Corporate accounts
Published: Oct 17, 2022
Updated: Sep 26, 2024
Explore the perks of a corporate investment account and learn how to enhance your business's financial health.
If you’re a business owner looking to make the most of your company’s excess cash, you may want to consider a corporate investment account. This type of account allows you to keep your money within the business, while providing you the opportunity to invest in a diverse range of financial products.
By leveraging a corporate investment account, you can also enhance your business’s financial health and potentially reduce your personal income tax rate.
Why choose a corporate investment account?
While there are a number of different reasons to open a corporate investment account, two key benefits stand out:
Investing Excess Cash
When your business has surplus funds, it’s crucial to ensure that money keeps working for you.
A corporate investment account allows you to invest this money into various financial products (like stocks, ETFs, and more), helping you grow your portfolio and combat inflation. Beyond just growing your portfolio, corporate investment accounts can also help business owners reduce their personal income tax rates.
Don’t just “park” your excess cash when you’re not using it. Instead, let it work for you in the background and continue to grow your business's wealth.
Tax Efficiency
Many businesses are prone to good and bad years and fluctuations in their annual earnings. A corporate investment account allows you to keep your funds invested and working for you in the background, while offering the flexibility to withdraw funds when it’s most tax-efficient.
During high personal earning years, you can leave your funds invested within the corporation to avoid higher personal tax rates. On the other hand, you can withdraw funds during lower-earning years to take advantage of lower tax brackets. This strategic approach helps manage your overall tax burden more effectively.
Questrade does not provide tax or accounting advice. These materials have been prepared for your information only and are not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, financial or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax and accounting advisors on these matters.
Questions about corporate accounts?
Get in touch with our best-in-class New Accounts team for a more personalized approach to opening your corporate account.
What can you invest in?
A corporate investment account at Questrade allows you to build a diversified portfolio with a variety of investment products, including:
Stocks: Invest in individual companies to take advantage of market growth.
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs): Gain exposure to a broad market or sector through ETFs.
Options: Use options for hedging or speculative strategies.
Bonds: Add stability to your portfolio with fixed-income investments.
Gold and Silver: Invest in precious metals for diversification.
GICs: Secure a guaranteed return on your investment.
Cash: Keep liquid assets within your account for flexibility.
And more
Every investor and company is unique, so this variety of products ensures that your corporate investment account can be tailored to meet your specific financial goals and risk tolerance.
Learn more about core concepts like diversification, compounding, and time horizons as you start to build out your corporate investment portfolio.
Determining how much to invest
When deciding how much of your corporate savings to invest, it’s essential to consider your business’s operating costs and cash flow (among other factors).
Here are a couple of key things to keep in mind:
Operating Costs: Know your ongoing business expenses to ensure you maintain sufficient liquidity (cash on hand).
Tax Obligations: Set aside funds for income tax installments and HST/GST remittances to avoid penalties and interest.
Cash Flow Needs: Anticipate slow periods or low revenue months to maintain financial stability.
Corporate Debt: Consider paying down any existing corporate debt before making substantial investments.
By carefully managing these factors, you can determine how much of your excess cash is available for investment, ensuring your business remains financially healthy.
Tip: It’s always a good idea to consult with experts before making large investment decisions.
Accountants, tax planners and financial advisers may be able to assist you with questions about structuring your account(s) to minimize your tax liabilities and maximize your investment potential.
Getting started with a corporate account
Opening a corporate investment account with Questrade can be done almost completely online, and we’re also here to help. Our corporate accounts are available in both margin and cash accounts.
Don’t hesitate to contact our New Accounts team via chat, at 1.888.783.7866, or via email at [email protected] for more assistance.
Log in to your Questrade account, or click Open an account from any page
Click Open an account and choose corporate account
Fill out the required account opening information online
Download generated account documents
Fill out the application where necessary and sign
Upload or mail your documents in
Tip: Almost all documents can also be e-signed (with the exception of AB Personal Guarantees, and all Entity-IRS Treaty Statements which must be hand-signed).
If you e-sign your account documents, they can only be accepted if they are uploaded to your account directly (please do not email e-signed documents as they cannot be accepted).
If you choose to email your account documents, they must be hand-signed.
Understanding Account Roles
Depending on your corporation’s structure, various roles can be assigned within the account:
Authorized Trader: A person authorized to make trades on behalf of the corporation.
Directors/Officers: Executives, or members of a company’s board of directors.
Beneficial Owner/Shareholder: The individual(s) who ultimately benefit from the account, even if the assets are in the corporation’s name.
Spouse: A person married to or in a common-law relationship with another account participant.
Guarantor: The individual(s) liable for any debts or obligations of the corporation.
Special considerations for Medical Corporations
Medical Corporations (among others) often have long formal corporation names. If this applies to you, you may encounter issues with the character limit in the online application.
Please feel free to shorten “Medical Professional Corporation” to “MPC” in your online application to meet the character limits. Alternatively, fill in as much as you can, then contact our New Accounts team directly before signing any documents.
Note: We will require a copy of the Articles of Incorporation to update the corporation’s name on record.
Québec Corporations and Enterprises
As part of the online application process for a corporate account, Questrade is required to ask for a Business Number (BN, also known as a BIN). This is a nine-digit number and the standard identifier of businesses which is unique to a corporation or legal entity.
Please note that your Québec NEQ is not the same as your Business Number. However your NEQ may be used to obtain your BN/BIN from Revenue Québec.
Please call Revenue Québec at 1-800-567-4692, and provide them with your NEQ, then ask for your business’s “Numéro d'identification (opens in a new tab)” (Identification number).
Important considerations
When applying for a corporate investment account, please keep the following in mind:
Only Directors, or Officers of the corporation can open an account.
All the information in the online application must match the corporation’s Articles of Incorporation exactly.
Your Business Number (BN) can be obtained from your corporate tax documents with the CRA.
(Tip: You can find this information in your CRA My Business Account online (opens in a new tab))
All Directors and Officers must sign/initial the Statement of Acceptance document.
If there are more individuals than spaces on the form, please complete additional copies of page 2 and 3 until all parties are listed.
Alberta Corporations must provide a notarized guarantor form due to provincial securities regulations.
This form must be hand-signed and notarized by a lawyer then mailed in to Questrade.
International Corporations can also be opened at Questrade (with the exception of U.S. corporations and entities).
International account participants (Directors/Officers/Beneficial owners & etc) may have additional account requirements related to Photo ID.
Please contact our New Accounts team via chat, at 1.888.783.7866, or via email at [email protected] for more assistance for international corporations.
All the personal information of all corporate account participants must match across all sources and documents.
The IRS Entity Treaty Statement document must be hand-signed.
Ready to Enhance Your Business's Financial Strategy?
Take control of your company’s financial future with a Questrade corporate investment account today.
