Monthly grocery budge for daycare only

[Artsand crafts]

Groceries is a specific item that is included in the supplies section on the first page of the T2125. It does not go into the business use of home percentages at all. Supplies are everything from pens and paper, toilet paper, wipes, soap, glue, batteries, food, party supplies, etc. Business use of home percentage is for household bills like utilities, mortgage interest, property tax, etc. Not understanding why people seem to be using the same percentage for food as they are for heat and water. That makes no sense at all.

I can understand why accountants are using house usage % for grocery cost. When I started doing my dc taxes with turbo tax they were offering accountants services for a fee which I hired. They were telling me to do this (to use a % of house usage for grocery expenses), but that did not seem accurate to me at all and at the end I used the formula of % of food consumed by dck instead. I believe that advisers/accountants that aren't knowledgeable of this industry don't know how to create a formula (or were to get one since it is only specific for this kind of business) to calculate it, so they go the easy way. I don't know how they can explain that during an audit. Maybe if the auditor does not know too much about this industry they would not even notice the mistake and at the end it would not matter. Maybe a very detailed and smart auditor could notice it, even if they do not have the experience in hdc.

[Artsand crafts]

or maybe the difference in dollar amount between using 50% or using the 36 to 45% based on the formula that I am using is not significant. Using 50% of grocery bill for me in 2015 would be about $7,700 and using the food consumed by dck formula is about $6,400. Maybe that does not make a big difference compared to what they collect everywhere else and the auditor can just give it a pass or just make a recommendation to improve the calculation in the best case scenario.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I'm not really sure how it all works, just what my accountant has told me. She's a semi retired accountant after I believe she said 20-ish years, taught accounting and now just does it on the side for around I think 300 clients. She considers this part time lol. I've just taken her word for it that 50% was the correct way. Mickyc's accountant does it this way too so again, just assumed it was right. I'm only a family of 2 and I'm sure it probably does work out to be fairly close to 4 kids but who knows

I haven't been audited but have every single receipt for record. Like you said, maybe the little bit of difference isn't a big deal in the long run and that's why it's allowable?

[mickyc]

It is next to impossible to figure out a completely accurate way to calculate food costs. In my case there is only 3 of us. My daughter and I both have cereal for breakfast. My husband gets a coffee at the coffee shop. My daughter and husband both take lunch (sandwich and snacks). I feed 4 kids lunch and snacks during the day as well as myself. Then it's just 3 of us for supper. As terrible as it is to admit to we likely spend $100 a week on takeout. In all honesty I don't think using 50% is that far off in my household.

I have every faith in my accountant that it is being done properly. He is the partner of a large well known firm, has been there for over 20 years, specializes in audits, keeps current with all law changes, flies all over Canada for work/education purposes and is familiar with my daycare as I had his son for a year.

[Crayola kiddies]

I never heard of claiming 50% of your groceries bills. Geese I've been doing it the long painful way for years. Hahaha. After every gorcery shop I underline or circle all the daycare foods then at the end of every month I take each receipt and add up all the circled items to have a monthly total....at the end of the year I add up those monthly totals and that's what I claim for yearly groceries. Although I'm lazy every month and usually end up going through all the receipts at the end of the year

This is me exactly

[5 Little Monkeys]

Babydom and crayola, when I used to do it similar to this, I just bought daycare groceries on a complete separate bill. Made it much easier than going through the receipts and dealing with taxed items and such. If I needed milk for both dc and us, I'd buy 2 jugs but on different bills. I also bought my supplies separately (toilet paper, Kleenex, cleaning supplies, etc)

[babydom]

Oh I know. I always say I will do it that way. But when I have a full cart and a screaming child in my arms I'm like screw it and the whole cart goes up together. I can't stand there and split it and run two orders and pay twice. I don't get out often by myself. Hahaha. But yes that way would be so much easier 5LM!

[mickyc]

What if you just put everything for daycare on the belt first, ask for a subtotal then put up all the rest. I do this often

[5 Little Monkeys]

Oh I know. I always say I will do it that way. But when I have a full cart and a screaming child in my arms I'm like screw it and the whole cart goes up together. I can't stand there and split it and run two orders and pay twice. I don't get out often by myself. Hahaha. But yes that way would be so much easier 5LM!

Once you get into the routine, it becomes much easier I take my dck's shopping sometimes and never found it to be a problem. They know that screaming isn't allowed though lol. I would keep things in the cart separate or if dc or us only needed a few things, I would put a basket in the cart for those items. It made the checkout a lot easier. Paying twice really doesn't take that much longer. I would sometimes I have 3 bills lol (us, dc food and dc supplies)

[babydom]

My daycare kids know screaming isn't allowed either. The screaming child is usually mine. Haha. I never thought to put a basket in the cart to separate the items if I'm not getting much. Good ideas!!!