What does my accountant need from me before the year end?
Six things, and one email to the insurer produces most of them. The annual statement for every contract the company owns, the tax cost figure, confirmation of who owns and who is named to receive, a note of any amount advanced during the year, any pledge given to a lender, and the resolution authorising whatever changed.
What kind of answer this is
- Claim type: Requires another professional
- Claim type: Professional judgment
- Jurisdiction: Canada wide
What a particular accountant needs is set by that accountant and by the company's own circumstances. This is a preparation list, not a filing position, and nothing here states how any item is to be treated.
How it works
Most of the list lives with the insurer rather than in the company's own files, and an insurer answers a written request in weeks rather than days. Asking in the last week of the year is what turns a routine item into a rushed one.
The cost or the catch
The item that causes trouble is the one nobody mentions: a premium paid from the wrong account, an ownership change made informally, a pledge given and forgotten. Each is cheap to explain in November and expensive to explain two years later.
Where this answer may not apply
- A first year of ownership needs the application and the delivery documents as well, which nobody has to find twice.
- Where nothing changed in the year, the list is shorter and the accountant will say so.
- Where the company owns several contracts, each one is a separate set of documents rather than a summary.
- A company preparing for a sale or a reorganisation needs more than this, and earlier.
What to verify in your own contract
- The date the company's fiscal year actually ends, which is not always the calendar year.
- That the insurer's statement covers the whole year rather than a policy anniversary.
- That the tax cost figure is stated as at the year end date and not as at today.
- That every premium paid came from the account the records say it came from.
- What the accountant wants that this list does not name, asked in writing before the deadline.
Continue to the full explanation
Prepare the questions for a CPA, a lawyer and an insurance professional.
Sources
- Income Tax Act, Justice Laws Canada, verified 2026-08-30
- The annual statement and tax cost reporting practices of the issuing insurer, insurer specific, verified 2026-08-30
Accountability and disclosure
- Written by
- José Salloum
- Professional capacity
- Financial security advisor, Canadian Wealth Creation Centre Inc., operating as IBC Financial
- Reviewed by
- Tax and corporate tier, reviewed by a qualified Canadian tax professional before publication
- Jurisdiction
- Canada wide
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30
- Version
- 1.0
- Compensation disclosure
- Canadian Wealth Creation Centre Inc., operating as IBC Financial, may receive insurer paid compensation if a policy is purchased. It takes the form of first year compensation followed by renewal compensation, and the amount varies by insurer, product, age, premium, contract design, riders and the arrangement with the managing general agency. No single figure would describe every contract honestly, and none is published here.
- Report a correction
- Info@ibcfinancial.com. Write without a policy number, medical information or account details.
Last reviewed 2026-08-30. By Jose Salloum, Financial Security Advisor.