Alberta Holding Company – Incorporate Online, Structured as Your Accountant Planned

ACS is a private company. Our CORES-trained agents prepare your filing and submit it through a licensed Alberta registry agent. We are not a government office or a registry agent.

Whether a holding company gives you creditor protection, income splitting or tax deferral depends on your situation. Ask your CPA and your lawyer; we set up the corporation the way they recommend.

Holding company vs operating company: what is the difference?

An operating company runs the business: it signs contracts, invoices customers and employs staff. A holding company owns things, most often the shares of the operating company, and may also hold property or investments.

Legally, both are Alberta corporations under the Business Corporations Act. Same Articles of Incorporation, same government fee, same annual return. The differences live inside the articles: the share classes your CPA has designed, any restrictions on share transfers, and usually a numbered name instead of a brand.

Each corporation files its own annual return, keeps its own minute book and files its own T2 corporate tax return with CRA. Two corporations means two of each.

Who this is for

• Owners whose accountant has recommended a holding company above their operating company, and who want it filed today without re-typing everything.
• Professionals with a professional corporation who have been told to add a holding company. Voting shares of a professional corporation must be held by licensed members, so ask your regulator and CPA how the structure works before you order.
• Families and partners buying real estate or holding investments through a corporation.
• Accountants and law firms setting up holding companies for clients: send us the share plan, we draft the articles to match, and the PDFs arrive the same day.

How it works

1. Order online (about 10 minutes). Answer plain-language questions and upload or paste your accountant's share instructions; the total price is shown before you pay.
2. We review within about an hour. A trained agent checks the share classes against your CPA's plan, the name, the addresses, each director's age and the agent for service. If anything is unclear, we call you or your accountant before filing.
3. We prepare and file. We draft the articles and the three notices and submit the package through our licensed registry agent partner, [Partner registry agent name]. Complete orders received before 3:00 pm MT are filed the same business day.
4. You receive your documents. The Certificate of Incorporation and filed documents arrive by email; a minute book, if selected, follows within 1–2 business days.

Common mistakes we catch before filing

• Incorporating the holding company before your CPA has planned how and when the operating company's shares will move into it. The timing is a tax question, so we ask whether your accountant has signed off.
• Share classes copied from the operating company instead of the classes the plan calls for, which means Articles of Amendment later.
• Forgetting that the holding company is a second corporation with its own annual return, minute book and T2.
• A holding company named as a voting shareholder of a professional corporation, which the profession's rules do not allow.
• A P.O. box as the registered office, a NUANS report older than 90 days, or a director under 18.

What you need before you start

1. Your CPA's share plan. The share classes, their voting rights and who subscribes for what. If you do not have one yet, ask your CPA before ordering; changing share classes after incorporation means Articles of Amendment.
2. Your name choice. Numbered, or a proposed name with an Alberta NUANS report less than 91 days old.
3. A registered office. A physical Alberta address where Corporate Registry can send notices; a P.O. box on its own is not enough.
4. Directors. Full legal name and address for at least one adult (18 or older). Alberta removed the Canadian-residency requirement for directors on March 29, 2021.
5. An agent for service. An individual located in Alberta, with an Alberta address, who receives legal documents for the corporation. It does not need to be a lawyer.
6. Valid ID for the incorporator, the person who signs the articles.

Requirements for an Alberta holding company

• Same rules as any Alberta corporation: a name with distinctive, descriptive and legal elements (or a numbered name), at least one adult director, an agent for service who is an individual located in Alberta, and a physical Alberta registered office.
• Government fee: paid on your behalf and included in the price.
• Annual return: due every year in the anniversary month (none in the year of incorporation), confirming directors, addresses and the top 5 shareholders with their percentage of voting shares. Miss it and Corporate Registry sends notices; keep missing it and the corporation is struck (dissolved).
• CRA: the holding company needs its own business number and files its own T2 corporate tax return. These are handled with CRA, not Corporate Registry.
• Professional corporations: voting shares must be held by licensed members of the profession, which rules out a holding company as a voting shareholder. Check your regulator's rules before planning the structure.

• Articles of Incorporation with the share classes, rights and restrictions your CPA specifies, for example voting and non-voting classes or restrictions on share transfers, reviewed by a CORES-trained agent before filing.
• Notice of Address, Notice of Directors and Notice of Agent for Service, prepared and filed with the articles.
• Certificate of Incorporation and every filed document as PDFs by email, copied to your accountant if you ask.
• A numbered name (for example 1234567 Alberta Ltd.), the usual choice for a holding company, or a named corporation backed by an Alberta NUANS report (a name search that reserves the name for 90 days).
• Optional, priced separately: a minute book with bylaws, organizational resolutions, registers and share certificates, added to your order for $389 + GST. For a holding company, this is where the share subscriptions and resolutions your accountant will ask for are recorded.
• A reminder before the holding company's first Alberta annual return, due in its anniversary month next year.

Orders received after 3:00 pm MT, or with missing information, are filed the next business day once complete.