Medical Professional Corporation for Physicians

Contact Neufeld Legal PC for your incorporation legal work at 403-400-4092 / 905-616-8864 or Chris@NeufeldLegal.com

As a physician (doctor, surgeon), structuring your medical operations to derive legal benefits and optimize profitability, should be a priority in your professional career, whether this entails the incorporation of a physician’s professional corporation or further incorporations associated with the acquisition of medical equipment and/or real estate tied to one’s ever-growing medical practice, and demands appropriate legal structuring to integrate all these business components for optimal results.

At the outset, physicians will look to incorporate their medical practice as a professional corporation which enables them to draw upon certain business and tax advantages that are available when operating one’s professional practice through a professional corporation.

A professional corporation enables a physician to realize certain tax advantages attainable by traditional corporations, including:

• the small business deduction, with its preferential corporate tax rates and ability to defer taxes,

• remuneration flexibility, allowing for a sufficient salary and appropriate tax planning / RRSP contributions,

• the availability of the lifetime capital gains exemption for the owner of a qualifying corporation,

• the potential for absolute tax savings from structuring the corporate payment of non-deductible or partly deductible expenses, and

• potential income splitting, although this is subject to increasingly stringent tax rules, together with restrictions on permissible shareholders.

There is also the strategic availability of using a non-calendar year-end, as well as various advanced tax planning opportunities, such as individual pension plans, retirement compensation arrangements and corporate-owned life insurance solutions.

To realize these corporate tax advantages, the provincial legislatures and the physicians’ regulatory bodies (i.e., College of Physicians & Surgeons of Ontario, College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta) agreed not to shield the physicians from liability arising from their professional malpractice and negligence, although physicians might have a degree of personal liability protection as to corporate business debts, payables and other financial obligations, although most significant debts and payment obligations contractually demand personal obligations from the physicians.

The professional corporation thus provides important corporate and tax benefits to most physicians as it relates to the management of their medical practice, such that most physicians need to consider the value of incorporating a professional corporation.

As one’s medical career develops and becomes about more than themselves, whether that means partnering with other physicians (doctors, surgeons), hiring employees, acquiring medical equipment and real estate associated with the medical practice, there are other legal demands and opportunities, which can include additional legal and corporate structuring, from legal arrangements to additional incorporations, which enables the business to exceed the limitations of the professional corporation and optimize the legal options that are available.

Throughout this process, the importance of legal planning and experience cannot be understated, such that tackling the legal aspects of your medical business can greatly benefit from the involvement of knowledgeable legal counsel, which we have providing to physicians for over two decades.

When you incorporate your medical practice as a professional corporation with our law firm, you will benefit from the professional services of an experienced corporate lawyer who understands the importance of devising the appropriate corporate structure for your business operations, meeting the requirements of your profession's regulatory body, on a cost-effective basis - with flat rates* for the professional corporation (Alberta and Ontario). So if you are looking to incorporate your medical practice as a professional corporation or deal with the corporate legalities impacting your medical professional corporation, contact our law firm at 403-400-4092 [Alberta], 905-616-8864 [Ontario] or via email at Chris@NeufeldLegal.com.

* Please contact our law firm for our current flat rates associated with undertaking the incorporation of a medical professional corporation in Ontario and Alberta. It should be noted that this flat rate incorporation of a medical professional corporation does not involve other matters that might be corrollary to the incorporation process or might be atypical for a standard incorporation, including but not limited to related legal or tax advice, engagement with other governmental bodies or professional bodies, licensing, drafting of pertinent business contracts (i.e., shareholders' agreements), negotiations, disputes, financing, coordination with other companies or other legal structuring.