OMA Opens Law Firm!

Apparently, the Ontario Medical Association has opened a law firm. It is offering to incorporate professional corporations for doctors for a “nominal” fee ($100 plus disbursements plus GST for a total of $523.90). It is unclear how long this sale will last, so doctors should hurry to take advantage of it before it is too late.

Interested doctors can visit a website with headings like the following:

• Should I incorporate?
• Steps to forming a PC
• Methods of incorporating
• Incorporate yourself
• Using the OMA incorporation service

After diagnosing their own tax circumstances and learning enough about our Income Tax Act to avoid the income-splitting rules and other pitfalls, the doctors can incorporate. After all, if a lawyer can do it, anyone can, right?

The OMA will email to the doctor the corporate documents and application forms that must be delivered to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for approval, but the doctor must

• order the Certificate of Status from the Ministry of Government Services,
• attend before a Notary Public to have the Statutory Declaration sworn and the Notarial Certificate completed, and
• deliver all of these documents and a certified cheque to the College in Toronto within 15 days of the date of the Statutory Declaration and 30 days of the date of the Certificate of Status.

I didn’t realize doctors had this kind of time on their hands.

The whole process — to the extent it encourages doctors to provide themselves with legal, tax and accounting advice — has the appearance of being penny-wise and pound-foolish. Doctors should remember the old legal adage — “the lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client” — and ask how much more that applies to a doctor who would hire himself as a lawyer and accountant.