How to Incorporate in British Columbia: the BCA Walkthrough (2026)

The incorporation in one paragraph

Incorporating in British Columbia means filing an incorporation application with BC Registries under the British Columbia Business Corporations Act. The company you create is a separate legal person: it can own property, sign contracts, borrow, sue and be sued in its own name, and the shareholders' risk is normally limited to what they put in. The government fees are $30 for a name approval request and $350 for the incorporation itself, and you file online through Corporate Online or the BC Business Registry rather than mailing paper to a ministry. The parts that trip people up are the ones Ontario founders never meet: British Columbia does not use NUANS at all, the incorporation agreement and articles are separate documents from the application, and the annual report is due off the incorporation anniversary, not the fiscal year-end.

Step 1: Choose named or numbered

• Named company — "Foothills Trail Works Ltd." You pick the name, BC Registries approves it, and that name goes on the certificate, the bank account and the invoices. The name needs a corporate designation at the end: Ltd., Inc., Corp., or the full words Limited, Incorporated or Corporation. This route costs the extra $30 and the approval wait.
• Numbered company — "0123456 B.C. Ltd." The registry assigns the number when you file, and the number plus "B.C." plus a legal designation becomes the legal name. No name request, no approval wait, no rejection risk. You can run the business under a separate registered operating name day to day.

Holding companies and shelf companies usually go numbered. A business that will print its name on a storefront usually goes named, because changing the legal name later means a name request plus a $100 name-change filing.

Step 2: Request the name approval (named only)

British Columbia checks names itself. You submit a name approval request to BC Registries online and list up to three name choices in order of preference. The examiner works down the list until one choice clears.

Four details matter:

1. The fee is $30 per request, not per name choice. If all three choices fail, a new request is another $30, so put real thought into the backups.
2. Standard processing runs about 7 to 14 days. Priority service costs an extra $100 and targets 1 to 2 business days.
3. Approval reserves the name for 56 days. The reservation number (the NR number) goes on your incorporation application. File the incorporation inside the 56 days or the name lapses and you start over.
4. This is not NUANS. Nothing you ordered for an Ontario or Alberta filing counts here, and a BC approval counts for nothing outside British Columbia.

Step 3: Prepare the articles and the incorporation agreement

Two documents get drafted before you file, and both live in the company records afterward.

The articles are the company's rulebook: the share structure (the classes of shares and the rights attached to each), any restrictions on transferring shares, how directors are elected, and the rules for meetings and officers. BC Registries publishes a sample set of articles (the Table 1 articles) that most simple one-owner companies adopt with light changes. Benefit companies must also put a benefit provision in the articles, and unlimited liability companies must carry the statutory shareholder-liability statement word for word.

The incorporation agreement is shorter. Each incorporator signs it, and it records:

• each incorporator's agreement to take one or more shares,
• each signature with the full name and the signing date, and
• how many shares of each class each incorporator takes.

You do not file the agreement with BC Registries. It goes in the minute book, and the bank may ask to see it when the account is opened.

Step 4: File the incorporation application

File online through Corporate Online, or through the BC Business Registry if your company will only need basic filings afterward. The application pulls together the Notice of Articles information:

• the approved name and its NR number, or a request for a numbered name,
• the registered office and records office, both at addresses in British Columbia where delivery can happen during business hours,
• the directors (at least one, with no residency requirement), and
• the share structure from your articles.

Pay the $350 fee ($1,000 for an unlimited liability company). What comes back by email or mail: the Certificate of Incorporation, a certified copy of the Incorporation Application, a certified copy of the Notice of Articles, and a cover sheet with the incorporation number and the business number. The CRA business number is assigned as part of the BC incorporation process, so a brand-new BC company does not file a separate application for one.

Step 5: Build the records before you spend money

The certificate makes the company exist. The records make it usable:

• Minute book — articles, incorporation agreement, certificate, Notice of Articles, plus the first director resolutions and the share issuances that match what the agreement promised.
• Central securities register — who owns which shares, kept at the records office.
• Transparency register — private BC companies must keep a register of significant individuals (generally anyone holding 25% or more of the shares or voting rights, directly or through control, or who holds the right to elect, appoint or remove a majority of the directors) at the records office and keep it current. There is no filing fee; it is a records duty, and it is the one most BC founders have never heard of.
• CRA program accounts — the business number arrives with the incorporation; add the GST account once taxable sales pass $30,000 (British Columbia charges 5% GST and a separate 7% PST, no HST), a payroll account when you hire, and a corporate tax account for the T2.
• Business bank account — bring the certificate and Notice of Articles.

Step 6: Calendar the annual report

Every BC company files an annual report with BC Registries each year, within 2 months of the anniversary of incorporation, for $43.39. You file it in Corporate Online or the BC Business Registry using the access code on the annual report reminder. The report is a registry filing, not a tax return: no financial statements and no meeting minutes go with it. Those stay in the records.

The deadline runs off the incorporation date, which is the trap for founders used to Ontario (six months after fiscal year-end) or Alberta (the month after the anniversary month). Miss one year and the company falls out of good standing; fail to file in each of two consecutive years and the registrar can dissolve the company. Restoration costs $350 and a stack of catch-up filings.

A BC company also holds an annual general meeting in each calendar year under the Act, though all the shareholders entitled to vote can instead pass a unanimous resolution in writing consenting to the business the meeting would have handled. Either way, the paperwork belongs in the minute book.

When British Columbia isn't the right registry

• You operate in several provinces from day one — compare the federal route for Canada-wide name protection, then budget the extraprovincial registrations, including the $350 British Columbia registration and its $43.39 annual report if you carry on business here.
• Your home base is another province — incorporate where the registered office, records and daily operations actually are. A BC company that moves its life to Alberta still owes BC annual reports until it continues out or dissolves.
• You are coming from Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba — the New West Partnership Trade Agreement lets companies from those provinces register extraprovincially in British Columbia with the registry filing fee waived (a name request, where one is required, still costs $30), which changes the math on which province to incorporate in first.

Startup checklist

• Named or numbered decided (named = name request first, numbered = skip it)
• Name approval request filed if named ($30; $100 priority if rushed; approved name reserved 56 days)
• Articles drafted: share structure, transfer restrictions, director and meeting rules
• Incorporation agreement signed by every incorporator (shares taken, dated signatures)
• Registered office and records office addresses in British Columbia confirmed
• Incorporation application filed online ($350 limited company, $1,000 ULC)
• Certificate of Incorporation, certified application and Notice of Articles, incorporation number and business number saved to the minute book
• Securities register and transparency register started at the records office
• GST/PST, payroll and corporate tax accounts opened as thresholds are hit
• Business bank account opened (bank will ask for the certificate)
• Annual report calendared (within 2 months of the incorporation anniversary, $43.39)

Related guides

• How to Incorporate in Alberta — the neighbouring registry works the opposite way: no direct government filing at all, an Alberta NUANS report, and every filing routed through an authorized registry agent.
• How to Incorporate in Ontario — the $300 Ontario Business Registry filing, the Ontario-biased NUANS, and the $0 annual return, for comparing the two big provincial systems.
• How to Incorporate: Federal vs Provincial in Canada — the full decision between the two routes: name protection, director residency, and the whole-footprint cost of registering in every province you operate in.
• How to Register a Business in British Columbia — the lighter registry step people confuse with incorporation: the $40 sole proprietorship and partnership registrations, and when a name registration is all you need.
• How to Get a Business Number in Canada — what the 9-digit BN on your incorporation cover sheet actually controls: the RT, RP and RC program accounts that hang off it.
• How to Register for GST/HST in Canada — the federal tax registration that follows incorporation, including the $30,000 threshold and the Quebec exception.
• How to Open a Business Bank Account in Canada — what the bank will ask for when you show up with the BC certificate and Notice of Articles.
• Sole-Prop vs Incorporation: Tax Calculator — interactive 2026 federal and British Columbia figures for the incorporate-or-not decision.

Sources

• Province of British Columbia, Incorporated companies — the incorporation steps, the name request ($30, about 7 to 14 days, 56-day reservation, $100 priority service), the articles and incorporation agreement, the $350 filing ($1,000 for an unlimited liability company), the certificate package, the annual report ($43.39, within 2 months of the anniversary) and dissolution after two consecutive years without an annual report
• Province of British Columbia, Forms, fees and information packages — the current fee schedule: $350 to incorporate a limited company, $1,000 for an unlimited liability company, $350 to register an extraprovincial company, $100 to change a company name, $350 for a restoration, and the New West Partnership fee waiver except for name requests
• Province of British Columbia, Corporate Registry forms, fees and downloads — the form-level fees, including the $43.39 annual report form and the $350 full and limited restoration forms
• Province of British Columbia, Business numbers — the business number assigned automatically as part of the BC incorporation process, and the program accounts that hang off it
• Province of British Columbia, Name Approval Request instructions — up to three name choices in descending order of preference for the $30 request, and the 56-day reservation
• Province of British Columbia, How to Create the Transparency Register — identifying significant individuals from the central securities register and articles, and keeping the register at the records office with no filing to government
• Province of British Columbia, Transparency Register — Significant Individuals — the 25% of issued shares or voting rights test, indirect control, and the right to elect, appoint or remove a majority of the directors
• Province of British Columbia, New West Partnership Trade Agreement — no business registry fees in British Columbia and no duplicate annual reports for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba companies
• Province of British Columbia, Small business guide to PST — the general PST rate of 7%, charged separately from the 5% federal GST
• BC Laws, Business Corporations Act, Part 5 — Management — at least one director, the director disqualification list in section 124 with no residency condition, and the annual general meeting rule in section 182 with the unanimous-resolution route
• Corporations Canada, How to incorporate a business — the federal route: a word name you have the legal right to use across Canada once approved, and the director residency disclosure at filing
• Corporations Canada, Annual return — Business corporations — the $12 online federal annual return