How to Incorporate in British Columbia: BCBCA Rules, Fees and Filings

What it costs

British Columbia companies are incorporated under the Business Corporations Act, SBC 2002, c. 57, the BCBCA. A BC company comes into existence when the Registrar of Companies accepts an Incorporation Application, and a named company needs an approved name request in hand first.

Two figures carry the file. The Incorporation Application for a BC limited company is $350.00, and the Name Approval Request is $30.00. A BC unlimited liability company costs $1,000.00 instead of $350.00 and is used almost only in cross-border tax structures. We add nothing to any of these amounts. See every fee we charge and the 2026 government fee table.

How long it takes

Our preparation runs to three business days from a complete intake form. The registry’s time is separate, and we quote only what the registry publishes. The name request is the slow step, so we do not promise a standard turnaround for it; the $100.00 priority option moves it up the queue.

Once the name is approved it is reserved for 56 days, and the Incorporation Application must be filed inside that window or a fresh $30.00 request is needed. A numbered company skips the name request and can be filed the day the intake form is complete.

Corporate name rules in British Columbia

A named British Columbia company needs three parts, and a name request is refused if any one of them is weak. The distinctive element is the coined word, personal name or place name that separates your company from every other one on the register. The descriptive element says what the business does. The corporate designation comes last and is mandatory. In Kitimat Tire Shop Ltd., Kitimat is distinctive, Tire Shop is descriptive, and Ltd. is the designation.

Permitted endings are Limited, Limitée, Incorporated, Incorporée and Corporation, and the abbreviations Ltd., Ltée, Inc. and Corp. They are legally interchangeable, so choosing Inc. over Ltd. changes nothing about your liability, your tax or your filings.

Some wording is refused outright: obscene or vulgar wording, wording that could be mistaken for a government body, and references to the Royal family. Other wording is restricted rather than banned. A well-known trade name or a registered trademark needs the written consent of the holder, and single-word names are generally refused.

British Columbia does not use NUANS the way Alberta does. It runs its own name request through BC Registries and Online Services. You submit up to three name choices in order of preference, an examiner reviews them against the register and the rules above, and one is approved or all are rejected. The fee is $30.00, and approval reserves the name for 56 days. An approved name is permission to incorporate under that name; it is not a trademark. See corporate name rules.

The alternative is a numbered company, an ordinary choice in British Columbia rather than a lesser one. No name request is filed, so the $30.00 and the waiting time leave the file. The registry assigns the next available incorporation number, producing a name in the form 1345678 B.C. Ltd., and you still choose the legal ending. You can adopt a word name later by filing a name request and altering the notice of articles. See numbered company incorporation.

Director and officer requirements

A private British Columbia company needs at least one director, and a public company needs at least three. Directors must be individuals aged 18 or older, so a corporation cannot sit on a BC board. Section 124 of the Act disqualifies undischarged bankrupts, people a court has found incapable of managing their own affairs, and people convicted of certain offences, including fraud.

British Columbia has no director residency requirement. There is no Canadian-resident quota and no BC-resident quota. That is the biggest structural difference from federal incorporation, where at least 25 percent of directors must be resident Canadians, and it is why British Columbia is a common landing place for founders who live outside Canada. See director residency requirements across Canada.

A non-resident owner therefore does not hunt for a Canadian director or a nominee. What they need is a registered office and a records office at a British Columbia delivery address, someone who can receive documents there, and a bank willing to open the account. Withholding tax on amounts paid out of Canada belongs in the plan before the first dividend.

Directors appoint the officers and may hold those offices themselves, so one person can be sole director, president and sole shareholder.

Registered office and records

Every British Columbia company must keep both a registered office and a records office in British Columbia. They may share one address, and in practice they usually do. Each office needs a delivery address that is a physical location in the province, because that is where legal documents are served, and a post office box is not accepted as the delivery address.

An address in Alberta or Ontario does not satisfy the Act, which catches owners who move the corporate file to an accountant in another province. See registered office address.

Annual filing requirements

Two obligations run every year and they are constantly confused. One is a corporate law filing to the provincial registry. The other is a tax return to the federal government. Filing one does not file the other.

Read the first row and the last row again. The BC annual report is a registry confirmation timed to the anniversary of the date your company was recognized, and it costs $43.39. The T2 is a tax return timed to your fiscal year end and it goes to the Canada Revenue Agency. Your accountant filing your T2 has not filed your annual report.

Minute book requirements

Section 42 of the Business Corporations Act requires records to be kept at the records office in British Columbia, including:

• The certificate of incorporation, and any certificate of amalgamation or continuation
• The articles, and every alteration made to them
• The minutes of every shareholders’ meeting and every shareholders’ resolution
• The minutes of every directors’ meeting and every directors’ resolution
• The register of directors, with each director’s consent to act and each resignation
• The central securities register, showing shareholders and every share transfer
• Financial statements, and auditor’s reports where an audit applies

Private BC companies must also keep a transparency register of significant individuals at the records office: anyone who holds 25 percent or more of the shares or votes, or who can elect or remove a majority of the directors. It records each significant individual’s name, date of birth, address, citizenship or permanent residence, tax residency and how they qualify. It is not public; police, tax authorities and other named authorities may inspect it.

A bank asks for far less: the certificate of incorporation, the notice of articles, the resolution appointing signing officers and the central securities register. A buyer’s lawyer asks for everything in section 42 plus every resolution since incorporation, which is where a neglected minute book turns into a price reduction. See minute book requirements.

Should you incorporate in British Columbia or federally

Cost points federal, and the gap is real. A named federal corporation costs $200.00 in government fees with the name search included. A named BC company costs $350.00 plus $30.00, which is $380.00. Ongoing, the federal annual return is $12.00 against BC’s $43.39.

Director residency points hard the other way. British Columbia imposes no residency requirement, while a federal corporation with three directors needs one resident Canadian. For a founder living outside Canada that is not a fee, it is a search for someone willing to accept a director’s legal liability.

Where you trade decides most files. If your customers, premises, staff and directors are in British Columbia, a BC company is the clean answer with no second registration to maintain. A federal corporation operating here must still register extraprovincially in British Columbia, so the federal route protects the name without removing any BC paperwork.

What a CPA checks before you incorporate in British Columbia

British Columbia applies no residency test to directors, which is why founders abroad land here, and the transparency register is the obligation they miss. Significant individuals have to be identified and the register kept at the records office from the day the company is recognized.

Share structure is settled in the articles before filing. One class of common shares works for a single owner. A café group planning a second location, a spouse on a non-voting class, or a holding company later, all need voting common, non-voting common and preferred drafted now, because altering the articles afterwards is a further fee.

Who holds those shares is a tax question rather than a registry one. The tax on split income in section 120.4 of the Income Tax Act tests age, hours worked and whether the shares carry at least 10 percent of the votes and value, so a name on the central securities register does not by itself make a dividend work.

GST registration is mandatory once taxable supplies pass $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, and BC provincial sales tax is a separate registration with the Ministry of Finance that turns on what you sell. We then price salary against dividends for year one and test whether the $500,000 small business limit is shared with a company you already own.