What the certificate allows, in plain terms
A denturist practises through a corporation only with a Certificate of Authorization from the College of Denturists of Ontario, renewed annually and tied to a corporation that keeps meeting the conditions. The name must include your surname and the words Professional Corporation. Every share must be held by a member of the College, and directors and officers must be shareholders, which means the corporation is yours alone or shared with another denturist, never with family.
Two consequences follow. The family-share privilege you may have heard about from dental colleagues does not apply to you; it exists only for physicians and dentists. And professional liability stays personal, certificate or not, so the corporation's protective value is commercial: the lease, the equipment loan and the supplier accounts can sit in the company's name instead of yours.
The math that says go, or wait
The corporation earns its keep through deferral: active income up to $500,000 taxed at roughly 12.2% combined in Ontario, against personal rates that climb past 50%. That gap only pays when money actually stays in the corporation. A clinic whose profit is fully consumed by the household gains little beyond new filing obligations, an annual T2, corporate records and a College renewal on top of your member fees.
So the test is cash you do not spend. When the practice reliably earns more than the family draws, incorporation converts the surplus into low-taxed working capital; until then, waiting costs almost nothing. One timing exception: if you are about to buy a practice, sign a lease or borrow for a fit-out, incorporate first, so the obligations start life in the corporation instead of being moved later. Our Incorporation engagement includes this go-or-wait analysis before any paperwork is drafted.
The order of operations
Sequence matters more than speed, because each step depends on the one before it:
- Articles first. Incorporate under the Ontario Business Corporations Act with the share conditions and restricted business a health profession corporation requires; generic articles get rejected at the College.
- Certificate second. Apply to the CDO for the Certificate of Authorization; billing through the corporation before it is issued is the classic misstep.
- CRA accounts third. The corporation is a new taxpayer: corporate income tax account, payroll if there is staff or owner salary, and a new GST/HST registration, because your personal registration and its input tax credit history do not transfer.
- Move the practice last. Equipment and goodwill roll in under a section 85 election so accrued gains do not tax out on the way, and the GST44 election keeps HST from cycling through the transfer as a cash-flow round trip.
Switch day: what must move, and what breaks if it does not
The legal step is one day; the operational tail is what catches people. The clinic that incorporated in March and was still being paid in its personal name in June has a bookkeeping mess and a tax question nobody wanted:
| What must move | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| ODSP and insurer billing records | Assignment payments keep flowing to the old name until provider files are updated |
| CDCP enrolment with Sun Life | The federal plan pays the enrolled entity, and re-enrolment is not automatic |
| GST/HST registration on the books | Input tax credits claimed under the wrong number are the corporation's money sitting in your old account |
| Bank account and card terminal | Deposits into the personal account after switch day blur whose income it was |
| Lease, equipment loans, insurance | Contracts left in your name keep you personally on the hook the corporation was built to take |
We run switch day as a checklist with dates, then hand the new corporation straight into its first corporate tax year with the opening balances already right.
