THE WESTERN CANADA LIMITED COMPANY

Why the edit?

This post used to be (Jul 2021) about incorporating in British Columbia. However, 5 years later (Jul 2026), the old Corporate Online is being merged into BC Registries and Online Services. On the surface, good, but the bad news is that you need a BC Services Card to do most everything; read you must be a resident.

It used to be that anyone could use British Columbia’s Corporate Online to be entirely self-service, but now you are forced to have a registered agent if you are a non-resident. British Columbia has made itself less competitive; therefore with everything else going for it, Alberta is the logical choice. Alberta has always forced you to have a registered agent.

Go with Alberta, pay the registered agent to file your return: https://theregistrationcenter.ca/product/annual-return-filing/

And save on corporate income taxes: https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/canada/corporate/taxes-on-corporate-income

Why Western Canada?

The minimum criteria I set for most of my strategies: residency and citizenship should be irrelevant.

Both Alberta and British Columbia allow incorporators AND directors to be non-residents of Canada. Nova Scotia does too, but has high annual renewal fees.

Alberta has no provincial sales tax. Like other energy exporters, the province pays for much of its services with energy royalties.

British Columbia has several interesting digital sales tax exclusions:

Access additional Western Canadian markets relatively easily once you incorporate in a member province: https://www.newwestpartnershiptrade.ca/the_agreement.htm

Get an address

For ~15CAD/month you can get an address in Alberta or British Columbia with Anytime Mailbox or iPostal1, which you can remotely manage. This will allow you to satisfy the requirement to have an office and mailing address within your province of choice.

Investment Canada Act

If you are a non-resident of Canada, creating a resident Canada business, then you have to notify Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada of this new investment by filling out ISED-ISDE3675E and returning it to them by email.

If you make a >1 billion CAD investment then you have to wait for their review.

Get a personal Tax Identification Number

To file paperwork with the Canada Revenue Agency on behalf on your new business entity, you will need to get an ITN from them by filling out and returning Application for a Canada Revenue Agency Individual Tax Number (ITN) for Non-Residents. Be sure to include a notarized copy of your passport with a wet signature from the notary; I did this at my local UPS store for $5.

The July 2021 BC Limited Company application process

  1. If you want to use a specific name for your corporation instead of a series of numbers issued by the province, use the Name Request tool to reserve a name for $30. This will take a few days to process before you can proceed to the next step.
  2. Go through the BC Registry Services wizard to incorporate for $350.
  3. Add your name and the business name to the example incorporation agreement and the example incorporation articles … don’t forget section 9.10’s proxy designation. Convert these to PDF and have them notarized online with Notary Pro.

Ongoing upkeep

  • You need to hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM) and record the notes of the meeting to stay compliant with the BC Business Corporations Act. For a small business with just yourself, this could look like you jotting down actions you have taken or will take in the company minute book. Or with a unanimous resolution of all the voting shareholders (you), can waive this requirement. 1
  • Directors (you) must approve, sign, produce and publish financial statements prior to the AGM unless a resolution with unanimous consent from all the voting and non-voting shareholders passes. 1
  • An auditor must be appointed, unless by unanimous resolution this requirement is waived. 1
  • File an Annual Report with BC Registries within 2 months of your incorporation date anniversary.
  • File your T2 and tax calculation paperwork with the Canada Revenue Agency. I have been using https://netfilet2.taxtron.ca/, but first you need to file an individual $0 tax return to get into the CRA’s system to be self-serve.
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