Website development costs split into two buckets: capitalize what builds the asset, expense what keeps it running or explores ideas. The accounting treatment depends on the project phase and expected lifespan of what you're building. Capitalize these development costs: domain registration for multi-year terms, custom design and UX work, front-end and back-end coding, database architecture, e-commerce functionality, CMS integration, and initial content population. These create a tangible asset that generates revenue or operational value beyond the current fiscal year. Under Canadian tax rules, websites fall into CCA Class 12 with a 100% declining balance rate, meaning you can write off the full remaining balance each year until depleted. Expense these immediately: preliminary planning and feasibility studies, content strategy sessions, ongoing hosting and domain renewals, routine updates and patches, monthly maintenance retainers, minor tweaks, and promotional costs like SEO or paid ads. These don't add lasting value to the core asset. The grey zone is redesigns. A full rebuild that extends the site's useful life another 3-5 years gets capitalized. A visual refresh using the same codebase usually gets expensed. We see Ottawa clients get tripped up here because their bookkeeper defaults to expensing everything, missing the tax deferral benefit of capitalizing legitimate development work. Practical thresholds matter too. A $2,000 landing page gets expensed even if technically capitalizable, because the administrative cost outweighs the benefit. A $40,000 custom platform gets capitalized every time. Between $5,000-$15,000, it depends on your company's capitalization policy and whether the site is a core business tool or a brochure. Ottawa SEO capitalizes client site builds over $8,000 where we're delivering a revenue-generating asset, not just a marketing expense. Your accountant should review the invoice breakdown to split design strategy hours from build hours if needed. Keep documentation showing the site's business purpose and expected lifespan, since CRA may ask during an audit why a website is capitalized when competitors expense theirs.