Sunday, 7 May 2017

Completing T2125- Sections 7/8/9/10

Completing T2125 Statement of Business or Professional Activities

Section 7- Other amounts deductible from your share of the net partnership income (loss)

  • This section only applies if you had a business partner.
  • In this section you can claim expenses that were not included in the partnership statement or reimbursed through the partnership.
  • This amount can be added to Line 59 of Section 6
  • For demonstration purposes, we are not completing this section as we are completing the T2125 form as an individual only.
Section 8- Calculation of business-use-of-home expenses

  • The CRA allows self-employed individuals to claim a portion of our home expenses that can be attributed to the business.
  • For instance, if you have a home office, a portion of your rent, utilities, property taxes, and other expenses can be claimed.
  • Caution, as Uber Drivers it would be difficult to claim home expenses since we are mainly using our vehicles to conduct business.
  • If you have justified expenses which you can claim, complete this section and enter the amount on Line 61 of Section 6. 
  • For demonstration purposes, we are not completing this section as we are completing the T2125 form as an individual only. 
Section 9- Details of other partners

  • This section only applies if you had business partner.
  • List the names and addresses for all of your business partners and their share of the net income (loss) in this section. Also list their percentage or stake in the partnership. IE. Do they have 10% 20% 50% of the business?
  • For demonstration purposes, we are not completing this section as we are completing the T2125 form as an individual only.
Section 10- Details of equity

  • This section only applies if you had business partner.
  • For demonstration purposes, we are not completing this section as we are completing the T2125 form as an individual only.  

*Always consult a qualified tax professional when completing an income tax return. The content of this post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute as legal advice.

Tuesday, 2 May 2017

Completing Parts 4/5/6 of your T2125-Statement of Business and Professioanl Income


Part 4- Cost of Goods Sold and Gross Profit

  • Skip this section, as we do not produce any goods as Uber Drivers. Hence there is no cost of goods sold or affect on our gross revenue.
Part 5-  Net income (loss) before adjustments

Okay, finally we get to the good part of this form. This is where we can start inputting our expenses. The total of all those gas receipts, car washes, oil changes, tolls, cell phone bill etc.  Remember we can only claim a % of the motor vehicle expenses that are attributable for business. For the purposes of this example we will use the ratio 17,000 (Uber km) / 34000 (total km for year) which is 50%.

Example:

George has summarised total vehicle expenses for the year as $9,000. On Line 50 of the T2125 form I will enter $4500 since only 50% of these expenses were attributed to business.


Now let us take a moment to go over the other lines in this part since there is a possibility for confusion. All motor vehicle expenses go on line 50. Let us be clear on this point. 

Line 32 - Advertising - Does not apply. - Unless you spent money advertising your Uber business.

Line 33- Meals and Entertainment- Does not apply - We did not take our riders out for a steak dinner.

Line 34-  Bad Debts - Does not apply- Our earnings are deposited by Uber, we are not direct billing our riders and hoping that they pay eventually.

Line 35- Insurance - Does not apply - This line only applies if you purchased additional insurance for your business such as flood insurance if you own a store front. We already included our insurance under Motor Vehicle Expenses

Line 36- Interest - Does not apply - We should include any interest payments on our vehicle as part as Motor Vehicle Expenses. This line is for interest paid on other financial obligations such as a business loan or equipment/machinery.

Line 37- Business tax, fees, licenses, dues, memberships, and subscriptions - Applies - Did you pay for MileIQ or do you use Quickbooks to track expenses. Claim these expenses here.

Line 38- Office Expenses - Applicable - Lets say you purchased a laptop to keep a track of your expenses, or you purchased a binder,paper,pens, to log your mileage. This is the line to put that amount.

Line 39- Supplies- Applicable- Did you purchase bottled water, snacks, and charging cables for your riders. Enter these expenses here.

Line 40- Legal, accounting, and other professional fees - Applies depending on when you started Uber. If this is your first tax year doing Uber, does not apply. If you have done Uber for many years, it applies. Claim the cost of Income tax filing (Turbo Tax)

Line 41- Management and administration fees. - APPLIES!!! - Remember that 25% commission and booking fee that Uber deducts. Uber shows it as income. This is our opportunity to deduct that expense. If Uber deducted $5000.00 for example, then enter that amount on this line.

Line 42- Rent- Does not apply- Unless you paid rent for an office or business space. Generally, I would not recommend putting anything in this box.

Line 43- Maintenance and Repairs- Does not apply- We already included this as part of Motor Vehicle Expenses.

Line 44- Salaries, Wages, and benefits - Does not apply - Unless you had employees working for you.

Line 45- Property Taxes- Does not apply- Unless you used a portion of your home to conduct your business.

Line 46- Travel - Applies - Did you pay for tolls while Ubering. Enter the business portion of your tolls here.

Line 47- Telephone and Utilities- Applies- Did you purchase a data plan or a phone exclusively for Uber? Claim the business portion of your monthly phone plan here.

Line 48- Fuel Costs- Does not apply- We have already claimed this as part of Motor Vehicle Expenses.

Line 49- Delivery, Freight, and express- Does not apply- Unless you can attribute this to your business.

Line 50- Motor Vehicle Expenses (not including depreciation) - APPLIES- This is all of our gas, oil changes, interest payments for car, car washes, etc apply. Use Section 17 of T2125 to summarise.


Line 51- Allowance on eligible capital property- Does not Apply

Line 52- Capital Cost Allowance - Applies - Use Part 11 of T2125 form to calculate.

Line 53- Other Expenses- Only use if you can attribute the expense to your business.

Add up lines 32-53. This will tell you your total business expenses.

Subtract your business expenses on Line 54 from your gross revenue and you will have your net income(loss).

Part 6- Net Income (Loss)
This is essentially taking the your Net income(loss) from Part 5 and Re entering it on Line 62 of this section. Unless you had a business partner or remitted GST/HST the other lines in this generally are not applicable to our business.

*Always consult a qualified tax professional when completing an income tax return. The content of this post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute as legal advice. 






Wednesday, 26 April 2017

How much did I earn with Uber in the tax year


Completing Your T2125- Statement of Business or Professional Activities)

Step 1 - How much did I earn with Uber in the tax year? (Business Income)

In order to prepare the T2125- Statement of Business or Professional Activties; we must enter the the total gross revenue. The total gross revenue is all of the money earned prior to deductions (uber fee/booking fee).

To access this information, you must sign in to the Uber Partner Dashboard.






Click - Tax Summary


Select Yearly Summary. Click Download





Add the total from Fare Breakdown and Other Income Breakdown




I.E. - Total Fare Breakdown = $22,330.88 + Other Income Breakdown = $454.92 = $22,785.80 (Gross Revenue)


Enter the total gross revenue on Part 1- Business Income (Line 1) of T2125 Statement of Business or Professional Activities

If you have grossed less than $30,000. Skip lines 2,3,4,5, and 6. Re enter your gross revenue on Line 7. 

Part 2: Professional Income

Skip this section.

Part 3: Gross Business or Professional Income:


  • Re enter your gross revenue on line 16
  • Enter zero on line 17/18/19
  • Add total of line 16 and line 19 (total should match gross income)
  • Enter total gross revenue on line 20.
Parts 1,2 and 3 on the T2125 deal with income. The next posts will deal with cost of goods and expenses. Stay tuned! 

*Always consult a qualified tax professional when completing an income tax return. The content of this post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute as legal advice. 

Monday, 6 March 2017

What Expenses Can I Claim for Uber?

What Expenses Can I Claim on Form T2125- Statement of Business or Professional Activities ?

So now its time to put on our thinking hats and start the work of organizing the expenses that we are going to claim. There is no doubt that what we are doing as Uber drivers is a business. However, this does not mean that we can claim every single expense as a tax deduction. The expenses that will be claimed should be relevant to the business. I.E. The government will not be happy if we are claiming our morning cup of coffee from our our favorite Caffe. Claiming stuff like this will quickly put you under the view of the microscope from the Canada Revenue Agency.

For my personal 2016 return, these are some of the expenses that I have claimed:

  • Capital Cost Allowance (Depreciation of My Car)
  • Vehicle Payments
  • Interest Paid on Vehicle Payments
  • Vehicle Maintenance 
  • Fuel
  • Car Washes
  • Uber Commission (25% that gets deducted from every ride)
  • Toll Charges (407 ETR)
  • License Fee (Sticker)
  • New Laptop (For keeping track of expenses) 
Please note that for any expense claimed, we must have the original receipt as a back up. Bank statements will not suffice because they do not itemize the expense.

Basically what is happening here, is we are going to go through all of our receipts, categorize them, and add up the total of all the expenses.  The amount that will be claimed on Form T2125 will be a percentage based on the total KM driven for business vs personal. I.E. if you  drove 40,000 KM in 2016, and 30 thousand out of 40 thousand were business than the ratio would be: 30,000km/40,000km = 0.75. Multiply your total expenses by 0.75 and this will be the amount of expenses claim on form T2125.

Friday, 24 February 2017

KEEP IT SIMPLE SILLY


A key pillar of reporting your income to the Canada Revenue Agency is to accurately report your income and expenses. This is important because we do not want to end up paying more tax than is necessary. We are not required to incorporate a new business in order to accomplish this task.

At the end of sorting out receipts and adding up weekly statements, Form T2125- Statement of Business or Professional Activities will be attached with your T1- General Returns, Forms and Schedules

It is important to stress, that we are not actually going to complete this form as it should be reviewed by a certified tax professional. Our focus is going to be how to organize the required information. A tax accountant will not be happy if you drop a shoe box of receipts on his or her desk.

Slowing things down, not overthinking things, Keeping It Simple Succeeds in completing tasks right the first time.