Canada is not the best place to do a startup especially a bootstrapped startup or solo founders

Registering a corporation in Canada costs between $200 and $397 CAD, with additional hundreds in licensing fees and annual tax filing expenses ranging from $300 to $1,500, according to a founder's analysis. The requirement to use approved software for corporate tax filings, unlike the IRS, adds further costs of $350 per filing in Quebec. The author recommends that bootstrapped startups and solo founders avoid incorporating in Canada and instead operate as sole proprietors until reaching $25,000 in sales, citing lower costs in the United States where incorporation can be as cheap as $99 USD without mandatory software filing.

Canada is not the best place to do a startup especially a bootstrapped startup or solo founders by a human - some AI was used for research It costs $397 CAD to register a Quebec company 1 and $200 for a Canadian corporation 2 . And it costs more to get the necessary licenses in hundreds of dollars. And this is the lowest you have paid in your startup journey. Then there is annual tax filing which the cheapest I could find is $300-$500 for NIL returns and go up to $1500 for regular returns. Did you know Canada has stopped taking paper tax filings for most corporations? Unlike the IRS 4 , this puts more burden on the tax filer because now they have to use the approved software even if they are doing their own taxes The cheapest software I found for Quebec filing is $350 per filing, and you have to do it by yourself 3 . So better pay an account $300-$500 then do it yourself. Please note that these amounts add up, when you are starting multiple startups and shutting them down over the years. In contrast, there are US states where you can register a corporation for as low as $99 USD. And there is no requirement to use a software to file your annual taxes. And Delaware doesn’t make sense for bootstrapped startups or solo founders. That’s why I recommend not starting or incorporating a business in Canada every time someone asks me, and instead I suggest them to run their business as a sole-proprietor in Quebec or self-employed in rest of Canada. And only incorporate once after having sold over $25,000 CAD worth of goods or services. Now certain business can’t be started without incorporating first due to liability issues and for those cases, it’s important to incorporate before starting up. I don’t mean to discredit Canada but just to bring up this topic, so Canada can do something about it. The solution is simple and straightforward, just have reduced or no fees for all startups in Canada with either no requirement to use the software tax filing or give them a pretty good software for free to do their taxes and compliance. Please note none of this is an advice but just personal experience. Please consult your own accountant or advisor before executing anything. - 1 https://www.quebec.ca/en/businesses-and-self-employed-workers/registraire-entreprises-fees/all-fees - 2 https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/corporations-canada/en/services-fees-and-processing-times - 3 https://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/partners/authorized-products/authorized-software/corporation-income-tax-returns/ - 4 Used search engine AI response to find if IRS requires software based filing or not