You worked hard all year. Revenue is up. And then tax season arrives and a chunk of what you earned disappears. That’s what happens when tax planning is treated as a once-a-year event instead of an ongoing conversation. The Toronto professionals and business owners who keep more of their money aren’t necessarily earning more, they’re planning earlier.
At Cassar CPA, tax planning is central to everything we do. From our offices in downtown Toronto and Oakville, we work with incorporated professionals, entrepreneurs, and small business owners across the city to build tax strategies that reduce what you owe, protect what you’ve built, and set you up for the long term. Not just at year-end. Year-round.
Tax planning requires both strategy and execution. Our team covers both sides.
Cassar CPA Professional Corporation
Cassar CPA Professional Corporation
Cassar CPA Professional Corporation
Cassar Business Services Inc.
Tax planning looks different depending on whether you’re dealing with your personal return or your corporation’s. We’ve built dedicated pages for each so you can find what’s most relevant to your situation.
RRSP and TFSA optimization, income splitting, medical expenses, rental income, capital gains on personal assets, and year-end strategies for Toronto individuals and families. Whether you’re salaried, self-employed, or drawing income from your corporation, your personal tax plan needs to work alongside your business.
Incorporation strategy, salary vs. dividend decisions, the small business deduction, corporate investment accounts, fiscal year-end timing, shareholder loans, and managing the passive income grind. If you’re running a CCPC in Toronto, your corporate tax plan is where the biggest savings live.
Our founder, Matt Cassar, CPA, has spent over fifteen years helping Toronto-area business owners pay less tax, increase profitability, and build financial stability. Those aren’t slogans, they’re the three things every client conversation comes back to.
Matt’s background includes the CPA Ontario Tax Immersion Program, experience at Bay Street firms, and time teaching in CPA Ontario’s PREP Program. He’s a member of the Canadian Tax Foundation, CPA Ontario, CPA Canada, and the Toronto Board of Trade. Combined with our team’s depth in compliance and day-to-day accounting, we see both the big picture and the details that make the plan work.
We’re not a firm that only shows up at year-end. Tax planning at Cassar CPA is a year-round process, built into regular client conversations. That proactive approach is how we consistently find savings that reactive firms miss.
If you’re incorporated, how you pay yourself affects your tax bill, your CPP contributions, and your RRSP room. Salary creates RRSP contribution room and involves payroll deductions. Dividends don’t create RRSP room but are taxed differently at the personal level. The right mix depends on your income level, your other sources of retirement savings, and whether you need the RRSP deduction. We run the numbers both ways and show you what each option costs.
Canadian-controlled private corporations pay a federal tax rate of 9% on the first $500,000 of active business income. For Toronto-based CCPCs, the combined federal-Ontario rate is currently 12.2%, and it’s dropping to 11.2% effective July 1, 2026, after the Ontario Budget cut the provincial rate from 3.2% to 2.2%. The deduction starts getting clawed back if your associated group’s taxable capital exceeds $10 million, or if passive investment income inside the corporation tops $50,000. Keeping those numbers in check is part of the plan.
The 2026 RRSP contribution limit is $33,810 (or 18% of your prior-year earned income, whichever is less). The TFSA annual limit is $7,000, bringing lifetime room to $109,000 for anyone eligible since 2009. And if you’re a first-time home buyer, a common situation for many of our Toronto clients, the FHSA lets you contribute $8,000 per year, up to $40,000 lifetime, with a full deduction on the way in and tax-free withdrawals for a qualifying purchase. Each account has different rules about when to use it. The order matters.
The months before your fiscal year-end are when the biggest savings happen. Accelerating expenses into the current year. Deferring income where possible. Paying bonuses or declaring dividends before the cutoff. Making capital purchases that qualify for accelerated write-offs under the federal and Ontario immediate expensing rules. We work with you in advance of year-end, not after, so that every decision is intentional.
Business is doing well and profits are piling up. Before you move excess cash out of the corporation, consider whether it makes more sense for the company to be the one to invest. Corporate investment accounts can grow on a tax-deferred basis, but passive investment income above $50,000 starts reducing your access to the small business deduction. Getting this balance right takes planning.
The capital gains inclusion rate in Canada is 50%, after the proposed increase was cancelled in March 2025. That means half of any capital gain is added to your taxable income. Timing the sale of assets, using the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption (estimated at approximately $1,275,000 for 2026, pending CRA confirmation), and structuring share sales properly can save significant tax.
Now. Tax planning is most effective when it happens throughout the year, not in March when your returns are due. The earlier you start, the more options you have. Some of the best strategies, like timing bonuses, making RRSP contributions, or accelerating capital purchases, require lead time.
Tax preparation is filing your return. Tax planning is the work that happens before filing, structuring your income, timing expenses, and choosing the right vehicles so that when it’s time to file, you owe less. One is reactive. The other is proactive.
It depends on your income, your expenses, and your goals. Incorporation gives you access to the small business deduction (9% federal on the first $500,000 of active business income), the ability to defer personal tax by leaving income in the corporation, and more flexibility in how you pay yourself. But it also comes with costs, filing fees, legal setup, and more complex compliance. We look at your specific situation and tell you whether the math works.
It varies widely. For an incorporated professional in Toronto, the difference between a well-planned salary-dividend mix and a poorly structured one can be tens of thousands of dollars in a single year. Add in RRSP timing, corporate investment strategy, and year-end decisions, and the impact compounds. We don’t guarantee specific outcomes, CPA Ontario rules don’t allow that, but the results speak through our clients.
Most tax planning work can be done remotely. But there’s real value in working with a Toronto-based CPA who understands the local market, the cost of operating in the city, the realities of practising as a Toronto professional, and the provincial rules that apply to Ontario corporations. Being in the same city makes meetings easier when you want to sit down face-to-face. Our downtown Toronto office at WaterPark Place is steps from Union Station.
“Their diligent approach and personal care have saved me thousands of dollars in taxes over the years!”
"You simply won’t get this quality of service from a big firm.”
“I’ve been working with Matt for a while now and I recommend him as much as I can to my friends and family”
“Cassar CPA has saved me a lot of time, money, and headache!”
“We love Matt and his team! We use them for our NFP organization and they’re always fast, flexible, and knowledgeable”
“Fantastic and knowledgeable team with very forward thinking practices.”
"Matt and his team provide clients efficient and speedy turnaround on monthly accounting and year-end services, while at the same time acting as an advisor on various finance matters.”
Every dollar you don’t plan for is a dollar the government keeps. If you’re an incorporated professional, a business owner, or an entrepreneur in Toronto who hasn’t had a serious tax planning conversation this year, now is the time.
Cassar CPA Professional Corporation works with small business owners, incorporated professionals, and entrepreneurs from our offices in Toronto (WaterPark Place, 20 Bay Street) and Oakville (132 Trafalgar Road). We serve clients throughout the Greater Toronto Area, including:
Toronto · Oakville · Mississauga · Brampton · Vaughan · Markham · Richmond Hill · Etobicoke · Burlington · Milton · Halton Hills · Other GTA & Halton Region Communities
Toronto Office
WaterPark Place 20 Bay Street, 11th Floor
Toronto, ON M5J 2N8
