Hi so my work requires me to drive to some construction work sites couple of times a month, with each trip being around 500kms.

I don’t own a car, so till now I’ve just been renting a car and claiming the rental cost + fuel costs to my work which comes to around 170-225$.

Given that the CRA mileage rate my company would pay for the kms driven, each trip would pay me $350, plus I could feel comfortable driving the car around for personal stuff after the work day is done.

I am wondering if this would be legal? To use a rental car for work, but claiming CRA mileage instead of the actual rental costs?

I recently took over the books of a client in the snow removal industry. They have clients sign a contract for residential snow removal between November 1st and April 15th. As of October 30th 2024, they have signed up 2.2MM (including HST) worth of contracts, and only collected 921k (including HST). Out of that 2.2MM, we don’t know what has actually been invoiced for payment.

The clients previous bookkeeper made an entry on Oct 31 to record $1.3m (difference between total signups and amount that was collected) in AR, and posted the other side to Sales.

I spoke with the client on their billing process, and the 2.2MM in signups does not necessarily get invoiced right away, as they offer different payment plans to the clients (lump-sum, 2-pay, 3-pay, etc.)

So my issues are:

1. The 1.3MM entry that the bookkeeper made

• Dr Accounts Receivable 1.3MM
• Cr Sales 1.3MM

This entry is incorrect as she recorded the remainder that is to be collected over the period of the contract into sales immediately, and without HST collected

2. Should the 1.3MM even be on the books because technically it’s for services not rendered yet as the contract starts Nov 1? (Potentially deferred rev?)

3. We record HST collected when the customer pays and gets deposited into the bank, as we have no other way of reconciling what our client invoices their customers, and what’s actually hitting the bank.

Ad title says, is there anyway to avoid the foreigner tax? Both parents alive

I recently started a sole proprietorship as a travel content creator/influencer, and I need some advice about taxes and write-offs. I'm investing quite a bit into growing my brand, but income is still low as I'm just starting out. Here are my main questions:

1. How do taxes work for a travel influencer business? What should I be tracking?
2. What expenses can I legitimately write off? Specifically:
   • Travel costs (flights, hotels, etc.)
   • Camera equipment
   • Editing software
   • Social media management tools
   • Meals during content creation trips
   • Other travel-related expenses
3. If I spend more on business expenses (traveling, equipment, etc.) than I earn in this first year, can these losses be deducted from my taxes? How does that work?
4. Any specific advice for tracking expenses when a trip is both for content creation and personal enjoyment?

I want to make sure I'm doing everything legally while maximizing legitimate deductions. Any advice from experienced business owners or tax professionals would be greatly appreciated!

TL;DR: New travel influencer seeking tax advice, especially about write-offs and handling business losses.

Late filing last 2 years of income tax. I use my car 75+% of the time for business purposes. I'm salaried and receive a car allowance. It was my first time earning a car allowance and didn't know I needed to keep a mileage log until now. :(

I'd like to avoid paying income tax on the portion of the car not used for earning employment income if possible but I am concerned that if I claim 75%, it will trigger an audit and I don't have the energy to deal with one right now so would rather round down, if there is a a sort of safe max % that doesn't trigger an audit.

Edit:

1. I walk to my grocery store, pharmacy, gym and GoTrain so I use my car probably even less than 25% for personal but I am rounding down to 75% work use, to be conservative. For work, I drove all around the lovely GTA.
2. I just got laid off so sadly have no access to my work calendar.
3. I do have 407 toll history that I can use to substantiate but it will not be anywhere near the entirety of usage.

On a sizeable joint account w an aging parent. We’re discussing using most of the money to open a GIC, potentially just in my name? GIC was recommended to keep it safe from fraud etc. I have POA. Want to do it properly & keep everything legal. Seeking input. Thx in advance.

Hello everyone,

Might be a dumb question. On my way back from Paris earlier in the month, I didn’t declare a purse I had bought in paris. Idk if I was distracted or not paying attention but I swear the kiosk at Pearson did not ask me to declare the dollar amount I was bringing back. Or maybe I was not paying attention and chose the no option for everything.

Am I allowed to bring said purse out of the country as I am going back in a week? Or do I risk them taxing me when I come back even if I had bought the item on a previous trip? Is there any way of them knowing that I didn’t declare something previously?

Thanks in advance!

Hi!

My spouse has about 10K contribution room but has been unemployed for the last few years. Can I contribute to their RRSP and do we get a tax deduction for doing so? Btw, my RRSP contribution rooms has been fully utilised.

Cheers

Hi folks,

Wanted to know what type of penalties would CRA impose on voluntary adjustments (not VDP) to previous year returns on missed income as I want to get my taxes in place. The previous taxes were filed in time but missed additional income (around 20k cumulative over 6 years).

Would it be only interest on tax owed (since the return was filed voluntaryily without CRA notice? Or am I liable for more penalties as well? What about criminal prosecutions?

Thank you for your inputs.

Trying to figure out how to calculate, the correct, K constant in excel, I understand it's an amount added to the taxes payable on income above a certain threshold but every time I try to run the calculation the numbers I create don't match the ones in the tables provided.

Hi. I just won a prize in the U.S. for $5000 and I’m wondering if I can just claim that as my self-employment income in Canada or if it’s going to be more complicated than that.

If I do need to submit a W-8 BEN, unfortunately I don’t have a U.S. tax number, and based on the IRS website that can take 4-6 weeks… and requires an intimidating amount of documents. So I’m hoping it will be simpler than that.

Does anyone know how to proceed?

(Also, do I need to do all this before I actually receive the money or can I sort it out after? If before it’s going to be a real time crunch…)

Sorry that this post is mostly just a rant about the ITA. Every time I think I’ve solved my problem I get sent down a new rabbit hole. To all the cross border tax professionals, I have the utmost respect for you. This is the most frustrating encounter I’ve had with the ITA.

I’m trying to rollover a rental house (investment property) into a Corporation using s85 (I know I know wtf? why? It makes sense for me) but I’m a non resident. My issue is the exception under section 85(1.1)(h). The rental house is technically a business but I’m not sure if rental income falls under one of the exceptions under the definition of a business in section 248. Even if you don’t know the answer, how do you go about figuring this out? I don’t practice tax law so the references out from the definition of “business” have me completely lost.

Not sure if this is the best place to ask, so please delete if its not.

Titles sums it up. I (Father in this scenario) currently share CCB with my ex for our 2 children as we have shared custody. Separated 4 years now. Fast forward to now, I and my common law partner (step mother to be of my first two) have a newborn child together. She tried filing for CCB for our new child. We have been told only one of us can make claim for CCB.

CRA states it's usually the female in the relationship who claims CCB. Is our best bet for me to put my other 2 children under her? Or should she sign the letter saying I am the primary caregiver and just add our newest with my first two? Yet she is home on mat leave with the new baby and does everything for my first 2 as well.

Couldn't find anything online, anything helps, thanks in advance.

Has anyone received any updates from CRA agents? The agent I did trouble shooting with on Oct 21 who asked me for screen ID’s etc said I’d be contacted with updates, but I’ve heard nothing.

Hey everyone,

I’m planning to claim eligible medical expenses on my tax return this year, but I’m not sure about the documentation CRA will accept. I have health insurance claim explanations (like Explanations of Benefits) that show amounts paid by my insurance and amounts I paid out-of-pocket.

Does anyone know if CRA accepts these documents as proof of medical expenses, or do I need actual receipts from the doctor/pharmacy? I’d love to hear from anyone who's been through this before!

Thanks!

<Disclaimer : I will be reaching out to a professional for this soon, just wanted to try to understand it at a rough level first>

I'm trying to understand the potential impact of transferring my 401k to my RRSP to gauge whether it is worth it or not. I was playing around with https://www.taxtips.ca/calculators/canadian-tax/canadian-tax-calculator.htm but for the life of me couldn't get anything to work that makes sense, but at some point I was just a monkey at a keyboard typing in numbers...

So if anyone knows what boxes to fill in then that'd be appreciated! or even how the calculation would actually end up as

• Location : BC
• Age : 50
• Income : $175k CAD
• 401k Value : $170k CAD (so I expect 30% withholding afaik, standard withholding and age based withholding)
• I think that's the most relevant info to the calculation

Thanks

I’m an international student working an internship in Canada, and I have a question about filling out my TD1 form at work.

Here’s the situation:

• I paid for my Winter 2024 tuition in Fall 2023.
• I also had a Spring 2024 academic term, and I paid that tuition in Winter 2024. I included both the Winter 2024 and Spring 2024 tuition amounts in the total claim amount on my TD1 form.

From what I understand, CRA guidelines say that tuition credits should be claimed in the year the tuition was paid (which would be 2023 for the Winter term tuition and 2024 for the Spring term tuition). But since I’m just filling out the TD1 form and not actually filing my 2024 tax return yet, I’m wondering:

1. Is it okay to include the Winter 2024 tuition amount in my TD1 form’s total claim amount even though I paid it in Fall 2023?
2. When I file my 2024 tax return next year, should I adjust and only claim tuition I actually paid in 2024?
3. Or should I amend my 2023 tax return to include this Winter 2024 tuition instead?

Also, I haven’t claimed my Fall 2023 tuition yet. When and how should I claim this? Can I include it in my 2023 tax return even though I’m only filing the TD1 form for now?

Any advice would be appreciated! I just want to make sure I’m following CRA guidelines properly without making things too complicated. Thanks!

Hey guys, I made a small typo and missed a digit in my tax submission for 2023 and recently got a matching letter from CRA requesting additional documents. After sending the documents explaining I made a mistake, they sent a notice of reassessment with the correction and now I need to pay back the owed amount by Dec 2 to settle this. The problem is they have an additional charge of over $300 in interest. I also noticed the issue date for the reassessment shows Nov 12 which is a bit odd as it's in the future. Is there anything that can be done to waive this interest charge?

Hola!

The title pretty much says itself but i was approved for the DTC and received 3 Express Notice of Reassessments for the years 2021,22 & 23 of my tax returns. My disability is something i've had my whole life but my psychiatrist noted on PART B of my application that that I was diagnosed in 2021. because of that, i am assuming that is why the CRA only re-assessed my returns from that point. What do i need to do to have them re-assess the remaining 7 years of tax returns?

I have been working for all those years and have had to pay back taxes for all of those 7 years.

I am reading that you are liable to pay 5% in the form of GST in BC of the total assessed value of your home if you were convert your home from short term rental to long term rental.

In my case, we are doing the Airbnb from a detached house in BC and allocating the basement (about 25% of the total square footage of the house).

Would be also be subject to the GST if I were to convert it from short term to long term?

(Canada) I bought a utility trailer before incorporating company, and use it for 100% business use. Can I deduct the full amount within the first year of purchase? It costed under $5000. Weighs under 1500lbs.

Thanks so much!

I have a question about claiming moving expenses when I started the job fully remote, but later moved to be close to the office.

I was living in Ontario, but in 2023 I got a new job based in BC. After working fully remote for the first year (although I travelled frequently to go into the office), I moved with my family to BC in 2024 so that I can go into the office regularly. We sold our home in ON and purchased a new one in BC. My company will not reimburse me for moving expenses. (Although they happily paid my travel expenses when I travelled from out-of-province multiple times a year for work.) I moved so that I don't have to travel so much for work, as I have young kids, and also because I find the mountains to be beautiful. So I plan to claim some moving expenses on my tax return next year.

As I understand, my move is "eligible" because it allows me to carry out my employment at the office of my "new work" location, I've moved at least 40km closer, and the primary purpose of the move is to allow me to collaborate with my coworkers in the office of my new work more easily.

In the folio on moving expenses (Income Tax Folio S1-F3-C4, Moving Expenses), in paragraph ¶4.9, it says:

Generally, the connection can exist even if there is a delay between the move and the time the business or employment activity at the new work location is undertaken.

I think this applies to me, as I worked with the company for more than one year before the move, and there is still a connection between my move and my "new work".

My questions:

• Is my understanding correct, and my move is eligible?
• What is my "Net eligible income" against which I can claim the moving expenses? Is it:
  • all of my income from 2024 (because all of my employment income from 2024 was earned as an employee at my new work location), or
  • only the portion of income that I earned after my move to BC (e.g., only include pay slips from after my move)?

If the answer to the second question is "all of my income from this year" then filling out the forms is slightly easier, and I won't need to carry forward moving expenses to a future year. Regardless, I want to make sure I'm claiming the moving expenses against the right income.

In total, I have about $15,000 in moving-related expenses and another ~$55,000 in expenses related to buying and selling homes.

Aside: I find it bonkers that I can claim as moving expenses the real estate agent commission and land transfer taxes rom selling my ON home and buying my BC home. Those are huge deductions or me.

Hi folks,

I'm surprised to not find anything here (granted I haven't looked long) on this topic.

I've been hit with an audit of my "Platform Economy Activity" income discrepancies.
I can admit that some of this is my own fault, and I will say part of this is also due to CRA not having clear or proper industry codes or ways to document online income.

I'm going back and looking through all my statements, as well as tracking all the business expenses, etc. so I can submit my documents and cross my fingers that they will understand why some things went under-reported or reported on the wrong line.

Can anyone offer advice on how to best present myself to the auditor?
At the very least, it would be nice if they forgave the interest which they've back-dated all the way to my 2020 return. I only got notice of this audit last week (October 30th 2024) so interest is a rough pill to swallow.

TL;DR - can anyone advise me on how to best navigate an audit of my "Platform Economy Activities" from 2020 to 2022 tax years?

Berate me all you want but you're beating a dead horse.

Thanks!

I recently applied for the Disability Tax Credit, if the approval doesn't come until 2025 will I able to get RDSP contribution room for 2024? i.e. is the approval retroactive to the date of application?

Some guy on this subreddit offered to help me with my T1 adjustment issues as he supposedly has contacts within the CRA. He gave me his Rep ID to authorize him in my CRA account. Is this safe or am I about get scammed? Haha

If the total amount in the "Tax Payable" section is 7517.

Then "Refund transferred to instalments" is 2094.

When filling out "Instalments Paid" section, do I report the figures that add up to 7517 or do I have to factor and add in the 2094 refund to the 7517 (9611)?

This is for Corp Federal Instalments

Hey, quick Q on taxation. We are a BC business whom recently hired a digital consultant who is based in Quebec and their invoice shows QST being charged to us. Is this correct? Or should it only be GST?

I have filed a dispute relating to a CRA decision on my 2021 and 2022 income taxes and the objection has not been reviewed but all document submissions had been received within the 90 day timeframe.

I understand that if I don't get a response or decision from the CRA Appeals Office within 90 days, I will have to proceed to filing an appeal to the Tax Court using the General Procedure. The amounts go over what the Informal Procedure allows.

I will be representing myself and will not engage any law firm.

https://www.tcc-cci.gc.ca/en/pages/get-started

Besides the FAQ section:

https://www.tcc-cci.gc.ca/en/pages/frequently-asked-questions

and the Forms:

https://www.tcc-cci.gc.ca/en/pages/law-and-practice/forms

How else can I best learn the Rules of the Court and other things so that I don't make errors/mistakes or make a fool of myself. Getting lawyer representation is out of the question as the decision is about denying my claim to record on account of income, instead of the original filing that was on account of capital gain.

Thank you.

Hi all,

If I move an ETF portfolio, (e.g. VEQT) from one Canadian brokerage (e.g. iTrade) to another (e.g. Wealthsimple while keeping it as VEQT): does it count as disposition? Is there any tax implication in this procedure? Thanks for considering my question.

I'm reading about the Smith Maneuver in Canada. This strategy involves taking a HELOC to make mortgage interest tax-deductible.

However, to qualify for the deduction, the HELOC funds must be used to purchase dividend-paying stocks, right? Interest on HELOC funds used for non-dividend-paying investments wouldn't be deductible, correct? Just making sure.