A year-end closes the books for the fiscal year, produces financial statements from them, converts those statements into a T2 with its schedules, files the Ontario annual return alongside, and sets the instalment and payment dates for the year ahead.
Step one: closing the books
Every account is reconciled to a statement, every unusual transaction is explained, and the cut-off is checked — revenue earned in the year but invoiced after it still belongs to the year.
This is the step that takes the time, and it takes far longer when the twelve months before it were not kept current. A business on monthly bookkeeping arrives at year-end with this already done.
Step two: the financial statements
A balance sheet, an income statement, and notes. For most small corporations these are prepared for the owner and the CRA rather than for outside parties, which keeps them proportionate.
If a bank or another lender needs a formal opinion attached to your statements, that is separate work requiring a separate licence, and it needs arranging with a licensed practitioner well before the deadline.
Steps three to five: the filings
The T2 itself, with the schedules that apply — the small business deduction, capital cost allowance on assets, shareholder loans, dividends paid.
The Ontario annual return, which is a corporate registry filing rather than a tax one, and which is easy to overlook because it is not part of the T2.
Then the year ahead: whether the corporation needs to pay tax in instalments, and on what dates the next filing and payment fall.
Where the time goes
A corporation with current books, a simple structure and no unusual transactions is a short job. A corporation arriving with a bank statement folder and no records is mostly bookkeeping with a return at the end of it.
That is why the honest answer to 'what does a year-end cost' starts with a question about the state of the records.
Sources
- CRA — Corporation income tax return — read 17 September 2026
- Ontario Business Registry — annual returns — read 17 September 2026
This guide explains published CRA rules. It is general information, not advice about your situation. Rules change — check the CRA page before acting on anything here.
