Daycare taxes prep

Daycare providers..

I am doing my taxes this weekend..
It is my first year claiming as self employed. I know I can claim SOME of the groceries, utilities, toy purchases, the swing set, the zoo membership ( which I do use with the daycare kids) the gifts for the kids, arts and crafts supplies..

Providing daycare I have a income of $8900 from July ( when I started full time) to December 31 and my mat leave benefits ( which ended July 12) income for the year was about $ 4400.

Am I going to get taxed to death? Or can I claim enough expenses? I am trying to do whats best for my wallet with out getting audited.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

My best advice is for the first year hire a professional (one that specifically knows the specifics in regard to Home Daycare); well worth the money and you will learn a lot!!
Here is the Revenue Canada link (as pertaining to Home Daycare) in case you don't have it
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/tp.../menu-eng.html

I agree, we can all give you advice, but since this is your first year I would go with a tax specialist. You can claim their fee as well.

Chances of you owing anything are almost nil and you will probablly end up with an amount to carry forward to future years. By the time you take off the basic personal exemption too. I think there was something in the newspaper looking at numbers and if you earned under $11,000 without any deductions you would be tax free.

I'm with Playfelt. My first year I only made 17,000 and I think I paid less than 2 grand in taxes. I stressed myself to death over it though - worrying about how much I was going to owe, and worrying that I hadn't saved up enough money to pay the bill.....What provided me with some peace of mind is I did my taxes in January. (I didn't submit them until March, but I did them so I ahd the numbers for my own sanity) I figured that if the bill was going to be more than what I had saved I would still have three months before things were due on April 30th, to save up a bit more money. =) Also, you don't have to pay the full amount of your taxes by the April deadline. If you need to, talk to a CRA rep and arrange a payment schedule. Yes, you'll pay a token amount of interest, but as long as you send them a few post dated cheques you will not be considered in arrears on your taxes, and it is one way to buy yourself some flexibility.

I used an accountant my first two years to help me get my book keeping streamlined and show me the ropes because she was quiet honest that in our business we do not NEED an accountant because the taxes are very simple even though many people just feel more confident in having that professional ... so for example my first year I had more 'start up expenses' than business income so she helped show me how to carry over some of my 'larger expenses' to help lower taxes for further years and optimize my payments that way basically I paid a little tax 'each year' the past 5 years rather than paying no tax for my first year or so and than having a year where all of a sudden I have HUGE bill like $2000 ... once I felt confident in figuring that out and doing them myself than I switched to doing it myself with Turbo Tax program which costs me a fraction of the price than an accountant ... now if I could find someone who would do my taxes and my spouses for the same price as the Turbo tax costs me I might consider having the 'extra opinion' on them but other than that I am too cheap ;)