Business returns for ZERO activities

[rendezvous]

Hi all, I have a small business (contracting) on which I have not done any work this year. There is some residual income from last year, but there is no expense, no revenue, no sales, no bills, no receipts, no insurance, no taxes collected, no dividends, no interest, no salaries, no bank fees at all. I have to keep the business running at-least for another few months in case I end up getting a contract. Currently I have a permanent job.

Can someone help me if there is a quick way to file return with minimal hassle? I talked to the accountant who did accounting last year, and he said he'll have to again charge me $1000 for filing the return.

Would any online return service make it easier?
Would I still have to file for the GST even though there is no sale?


Thanks for the replies!
Regards,
~D

[actng]

wow $1000 for filing a return?

[Wonderdollar]

Hi all, I have a small business (contracting) on which I have not done any work this year. There is some residual income from last year, but there is no expense, no revenue, no sales, no bills, no receipts, no insurance, no taxes collected, no dividends, no interest, no salaries, no bank fees at all. I have to keep the business running at-least for another few months in case I end up getting a contract. Currently I have a permanent job.

Can someone help me if there is a quick way to file return with minimal hassle? I talked to the accountant who did accounting last year, and he said he'll have to again charge me $1000 for filing the return.

Would any online return service make it easier?
Would I still have to file for the GST even though there is no sale?


Thanks for the replies!
Regards,
~D

Do you file a simple personal return (T1 General with business schedule T 2125) OR have you an incorporated company and file a T2 tax return? In any case, the accountant is asking way too much money and it is time to change the accountant. Filing of GST return is fairly simple and you need to file NIL return for all the quarters even if there is no income as you have not closed down the business. Thirdly, if you mention your location, then the members here may be able to refer to you to an accountant who would charge a genuine fees in your case.

[rendezvous]

Thanks for the responses. He basically said that he will still need to create balance sheets and income statements and T2 returns, so he charges the fixed fees.
When we set the corp up, we said we'll file GST annually, and that's what we did last year when there was some actual GST. Planning to net file 0 GST for this year.

While researching on this, I just came across a T2 Short return that can be used for nil profit corps. I satisfy all requirements mentioned on the website (http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t2...2short-11e.pdf) . Should I go that route and simply fill that 2 page sheet and send it over as 0 return? It mentions that we don't need to attach balance sheets, income statements etc.


By the way, I am in Calgary.

[theguyz]

You still need to show $0 for GST, if you don't they can penalize you for not filling.

1K I would say GOODBYE, if no activity do yourself with a few hours invested and even call government to find out all needed todo and reserahc howto. As you are considering closing in a few months, you will need to know what you need todo as well.

[Sum_guy]

Quick question- how do you have income without the revenue? That's odd for a contractor and could be a complication.

The quoted price seems reasonable for the services, but why you'd need a balance sheet is odd. It doesn't look like you have submit financial statements to the province.

[rendezvous]

Quick question- how do you have income without the revenue? That's odd for a contractor and could be a complication.

The quoted price seems reasonable for the services, but why you'd need a balance sheet is odd. It doesn't look like you have submit financial statements to the province.

There is no income. There is residual money carried forward from last year (we made 50k last year, took salary of 15k, paid about 15k in taxes (GST, income etc.) and some money was left as residual money after all this was done. Haven't touched this money in this year 2012, so it's just carried forward to this year and will be carried forward to next year 2013. Hope this helps.

Not sure of balance sheet stuff... but there is no income / expenses, so am struggling to understand what is such a big deal with income statement (zero income zero expenses).

[ccyk]

how many transactions during the year? look at bank statements and count. rule of thumb is about 1 min of work per normal, routine transactions, plus 1-3 hours for T2...
the BS & IS are just created by program, so maybe 15min work if there is 0 transaction...
if you really have no transactions, pretty sure you can get it done for $500 unless your go to big firms...

[cperciva]

I do my corporation's taxes myself. It took a lot of reading to figure everything out the first time, but now it's just a matter of taking last year's forms and changing the numbers.

For a corporation which has been completely inactive, you don't need to spend $1000 having an accountant file for you.

[RWAC]

File the T2 Short and a nil GST return. May look intimidating at first, but read the corresponding guides, and given your situation, save yourself the $1,000.

[callmethecat]

One thing to consider is that the software to produce a T2 return is expensive for single returns. The cheapest I have seen is $99 with most being in the $200 range.

I do the taxes for a handful of companies and for minimal work I would only charge them $350 (plus HST of course).