Self-employed people in Canada can take a home office deduction. It's one of the best things about being self-employed: you can take costs you were already incurring -- your residence costs -- and use them to reduce your taxes. Business-use-of-home The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) calls the home office deduction business-use-of-home. As a self-employed person [...]
Q: I’m a plumber earning less than $30,000 per year. In order to bid on jobs I found I needed to have a GST-HST number, so I registered two years ago. But since then, I haven’t earned over $30,000 per year. Do I still have to charge GST-HST? Do I have to file returns? A: [...]
If you've registered to collect the goods and services or harmonized sales tax (GST-HST) in Canada, you may have come across the term input tax credit or its acronym, ITC, and wondered what it's all about. To understand input tax credits (ITCs) you need to understand the basics of the GST-HST system, which are simply: [...]
Get the GST Remover here. Becoming a GST-HST registrant adds an extra layer of complexity to your taxes when you're running a business in Canada. One of the up sides, however, is the ability to claim back from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) any GST or HST you spend on your business. GST/HST [...]
Q: I am a self-employed consultant and I travel to and from my work via Uber, Lyft or taxi most days. Can I write off the cost of these services as a business expense? If I take my own car, can I write off motor vehicle expenses? A: The answer depends on whether or not [...]
* Limit was $400 for 2020, $500 for 2021 Covid-19 changed everything, including changes to taxes for the 2020 and later tax years. Now that Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is offering a small Work-From-Home (WFH) deduction for salaried people, self-employed Canadians have questions. Specifically, people who have always deducted business-use-of-home (BUH) as part of self-employment [...]
Business owners, freelancers and self-employed people have many questions about what they can and can't write off for their taxes. This is a potentially endless topic. There are an infinite number of possible businesses, with an infinite number of ways they can be run; meaning there are an infinite number of potential business deductions. The [...]
April 30 may have come and gone, but if you haven’t filed your income taxes there’s still hope. It’s always worthwhile to file as soon as possible, even if you’ve missed the magic date. You may not actually be late! If you or your spouse have self-employment or freelance income, you both have until June [...]
©iStock/paprikaa Here, for the first time on any stage, the amazing stunt of explaining the entire system of GST-HST in Canada in a single sentence! As I answer clients' questions, peruse our great nation’s major newspapers, and fall down the rabbithole of Facebook posts, I encounter so many misconceptions about the GST/HST [...]
©iStock/Massonstock While it’s always best to audit-proof your return by keeping relevant records and calculations, don’t overlook the importance of registering for the GST/HST once you've billed $30,000 in any 12-month period. The fact that people can (and many do) gross $30,000 or more and neglect to register for the GST/HST, and that [...]
