Updated Checked by the Tax-Services.ca editorial team How we check
Accountants cut risk in a business mostly by catching the boring things early: a late payroll remittance, a return filed after the deadline, books nobody has reconciled. Risk management with an accountant means finding the two or three ways your firm can lose real money and putting a date, a person and a number on each.
Which risks can an accountant really help with?
Not all of them. An accountant can’t tell you whether a competitor will undercut you or a supplier will fail. What they can do is deal with the financial risks that leave a paper trail.
Those are missed tax deadlines, weak cash, errors in the books, fraud through lax controls, and taking on debt you can’t carry. Insurance, contracts and legal exposure sit with other advisers, and we make no claims about them here.
Ask your accountant early what they’d worry about if the business were theirs. It’s a fair question, and the answer is often more useful than a report.
What do late payments and late filings cost?
The CRA prices lateness in percentages, and they add up fast. This table lists the rates we confirmed on its pages.
| Failure | Penalty (CRA) |
|---|---|
| Payroll remittance 1 to 3 days late | 3% |
| Payroll remittance 4 to 5 days late | 5% |
| Payroll remittance 6 to 7 days late | 7% |
| Payroll remittance more than 7 days late, or unpaid | 10% |
| Second or later knowing or grossly negligent failure in a calendar year | 20% |
| T2 filed late | 5% of the unpaid tax, plus 1% for each full month, up to 12 months |
Interest is added on top of the payroll penalties from the due date. The CRA generally applies the payroll penalty only to the part of a failed remittance above $500, unless the failure was knowing or grossly negligent. The payroll rows come from the CRA’s page on when to remit payroll deductions.
What does that look like in dollars?
Use a small Ontario firm with three employees paid $2,000 every two weeks. The payroll remittance calculator puts its remittance at $1,665.14 per pay date. Five days late costs 5%, or $83.26. Ten days late costs 10%, or $166.51. That’s before interest, and it’s for one pay date. Miss a few across the year and you’ve lost a few hundred bucks for nothing.
Now the corporate return. The corporate tax calculator shows $35,088 of tax on $300,000 of taxable income at an 11.7% combined rate. Treat that rate as an estimate: Ontario cut its small business rate on 1 July 2026, and the tool blends the two rates for a calendar year. If that tax were unpaid and the return three full months late, the penalty would be $1,754.40 plus $1,052.64, or $2,807.04, before interest.
A good accountant keeps a calendar of every deadline and sends you the amount a week ahead, with the account it comes from and the person who releases the payment. That one habit removes most of these bills.
Where does sales tax risk hide?
In the money you hold for someone else. On $100,000 of Ontario sales, the GST/HST calculator shows $13,000 of HST collected. It’s easy to treat it as cash on hand. It isn’t.
Registrants file even when they have nothing to pay. The CRA calls that a nil return, and electronic filing is required for periods ending in 2024 and later. Monthly and quarterly returns are due one month after the period ends.
Ask your accountant to check that the HST on your invoices matches the rate for the province where the sale is treated as made. A wrong rate on a few invoices turns into a bigger issue across a year.
How do internal controls protect you?
You don’t need a big system, and a firm of four can manage with a written page of rules. Two people should touch each payment, one to approve and one to release. Bank statements should be reconciled monthly by someone who doesn’t write cheques. Owner spending goes through its own account.
Records matter too. The CRA generally expects six years of records from the end of the last tax year they relate to. Lose them and you lose your case in a review.
Last, run stress cases. What if sales fall 20%? The profit margin calculator shows how quickly a thin margin disappears, and your accountant can build the cash view around it.
What should you do if you’ve already missed a date?
Pay what you owe as soon as you can, because interest keeps running until the balance is cleared. Then file whatever is outstanding, and tell your accountant everything, including the parts you’re embarrassed about. They’d rather hear it now than find it in a review.
After that, fix the cause. Was the date never in a calendar? Did the person who normally pays go on leave? A single owner of the problem and a written back-up is usually enough.
Common questions about accountants and risk
How often should I meet my accountant about risk? Once a year for a full review, and a short check every quarter if you have staff or collect sales tax.
Can an accountant stop fraud? They can reduce the chances with simple controls and spot odd patterns in the books, but no accountant can guarantee it. The best protection is two sets of eyes on every payment.
How we checked the figures
Penalty rates, filing rules and record keeping periods come from Canada Revenue Agency pages on payroll penalties, GST/HST filing and corporate tax. Calculator figures use 2026 data checked in September 2026. We couldn’t confirm the GST/HST late filing formula, so it isn’t stated here. No government body has reviewed or endorsed what you read here.
Frequently asked questions
What risks can an accountant help me manage?
Missed tax deadlines, weak cash, errors in the books, thin internal controls and debt you can't carry. Legal and insurance risks belong to other advisers.
What is the penalty for remitting payroll late?
The CRA charges 3%, 5%, 7% or 10% depending on how late it is, plus interest. Second knowing failures in a year cost 20%.
What is the T2 late filing penalty?
5% of the unpaid tax due at the deadline, plus 1% for each full month late, to a maximum of 12 months.
How long should I keep business records?
The CRA generally asks for six years from the end of the last tax year the records relate to.
Do I file GST/HST if I owe nothing?
Yes. Registrants file a nil return each period, and returns for periods ending in 2024 or later are filed electronically.
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