Late summer is the mid-point of the year for most Ontario business owners with a December year-end. The first half is behind you, the second half is still ahead, and it is the last clean window to fix anything that is off before Q4 planning starts eating your calendar.
Below is the eight-item mid-year tax check we walk our owner-managed clients through every summer. Any item on this list that is unclear or unaddressed will usually cost more to fix in November or December than it would to handle now.
1. Are your books current through July?
Everything else on this list depends on accurate numbers. If your bookkeeping is more than a month behind, this is where to start. A clean set of books through July gives you the year-to-date view you need to make every other decision on this checklist. If you are behind, get it caught up before you attempt the rest of the check.
2. How does your year-to-date revenue compare to budget?
Pull your YTD revenue and expenses and compare them against the budget you set in January. Overperforming means you may owe more tax than your installments currently cover. Underperforming means the opposite. Either way, the number you built your plan on in January is now six months old, and the second half of the year needs to be planned against reality, not the January guess.
3. Are your installment payments still accurate?
Corporate tax instalments are calculated on your prior year’s filing. If your 2026 revenue is materially different from 2025, or if the Ontario rate cut has changed your effective rate calculation, the instalments you are paying may be higher or lower than what you will actually owe on the year. Worth reviewing now so you either avoid interest on underpayment or plan around the timing of a refund at year-end.
4. Is your salary vs. dividend mix still working?
The compensation plan you set in January was built on assumptions that may have shifted. Corporate tax rate changes, personal income surprises, a change to your spouse’s or family’s tax situation, or a shift in your retained-earnings goals can all change the optimal mix. Mid-year is when you can still adjust the second-half payroll to land in a better position. Waiting until December leaves you with no room to move.
5. Are you tracking capital purchases and CCA timing?
Any depreciable property you bought in the first half is on your books, but the CCA claim depends on when the asset was put into use, not when it was purchased. If you have more purchases planned before year-end, this is the moment to think through timing. The half-year rule and the actual date the asset is put into use matter more than the invoice date on the receipt.
6. Have you reviewed passive investment income against the SBD grind?
If your corporation earned more than $50,000 in passive investment income in 2025, the Small Business Deduction grind is already reducing your access to the small business rate in 2026. If you are close to the threshold this year, the timing of any capital gains, interest, or dividend income earned inside the corporation can push you over. Check your YTD passive income now, while you still have five months to influence the year-end number.
7. Is your HST or GST filing on schedule?
The CRA does not send friendly reminders for missed indirect tax filings. If you are a quarterly filer, your Q2 filing was due July 31. If you are an annual filer, your filing is coming up next spring but any required instalment payments should be current. This is the most common owner-manager miss we see in late-summer intake, and it is one of the easiest items on this list to fix if you catch it now.
8. Have you flagged any structural changes since January?
A new holding company, a joint venture, a new class of shares, a change to your family trust setup: any of these can affect associated-corporations rules, SBD access, and how your income should be planned for the balance of the year. If anything about your corporate structure has moved since January, walk through it with your CPA before Q4. Structural surprises in November are expensive to unwind.
What this means practically
None of these items are complicated in isolation. Together, they are the eight things that reliably create year-end tax surprises when they get skipped. Owner-managers who do this check in late summer rather than December are the ones with room to plan, adjust, and course-correct. The ones who skip it are the ones scrambling in Q4 and paying more tax than they needed to.
At SHARP & Associates, we run this exact check with our owner-managed Ontario clients every summer. It takes about 45 minutes and it saves multiples of that time in year-end firefighting.
