How far back can they make you go?

There's no statute of limitations if you haven't filed tax returns. Could be 15 years, or 50, if that's what CRA demands when you register a voluntary disclosure. There's a form for that now, that you submit and the program has been so successful, there's a substantial wait for approval and likely no one to talk to unless you get lucky when you call.

Step # 1 - Gather all the financial transactions and paperwork for everything for all the years, both business and personal. EVERYTHING. All accounts, all debts, all credit, all assets, investments, all deposits, purchases, payments, EVERYTHING. Contracts, correspondence, journals, logs of km's, (lucky break?)

Step #1a - Dump all the boxes out, or empty the binders and remove staples to establish a filing system in new bankers boxes with lids. You're going to be living with those boxes for months if not years.  Get rid of the bugs in the old boxes asap, yes old boxes have spiders and fleas.  Did you know there's paper fleas? You might want to spray everything with insecticide before you bring it in. Especially if those boxes were stored under the house or in the attic or out in the garage.

Step #2 - Contact CRA to establish a voluntary disclosure. Get approval or work thru anger as client realizes the penalties and interest will apply because they were already contacted and now it's too late.

Step #3 - Get a retainer for the work - if you go week by week, reporting on progress, and requiring more information before continuing, and the client stops delivering either more information, paperwork, or additional funds, dump them. Don't expect to do the work and get paid later. That won't be happening.

Step #4 - Sort it all out. This is where my training videos can help. I have a great system for working with clients like this, as QuickBooks allows you to enter all the years, there's no year end closes, you just enter everything until it reconciles. But that requires a system and being able to find everything again to reconcile. This is where a great Sort-All (they cost about $30 in Staples) comes in very handy.

Step #5 - Start recording the bank and credit card statements, recording everything that is business related (get the client to tell you this with a B beside everything business) and code everything, all purchases to Accounts Payable by Supplier name and all deposits to Accounts Receivable by Customer name.  Everything has to be NAMED.

Step #6 - Reconcile the bank and Visa accounts. This is where you have the conversation about missing months and require them to go back to all the financial institutions to get all those missing months / years... this costs them.

Step #7 - Start entering sales and clearing the deposits against the sales. This is where you discover nothing matches and your client isn't telling you the whole story.

Step #8 - Start entering purchases and clearing payments against purchases. This is where you discover that nothing matches and your client isn't telling you the whole story. Then you start the process of requiring them to contact suppliers to get copies of everything they paid for that's missing documentation.

Step #9  Demand to see their personal banking as well as the business accounts. This is where you find those missing deposits for sales, and deposits for which there's no explanation, and where you find payments for business purchases in the personal banking.

Step #10 - Decide client should have registered for GST/HST or PST way back when and start that process. This is where you have the discussion about how they have to register, but they aren't going to be able to claim their ITC's for more than 4 years back, but they'll have to calculate the GST/HST to be paid out of the invoicing to their customers, or charge the customers and collect... Oh joy.

Step #11 - Same for payroll and WCB - there's employees - but nothing withheld or remitted

Step #12 - Still with me? It's been months...If you get this far you're totally amazing and have the patience of a Saint. Your office will look like invasion of the bankers boxes (no not body snatchers), and there will likely be as many boxes as there are years outstanding if sales were anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000, more if sales were higher.  Usually sales aren't higher because people who aren't filing also aren't getting loans or credit and have to pay for everything up front.  This takes way more time and energy than having credit so there's no time left to make more sales than that. It takes a lot of energy to fly under the radar.