TaxOnTax™ Advisory Ltd. is an Edmonton, Alberta based tax planning, accounting and executor advisory practice led by Derik Godbout, PBA, CEA, DMA, Personal Tax Services Specialist™. The firm helps individuals, families, and business owners across Alberta make clear, confident decisions at the moments that matter most.
The practice is built around the 12Event Planning Model, a simple, structured way to navigate life changes, business transitions, real estate decisions, and executor responsibilities. Every engagement maps your situation to the events that apply.
The people who come out ahead are rarely the ones with the highest incomes or the cleverest tricks. They are the ones who learn to see both stories at once, the human one and the financial one, and to act while both are still unfolding. That is the work of this practice.
Derik Godbout
PBA, CEA, DMA, Personal Tax Services Specialist™
Founder of TaxOnTax™ Advisory Ltd. in Edmonton. Derik guides executors, advises Alberta families and farm families on succession, the lifetime exemption and executor matters, and prepares the returns and year-ends that carry the plan out. He is the author of TaxOnTax™: The 12Event Planning Model, Legacy Planning in Care and The Farm Tax Bible.
“I have walked this road with my clients, some for more than twenty years, from first paycheques to retirement to settling the estates of people I had known for decades.”From A Note in Closing, TaxOnTax™: The 12Event Planning Model
Credentials & Practice
FocusExecutor guidance and year-round planning, with the returns and year-ends that carry it out
DesignationsPBA · CEA · DMA, Personal Tax Services Specialist™ Explained below
Practice TypePlanning, tax and accounting work. No products sold
LocationEdmonton, Alberta
Why It Matters
Three Designations. One Practice.
Derik holds three complementary designations that together span the full arc of a Canadian financial life, from the first paycheque to the settled estate.
The Public Business Accountant designation recognizes practitioners with deep expertise in personal tax, corporate tax, business structuring, and financial life-event planning. Established in Alberta in 1980 and national since 1984, the PBA designation was built specifically for advisers who work across the full range of tax and business decisions Canadians face.
As a PBA, Derik prepares tax returns and compiled (unaudited) financial statements for individuals, estates and businesses, alongside the planning. Legal documents are drawn by your lawyer, and specialized matters such as cross-border returns and complex trust returns are referred to a specialist. The scope is clearly defined, and the practice stays within it.
The Certified Executor Advisor designation, issued by the Canadian Institute of Certified Executor Advisors, recognizes professionals with broad practical knowledge of what an executor needs to know and do.
Executors inherit personal legal liability for deadlines missed, decisions deferred, and returns left unfiled. As a CEA, Derik helps executors understand what they’ve taken on, what professionals they need, and in what order. Calm, practical guidance at the moment families need it most.
Personal Tax Services Specialist™, Knowledge Bureau
Personal tax returns, prepared with care
The DMA, Personal Tax Services Specialist™ designation is earned through Knowledge Bureau’s professional coursework in personal income tax filing, including returns for proprietorships and the final returns filed at death.
It sits underneath the planning. Every event in the model eventually lands on a tax return, and the DMA means the person who mapped the plan can also prepare the personal and final returns that carry it out.
Together, the PBA, CEA and DMA cover every stage of a Canadian financial life from starting work and building a business, through retirement and real estate decisions, to settling an estate. Most clients are navigating more than one event at a time. Holding all three designations means the framework, and the adviser, can hold the whole picture at once.
The Method at Every Event
Whether we are looking at one event or several, the work follows the same six steps the book walks through in every chapter.
Step 1
Notice the event
Why this one matters now.
Step 2
See the layers
The TaxOnTax™ Effect: where the second cost hides.
Step 3
Dodge the usual mistakes
What most people get wrong at this turning point.
Step 4
Act before
What to do while the choices are still open.
Step 5
Follow through after
What to do once the event has passed.
Step 6
Check and ask
The checklist, and the questions to take to your adviser.
For lawyers, CPAs, financial planners, bankers, realtors and funeral directors. Referrals are welcomed and respected: your client stays your client, and your accountant stays your accountant. When a professional refers a client, the returns stay with that professional unless they say otherwise.
