Printable View
I am new to this and my accountant said it was okay to issue one receipt for the full year. Now my question is I have two siblings I watch since Sept 2014 and Mom and Dad are separated. Payment from Sept, Oct and Nov have all come from moms bank account. Dad paid his own half in December from his girlfriends bank account and is now asking for his receipts.
How should I issue the receipts if I only received payment from Moms account for the first three months?
When a couple is together, only one parents can claim the tax credit. I believe it's the parent with the lower income. However, when they are separate, I guess it comes down to their personal agreement - this isn't something I've considered before.
I guess what you will have to do is separate receipts to the parent who paid.
What you can do is the "start date" will be the same for both parent and the "end date" will be 31-Dec-2014 if you provided care until year end (or beyond). Then simply make out a receipt for the Mom for the total monies she paid, and a separate receipt for Dad for the total monies he paid.
I give annual receipts so mine look something like...the details I write are shown as <text>.
Date : <date receipt issued/written>
To : <mother and father's name>
For : <Day Care fees for child(ren)'s name>
From : <01-01-2014 OR start date> To: <31-12-2014 OR date the left>
Amount : <total amount of fees paid during the calendar year>
From : <my name and address and SIN and signature>
* In home day care providers are required to give their SIN. This is clearly documented throughout the CRA website and documentation in their guides for day care providers and also for parents claiming day care fees. If you don't want to give your SIN, you may register your business (about $80 a year I think) and provide your registration/business number instead.
Lots of providers don't give their SIN but they are obligated to and now that all tax returns are electronic/via the web, our SIN numbers have to be entered into the software or that part of the tax credit is not calculated for the parent due to incomplete information. i.e. the parent will not have the data about fees included in their tax return and so will over pay.
I would keep track of who paid what and at the end of the year give them each their own receipt for the money they paid.
IME, it's up to the parents to decide who pays the dc between themselves. I know a handful of mom's who pay the whole dc fee but dad pays the mom whatever their agreement is, in private or as part of his child support.
Just to answer your second question. Siblings need to be separated as well. I learned this last year. You need a receipt with the total for Johnny and for Suzy.
Why? I know that it's acceptable to spread costs between children. Parents can claim up to $7k for a preschool child's fees (going up to $8k for 2015) and I think it's $4k for a school age kid.Quote:
Originally Posted by torontokids
But if they paid out $10k in preschool fees and nothing for the school age child, they can allocated the extra $3k to the child with no claim.
So I wonder why they would require separate receipts for separate children. It's literally number of preschoolers x preschool amount + number of school age children x school age amount and any receipts proving expense for any/all/some children can be split however the parents want to achieve the max allowance.
I used to do them on one receipt for the reasons you mentioned Rachel but I was told last year they need to be issued separately. I just do it separately now and they can have their accountant figure out any income splitting or whatever.
CRA requires separate receipts for each child, including siblings. Here's the info directly from the CRA website that you require on your receipts. The link if anyone wants it is http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tp...rcpts-eng.html
"As someone who runs a home daycare, you will be expected to issue receipts to the parents of the children in your care. You should do this as soon as possible to give them time to file their income tax and benefit returns.
Receipts you issue have to include all of the following information:
the name of the person for whom you are preparing the receipt;
the name of the child of the person for whom you are preparing the receipt;
the amount received for your services;
the period you provided these services (from and to dates);
your name;
your address;
your social insurance number;
your signature; and
the date you signed the receipt.
Note: If a person has more than one child in your care, you have to issue a separate receipt for each child."
As Rachael mentioned above, you don't have to include your SIN if you include a Business Number. I did this in September, its only $60 to register for 5 years, well worth it in my opinion! Plus it gives you the ability to legally use a name for your daycare.
For sibling I give a 1 receipt to the parents with the grand total. I then have a section that I have it broken down for each individual child.
As for separated parents. If mom paid she gets a receipt for her payments. If dad paid he gets a receipt for his payments. They can fight over who pays, who claims it etc.
That's good to know. I've lumped siblings on one receipt in the past. I don't have any now so it won't affect me for next year so I'll have to remember to do this if it comes up in future.Quote:
Originally Posted by torontokids
I'd love to know the reasoning behind it. Oh - Income splitting. I wonder if it's to do with that. Until now, I know the lowest income earner had to claim day care fees but if they are income splitting, it might be that one can claim one child and the other parent different kids.
I don't have a spouse so I've not looked into the income splitting at all.
Hmm, I've always taken that as meaning more than one child is more than one client paying and so each client would require a separate receipt. But I'd never taken it as meaning one per child but as one per client, if that makes sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by cate
Thanks for the advice everyone!
I managed to talk to my accountant today and she says if my monthly fee for the kids is say, $1000, than I would issue the full monthly amounts on one receipt regardless who pays. I am obligated to provide both parents with a receipt if they request it but it is the exact same receipt, no modifications what so ever. It is up to them to figure out how they will claim the kids and it leaves me out of it.
I think this is what I'll do since payment for the first couple months came from mom but dad says he paid her and mom says no he didn't so this way will at least keep me out of that he said/she said as well.
Oh yes...that sounds familiar! Glad your accountant was able to help :)
Good to know!
I'd be super tempted to make sure that receipt has a unique identifier like a receipt number as the security receipt books have. I'd be really nervous about giving Mom a receipt for the total bill and Dad a receipt for the total bill just in case BOTH tried to make a claim and CRA throught I'd earned double the income, if that makes sense.
Maybe even write "DUPLICATE COPY" on one of them.
I asked about that too as it was one of my concerns as well and she said not to put anything different on it and she was very specific that it was to be the exact same receipts. It would be no different if they said they lost the receipt you would just give them a new print. I should mention my receipts are digital and not from a receipt book.
If they both try to claim, it would be fraud on their part. You just did what you were obligated to do which is provide a receipt. If you make changes I guess it could be looked at as a different receipt.
BTW, They also said that each child must be on their own receipt now, even if they are siblings.
That would be them completing fraud, not you. You would have both copies of your receipt for the one child to prove your income.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rachael