Posted on: 18-09-05 12:14:45
I have started working as a consultant taking up small projects(part time) and I am going to be using my home partly as an office and I would like to know what ways does my tax scenario change and How can I take advantage to the maximum of this situation to claim back taxes.
Right now For eg- I get a cheque for my consulting every week.(Is in my name as I dont have a company or anything). So when I declare my income at the year end I will have to pay the ei,cpp and health stuff and the necessary taxes.
My understanding is I can claim back gas money, car maintenance and even food expenses(As long as I have receipts) and also claim back a portion of my mortgage interest coz I am partly using my house as an office.
Would appreciate some feedback.
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Yes , You could
But only business related expenses and not personal ones. You will have to pro rate your expenses into personal and business and then claim only the business ones.
Eg: you have a phone and you spend 20$ in business calls and 40$ on personal calls so you can claim only 20$ and not 60$ on your taxes .
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We will find a way or we will make one
The best guy who can advise you in this matter is your Accountant who will file your Income Tax Return. He will know what expenses will be allowed by CCRA and what expenses may not be allowd. For example, he may advise you not to claim any telephone expnses (unless long distance calls are required to be made for business), but to claim cell phone expnses and internet expenses.
Further for self employment income, you have to pay both employer and employee share of CPP and you do not have to pay any EI.
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Orginally posted by Vijay
The best guy who can advise you in this matter is your Accountant who will file your Income Tax Return. He will know what expenses will be allowed by CCRA and what expenses may not be allowd.
I try to file my taxes by myself hence the query.
But I think it might be a wise idea to talk to a CA and once its done through him I might be able to pick it up for future periods.
But I still would like know to as to what receipts I should be saving and what documents I should be keeping incase CRA wants them for assessment.
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"Progress comes from deviation".
On a side note if anybody finds my comments or posts offensive or irritating please ignore it and if that still bothers you; please write to me and I will demonstrate.
You need not necessarily go to a CA to file your taxes(you don't want a big bill-do you?)- there are several income tax practioners to whom you can go to file your taxes.
If you maintain your accounts systematically and take the papers to these practioners to file the return, they charge you reasonably- if you simply dump all your bills on them and ask them to figure out the expenses, naturally they charge for their time.
As Smiley put it, you can not claim personal expenses and for all expenses that you want to claim as expense, you should keep receipts. The documents to be saved will be the contracts for your jobs which specify that you are rendering services as an independent contractor (not as an employee).You can claim expenses proportionately for office use for car gas, car maintenance, car depreciation (amortization), amortization of computer, utilities for house, mortgage interest, stationery, cell phone, internet , to name a few.
