Tax Season Prep: Start Now, Stress Less Later
- Reach CPA
- Jan 29
- 4 min read
If tax season feels messy every year, you’re not alone—and it’s rarely because you “didn’t try hard enough.” For most architecture and engineering business owners, the stress comes from a predictable pattern: receipts scattered across email, glove boxes, desk piles, and camera rolls; transactions that are “mostly” categorized but not clean; reimbursables mixed into overhead; owner pay that’s unclear (salary, dividends, a bit of everything); and supporting documents that go missing right when you need them.
Then filing time arrives and you’re expected to reconstruct months of decisions under deadline pressure. The fix isn’t complicated—it’s just easier to do now, when you’re not under the gun. Below is a simple, AEC-friendly system to make your T1, T2, and/or T5 filing smoother—whether you’re a sole proprietor, incorporated, or both (business + personal).
Starting early is the real secret
Tax season doesn’t become stressful in April. It becomes stressful in January—because every small delay (a missing receipt, an uncategorized transaction, an unreconciled bank account) quietly turns into a bigger cleanup later.
Getting organized earlier buys you:
Time: fewer back-and-forth questions and fewer “can you find…?” moments
Money: fewer missed deductions and fewer avoidable interest/penalty issues
Peace of mind: no surprises and no last-minute scrambling
And it helps you avoid deadlines that don’t give second chances—like the RRSP contribution deadline for the 2025 tax year: March 2, 2026.
A simple system that prevents tax-season chaos
Step 1: Create one “Tax Season 2025” folder (30 minutes, once)
Pick one location (cloud storage is ideal) and keep it boringly consistent. A straightforward structure is:
Banking & Credit Cards (monthly statements), Receipts (by month), Payroll (remittances/summaries/T4/T4A info if applicable), Owner Pay (salary/dividends/bonuses and any shareholder-loan notes), Investments (slips + account list), CRA Correspondence, and a running “Missing Items” note.
This isn’t fancy. It’s what stops tax season from becoming a scavenger hunt.
Step 2: Set one recurring monthly admin block (45–60 minutes)
Book a recurring meeting near month-end and treat it like a client meeting. This is “future stress prevention” time.
In that block, focus on five habits that make filing faster and cleaner:
Reconcile bank and credit cards monthly. If accounts aren’t reconciled, your numbers aren’t reliable—tax prep becomes correction work instead of preparation.
Keep “Uncategorized” near zero. The longer you wait, the less you’ll remember—especially with software subscriptions, online purchases, and travel.
Separate reimbursables from overhead. AEC firms commonly incur project costs on behalf of clients. If reimbursables are mixed into overhead, it slows filing and distorts profitability.
Attach supporting documents with context. A receipt without context can still create delays. A receipt with a simple note (“site visit travel,” “client meeting,” “drafting software”) is far easier to support.
Review three simple reports. Even if you don’t love financials, scan your Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, and Accounts Receivable. You’re not trying to become an accountant—you’re trying to avoid surprises.
Be clear on how you’re paying yourself. Salary, dividends, bonuses, or a mix—any approach can work, but it needs to be documented and consistent. When it isn’t, tax prep turns into detective work.
Watch the shareholder loan balance. If personal expenses run through the company (even temporarily), it can create a shareholder loan issue that needs to be cleaned up properly, generally by offsetting the shareholder draws with a dividend. You don’t need to panic—you just need to track it and deal with it deliberately.
A couple of important planning deadlines to keep on your radar
RRSP contributions: For the 2025 tax year, the RRSP contribution deadline is March 2, 2026. If you’re considering a contribution, planning earlier usually leads to better decisions and fewer missed opportunities. Keep record of your RRSP contributions and receipts to be reported on your personal tax return.
TFSA planning: TFSA room resets annually on January 1. If you contribute, confirm your available room first (the 2026 annual TFSA limit is $7,000). These contributions fall under 'personal financial planning'—your accountant can help, but you may also want to coordinate with your financial planner depending on your situation.
Supporting documents: what “organized” actually means
A smooth filing is less about having every receipt ever and more about having the right support in a clean, consistent way. The goal is to reduce back-and-forth and make every transaction easy to substantiate.
Practically, that means: keep receipts legible and stored in one place; use a consistent filename format (date + vendor + amount works well); add a quick business-purpose note for grey-area items (meals, travel, mixed-use purchases); and keep consultant/subcontractor invoices grouped together, especially if you used outside support.
If you want confidence that you’re “audit-ready,” this is the foundation.
The AEC Tax Prep Checklist: 10 things to do now
If you do nothing else, do these:
Reconcile bank accounts and credit cards (December + January)
Clear “Uncategorized” transactions to near-zero
Create a Tax Season folder + subfolders
Start a “Missing Items” list and update weekly
Separate reimbursables from overhead (attach support)
Confirm payroll remittances are up to date (if applicable)
Review owner pay and document salary/dividends/bonuses
Review shareholder loan balance (incorporated owners)
List your investment accounts and expected slips (T5/T3/etc.)
Book a short tax readiness check-in before deadlines get close
This isn’t busywork. It’s the exact work that stops tax season from being stressful.
When to get help (and what to ask)
Book a quick planning call if you’ve had meaningful change or uncertainty—profit swinging up/down year over year, hiring or contractor changes, overhead that scaled materially, dividends paid without a clear plan, a recurring “uncategorized” problem, or reimbursables that are messy or disputed.
When you talk to your accountant, keep the questions simple and practical:
What are the top 3 things I should fix now to make filing smooth?
What documents do you want—and in what format?
Any key deadlines or planning steps we should calendar today?
Our Key Takeaway
Make tax season routine, not dramatic.
You don’t need perfection. You need a repeatable system you consistently use. If you start now—one folder, one monthly habit, and a few key checks—tax season becomes a normal admin process instead of a stressful event.
You don't have to do this alone. Our staff are here to help you map out a game-plan for your tax season strategy. Let's talk, please reach out today!
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