I still get a kick out of walking into and out of a clinic without paying anything, just providing my Ontario health card at the appropriate moments. Canada's public health system covers a lot of stuff. Not everything, though! W-‘s extended health plan from work covers a large portion of many expenses, like dental care and massages.

For the expenses that W-‘s health plan doesn't cover, I looked into setting up a private health services plan (PHSP) so that I can pay for the remainder through my business. After some quick research, I found Brock Health was a popular choice for small corporations in Canada. The way that it works is that you send them the paperwork for the claim, and your corporation pays them the amount of the claim plus an administration fee. They then send you (as the employee or corporation owner) a reimbursement of the expenses without the admin fee. This is tax-free on your personal income, and is paid with before-tax business dollars. So you pay a little more because of the admin fee, but it works out.

I set up an account last fiscal year. Based on my calculations, claiming expenses on our tax forms first made more sense last year, so I didn't have any transactions. This year, my calculations showed that the PHSP might be a better way to do things. I sent in my first claim with a couple of void cheques in order to It turned out that one of the expenses was partially refunded. I called Brock Health to update the claim, and they updated it before processing the cheques.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it all works out in this year's business tax return. If it's as simple as I think it might be, my personal health plan might include more massages… =)