Novack CPA

October starts this week.

For incorporated professionals and owner-managers across the GTA, the window for 2026 planning decisions is closing:

*Compensation adjustments need runway to implement.
*Structure changes need time to document properly.
*Purchase and timing decisions need to happen before December.

If you've been meaning to have this conversation, with your current CPA or a new one, this is the month.

DM me "Q4" and I'll send the booking link. Or it's in the comments below.

For most healthcare professionals, the 2026 tax outcome is decided in the next 60 days. Not in March.

That's why we run Q4 planning reviews in October, not December. What we cover:

- Whether your current salary/dividend mix still fits your situation
- Whether your professional corporation structure matches where your practice is heading
- Associate and partnership considerations before year-end
- Timing decisions: purchases, bonuses, income allocation

This is the work that has to happen before December to matter for 2026.

If you're a dentist or physician in the GTA and this conversation hasn't happened yet this year, DM me "Q4" and I'll send over the booking link.

The clients who get the best outcomes aren't the ones with the most complex situations.

They're the ones who engage early.

They ask questions in September, not March.
They flag changes when they're considering them, not after they've happened.
They treat their CPA as part of the decision, not the cleanup.

The work is the same either way. The outcomes aren't even close.

Planning is a two way relationship. Treat it that way and you get more out of it, every single year.

"We'll deal with it at year-end" is the most expensive sentence in your business.

Here's what it actually costs:

Compensation optimization deferred = a full year at the wrong salary/dividend mix.

Structure review deferred = another year of a setup that fit your 2020 income, not your 2026 income.

Associate agreement deferred = terms negotiated after patterns are established, from a weaker position.

Purchase timing deferred = deductions landing in the wrong year.

None of these show up as an invoice. That's what makes them easy to ignore.

Deferral has a price. It's just invisible.

Ottawa announced a new Productivity Mega Deduction at the Canada Investment Summit this week.

Short version: a much wider range of assets can now be written off 100% in the year you start using them, instead of depreciated over years. The expanded list includes software, computer equipment, vehicles, patents, and R&D. And the government is making immediate expensing permanent rather than another temporary measure.

It's not law yet, and the fine print will come with the legislation

But if you were already planning to buy equipment, tech, or a vehicle through your corporation, rerun the numbers. The after-tax cost likely just dropped.

And timing counts. In use before your year-end = 2026 deduction. January = 2027. Which year you want depends on your income, not the delivery date.

Worth a conversation before you commit to anything big this fall.

Read Carney's press release: https://zurl.co/KWmQy

Prime Minister Carney introduces new Productivity Mega Deduction to boost Canada’s advantage as the most competitive G7 country for new business investment To that end, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has introduced a series of changes to make Canada a more competitive environment for businesses.

A few weeks ago I asked when your accountant last called YOU with an idea.

The honest answers were telling. Most people are always the ones initiating.

Here's what that means: if your CPA hasn't reached out since filing season, you're not getting planning. You're getting compliance.

There's a difference.

Compliance: Recording what already happened. Filing accurate returns. Meeting deadlines.

Planning: Shaping what happens next. Adjusting before year-end. Creating options.

Compliance is table stakes. Every CPA can do it.

Planning is where the value is. And it can't happen in March. By then, the year is already written.

If you're always the one initiating, you're paying planning prices for compliance work.

Owner-managers: three questions worth answering before October.

1. Has your income changed materially since your structure was set up?
If yes, the structure that made sense then may be costing you now.

2. Are you planning any major transitions in the next 24 months?
Partners, sale, expansion, slowing down. All of these work better with runway.

3. When did your CPA last proactively reach out about planning?
If the answer is "they haven't," you're paying for compliance and missing the planning.

The gap between a good structure and an outdated one is usually five figures a year. Most owners never see it because nobody's looking.

The hardest conversation in a multi-physician practice isn't clinical.

It's compensation. And most practices have it three months too late.

By Q3, the full-year picture is visible:
- Which physicians are above or below projections
- Whether the current split still reflects actual contribution
- What needs adjusting before year-end

Waiting until December means having that conversation in the busiest month, under deadline pressure, with no room to phase anything in.

Having it now means changes can be gradual, documented, and drama-free.

The math is the easy part. The timing is what practices get wrong.

Dentists bringing on associates this fall:

The structure conversation needs to happen BEFORE they start, not after.

What gets decided in the first 90 days:
- How compensation is calculated (and what's included in "production")
- Whether there's a path to partnership, and whether it's real or implied
- Who owns the patients the associate builds

Once the associate starts and patterns get established, changing the structure becomes a negotiation. Before they start, it's just planning.

The agreements drafted in September prevent the disputes that show up in year three.

The best planning conversations I have in September share one thing:

Nothing is due.

No deadline. No filing. No pressure. Just a working session on the year while it can still be shaped.

Where will income land. What should move before December. What should wait for January. What's changed since the structure was set up.

An hour of this in September is worth more than five hours of cleanup in March.

That's the whole case for starting early.