed its business limit for that year ($500,000 for most corporations). If it is associated with other corporations, the test is their combined taxable income against their combined business limits.
CRA generally waives instalments where the relevant tax payable is $3,000 or less in the current or previous year. Apply the federal and provincial tests correctly, including refundable-credit rules and first-year exceptions. Otherwise monthly or qualifying quarterly instalments may be due (CRA, who has to pay in instalments).
Filing late and paying late cost you in different ways. A late T2 draws a penalty of 5% of the tax unpaid at the filing deadline, plus 1% of that tax for each complete month the return is late, up to 12 months (CRA, avoiding penalties). A late payment draws interest, compounded daily at CRA's prescribed rate, from the day it was due. Neither is deductible.
The slips come first. If the corporation paid salary or dividends in the calendar year, the T4 and T5 slips and their summaries are due on the last day of February (CRA, T4 and T5 filing due date; T5 due date). That applies to the slips and to the summary: there is no separate March date for the summary. An annual GST/HST return is due three months after the fiscal year-end, and monthly or quarterly returns one month after each period (CRA, 2026 tax deadlines). A due date that falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday moves to the next business day. The full calendar is in every tax deadline for Canadian corporations.
Agree on an earlier handoff date. Ask your accountant for a document cutoff that allows the tax balance to be estimated before payment is due. For a December 31 year-end, waiting until March or April can already be too late for a two-month payment deadline.
The earlier you provide documents, the less rushed and more thorough the work will be. Agree on the timetable before the busy filing period begins.
The three months before year-end
Start preparing at least three months before your fiscal year-end. If your year-end is December 31, begin in October. If it is June 30, begin in April.
Three months out: reconcile
Go through every transaction for the year so far and make sure each one is categorized. Flag anything you are unsure about.
- Reconcile every bank and credit card account to its statement.
- Match every bank transaction to an invoice or a receipt.
- Find the personal charges that went through the business account and move them to the shareholder loan.
- Record any money you lent the corporation or borrowed from it.
- Check that every client invoice has been sent and recorded.
Two months out: put revenue in the right year and plan your pay
- Revenue belongs to the year the work was done. A corporation reports income on the accrual basis (cash vs. accrual). Services meeting the applicable recognition criteria in December generally belong in that year even if invoiced in January; review incomplete or contingent contracts separately. Record it, and follow up on unpaid invoices.
- Allocate prepaid expenses. An annual subscription paid in October covers mostly next year; the unused part sits on the balance sheet.
- Measure your home office and total up the household bills (see below).
- Decide how you are paying yourself before the year closes, not after. The mix of salary and dividends changes what your accountant files. A bonus accrued to yourself at year-end is deductible in that year only if it is paid, with payroll deductions withheld, within 179 days after year-end. If it is still unpaid 180 days after year-end, the corporation deducts it only in the year it is actually paid (Income Tax Act s.78(4)).
Holding back an invoice does not move income into next year. For services, the Income Tax Act treats the amount as receivable on the earlier of the day you bill and the day you would have billed without undue delay (s.12(1)(b)). And a CCPC's income is not taxed in rising brackets below the business limit: eligible active business income can qualify for the 9% federal small-business rate within the available business limit, generally up to $500,000 before sharing and reductions; the usual federal general rate is 15% (CRA, corporation tax rates). What you can plan is owner pay and the timing of purchases you need anyway. Talk to your accountant about both.
One month out: prepare the handoff
- Export your general ledger, trial balance and chart of accounts.
- Put every receipt where your accountant can find it, not only the large ones.
- Total the salary and dividends you paid yourself during the year.
- Confirm that every payroll remittance (CPP, income tax and any EI) has been made. If you control more than 40% of the corporation's voting shares, your own employment is not insurable, so no EI comes off your pay (CRA, pensionable and insurable employment; EI premiums).
- Gather the T4 and T5 information for everyone the corporation paid.
Year-end month: close the books
- Record the last expenses of the year, such as software renewals and equipment purchases.
- Accrue expenses incurred but not yet paid, such as a December bill that arrives in January.
- List every capital purchase so your accountant can claim capital cost allowance (CCA) on it.
- Finalize the shareholder loan balance.
- Back up all financial data. CRA generally requires records and supporting documents to be kept for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, while permanent corporate records, late returns and disputes have different retention rules; dissolved corporations generally retain records for two years after dissolution (CRA, how long to keep records; six-year retention rule).
The mistakes that make year-end expensive
1. Missing receipts, and cash spending that never reached the books
"I bought something but I can't find the receipt." Every missing receipt is a potential deduction lost. Digital receipts in your email count. Bank statement line items without receipts are harder to defend in an audit.
The shoebox makes it worse. Receipts go into a drawer, a folder on your desktop, or the trash, and at year-end you spend a weekend reconstructing six months of expenses from bank statements and memory. Small cash purchases are worse still: the parking meter, the coffee with a client, the supplies from the dollar store never show up on a statement, so they vanish from the books entirely.
CRA's rule has no size cut-off: you must keep records of all your transactions to support your income and expense claims. When a seller gives you no receipt, write the details down yourself: the seller's name and address, the date, the amount and what you bought (CRA, business records; electronic records).
The fix: record each purchase when it happens. A 30-second entry with the vendor and amount is infinitely better than nothing. Categorize later.
2. Personal and business money in the same accounts
When your business card has grocery charges and your personal card has office supplies, your accountant has to sort through every transaction to decide what's business and what's personal. That takes time, and it costs you money.
Every personal charge on a business card has to be recorded against you, as a debit to the shareholder loan. Left unrecorded, it is a corporate expense that was never business. If CRA finds the corporation paid your personal costs, the amount can be added to your income as a benefit conferred on a shareholder (Income Tax Act s.15(1); shareholder benefits).
The fix: a dedicated business bank account and credit card. Even with a small monthly fee, the time saved at year-end pays for itself many times over.
3. Transfers nobody labelled
Money moving between your personal and corporate accounts without context. Is it a salary payment? A shareholder loan? A dividend? A capital contribution? If you don't label it, your accountant has to guess.
Each answer has its own paperwork. Salary needs payroll deductions withheld and remitted, so a transfer called salary with nothing sent to CRA is a problem your accountant has to unwind. A dividend needs a directors' resolution and a T5 slip, which is required once the year's total to one person reaches $50 (CRA, T5 guide). Anything you took out that is neither stays on the books as a shareholder loan, and that has a deadline: under section 15(2) of the Income Tax Act, a loan to a shareholder is added to the shareholder's income unless it is repaid within one year after the end of the corporation's tax year in which it was made, and the repayment is not part of a series of loans and repayments (s.15(2) and 15(2.6)). A December 31 corporation that lends you money in March 2026 has until December 31, 2027. The detail is in our shareholder loan guide.
The fix: label every transfer on the day it happens (examples below).
4. GST or HST left inside the expense
For a purchase fully eligible for an ITC under the regular GST/HST method, when you pay $105 in a province that charges only GST, such as Alberta, the actual expense is $100 and the $5 is GST you can claim back as an input tax credit. In Ontario the same $100 purchase costs $113, and $13 of it is HST (CRA, GST/HST rates). Record the full amount as an expense and you overstate your costs and miss the credit.
The credit exists only for a GST/HST registrant, subject to registration, commercial-use and other eligibility requirements, for tax paid or payable with adequate supporting documentation (CRA, input tax credits). If your corporation is not registered, the tax is simply part of the cost (small supplier threshold).
What the receipt must show grows with the amount, under section 3 of the Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations: under $100, the supplier's name, the date and the total; from $100, also the supplier's GST/HST registration number and the tax charged; from $500, also your business name, the payment terms and a description of each item. A card statement line shows none of that, which is one more reason to keep the receipt.
The fix: break out the tax on every purchase. Your bookkeeping tool should do this from the receipt and your province.
5. Home office and equipment claims missed
Home office. Many owners work from home and never claim it. For a corporation, the claim does not work the way it does for a sole proprietor: the household bills are yours, not the corporation's, so it cannot simply deduct them. The usual routes are rent the corporation pays you for the space, or an employee claim on your own return backed by Form T2200 signed by the corporation. An employee claim cannot include mortgage interest, and a salaried employee cannot claim property taxes or home insurance either (CRA, home office expenses for employees). Either way your accountant needs the square footage and the bills. Both routes are walked through in our home office guide for corporations and in home office expense.
Computers, furniture and equipment. Send the purchase invoice, acquisition and available-for-use dates, business-use percentage, and details of any trade-in or related-party purchase. Book capitalization and tax deductions are separate questions. Common tax classes include computer hardware in Class 50 (55%) and furniture in Class 8 (20%). For qualifying Class 50 property acquired after April 15, 2024 and available for use before 2027, the first-year deduction can be 100%. Other eligible new or qualifying used assets can receive accelerated first-year treatment under the enacted incentive rules. Do not assume every used asset is excluded or that every purchase gets an immediate write-off. The operative rules are in Income Tax Regulations 1100 and 1104. See CCA, investment incentives and Class 50 for the conditions your accountant needs to apply.
6. Late payroll remittances
If you pay yourself a salary, a regular remitter's source deductions are due on the 15th of the month after the month the salary was paid; quarterly remitters pay by April 15, July 15, October 15 and January 15. Late remittances draw a penalty of 3% if one to three days late, 5% if four or five, 7% if six or seven, and 10% after seven days or when nothing is remitted (CRA, when to remit; PD7A remittances). Penalties and interest owed to CRA are not deductible (Income Tax Act s.18(1)(t) and s.67.6).
7. Everything arriving just before the agreed cutoff
Sending documents the week before the filing deadline means your accountant is doing rushed work. Rushed work means potential errors or missed deductions. It also means higher fees, since many firms charge a premium for late files.
The version that costs the most is no bookkeeping at all. Handing your accountant a box of receipts and bank statements is not bookkeeping. It's data entry, and your accountant will charge you for it, often at a higher rate than a bookkeeper would. One avoidable source of work is doing the whole year at once, when you've forgotten the context, lost the receipts, and the task feels overwhelming.
How to be the client your accountant loves
Keep books weekly, close them monthly
Set aside regular time to log and categorize transactions. The following is an illustrative monthly budget for a small, simple file, not a promise about the time your books will take:
| Task | Time required |
|---|---|
| Categorize the month's transactions | 15 minutes |
| Scan or save any paper receipts | 5 minutes |
| Reconcile the bank statement | 10 minutes |
| Note any unusual transactions | 5 minutes |
| Total | 35 minutes/month |
This sample monthly routine totals 35 minutes, or seven hours over twelve months, before extra time for complex transactions and year-end work.
Use consistent categories
Pick expense categories and stick with them all year. Don't call it "Office Supplies" in January and "Supplies & Materials" in March. Consistency makes your accountant's job faster and your bill lower.
Label every transfer
Any money moving between personal and corporate accounts should have a clear note: "Salary - January 2026" or "Shareholder loan repayment" or "Dividend payment Q3." Your future self and your accountant will both thank you.
Send everything at once
Don't send documents in five separate emails over three weeks. Compile everything, check it against the checklist above, and send one complete package. If something is missing, say so and when it will be available.
Ask questions early
If you're unsure whether something is deductible, ask your accountant in real time, not at year-end. Most accountants prefer a quick email in July over a complicated question in April when they're buried in filings.
How Ledg helps
Ledg keeps your corporation's books current through the year, so year-end is not a scramble. Money you put in and take out sits under Owner Deposit and Owner Withdrawal, apart from revenue and expenses. When your accountant asks, you download the handoff pack: general ledger, trial balance, a GST/PST summary by quarter and a bank reconciliation, built from the entries you confirmed. If you keep receipts in your own Google Drive, each one is named with the same entry code as its ledger line. You can also give your accountant a free read-only seat on your books instead of sending files. If you connect your AI agent, a cash purchase can go in the moment you make it: show it the receipt, and the entry waits in Stage until you confirm it.
Ledg does not file returns yet. Your accountant still does, and the checklist above is what they will ask you for.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. Consult a qualified accountant for your specific situation.
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