Set the year-end for the week after the rush
A corporation picks its own fiscal year-end, and for a mover we usually put it at September 30 or October 31, right behind the summer peak. The season's profit is then measured while it is fresh, and every planning lever, the owner's bonus, a dividend declaration, the next truck, gets pulled with the year's real result in hand instead of a February guess. The T2 and most of the compliance work land in winter, when the trucks are quiet and there is time to sit down. A December 31 year-end does the opposite: it cuts the year at its dead point and drops filing season into the spring ramp-up.
The fleet is a CCA plan, not just a purchase
Trucks are the biggest numbers on a mover's balance sheet, and the Income Tax Act does not treat them all alike. Where each asset lands decides how fast it deducts:
| Asset | CCA class | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Cube vans, lighter straight trucks, trailers | Class 10 | 30% declining balance |
| Freight trucks rated above 11,788 kg GVWR | Class 16 | 40% declining balance |
| Dollies, piano boards, pads, warehouse racking | Class 8 | 20% declining balance |
| Warehouse leasehold improvements | Class 13 | Straight-line over the lease term |
Two timing rules do real work here. Under the accelerated investment rules, eligible equipment bought and available for use before 2028 escapes the half-year rule, so a truck delivered in the last month of the fiscal year still earns its full first-year rate, while the same truck delivered a month later waits a year for that deduction. And because vehicles pool within their class, selling one unit rarely triggers recapture by itself; recapture surfaces when proceeds outrun the pool or the class empties, which is worth checking before a fleet refresh, not after. We time purchases and trade-ins against the year-end with both rules open on the desk, and never recommend buying a truck the business did not already need.
Leasing flips the math entirely: lease payments deduct as they are paid, with no CCA and no recapture waiting at disposal, at the price of owning nothing when the term ends. Which side wins depends on the rate in the lease, how hard your trucks work and how long you keep them, so we run both columns before the dealer does.
Level pay out of a lumpy year
The corporation is the buffer that makes a seasonal income livable. Pay yourself a level salary sized to what the household actually spends, leave the peak surplus inside the company at roughly 12.2% combined Ontario small-business tax, and decide any dividend top-up after year-end, when the season's result is known rather than hoped for. Whether the mix leans salary or dividend turns on RRSP room, CPP and how much should stay invested in trucks and the warehouse, and we re-run that split every fall instead of letting last year's answer harden. Family belongs in the plan too, honestly: a teenager who spends July carrying furniture or a spouse who runs dispatch can be paid a defensible wage for real work, on T4 with timesheets, while dividends to family members are the route TOSI usually closes.
Instalments, and HST money that was never yours
Once corporate tax owing passes $3,000, instalments begin, and they land with no respect for the calendar of work: the payments fall due in months when the phones are quiet. We set the schedule from the current year's expectation rather than last year's alone, and we put every date on one cash calendar next to HST. The HST point is behavioural: the 13% collected across a fat July is not revenue, and the remittance that follows the peak quarter is the largest cheque of the season, so clients who park collected HST as it arrives file that quarter without flinching. The rate mechanics, including destination-based tax on interprovincial moves, live on our moving company tax services page. Storage income helps more than owners expect: a steady monthly storage base makes instalments, payroll and the winter itself predictable.
Planning is a standing conversation, not a year-end scramble
All of this is Tax Planning & Advisory: a sit-down before the fiscal year closes, while salary, dividends and equipment timing can still change the answer, plus short check-ins when a decision comes up mid-season. It works from current books, which is what the monthly close inside End-to-End Accounting exists to produce, and the plan is scoped and quoted in writing after a free 15-minute discovery call.
