Receipts/taxes for private dayhomes - Alberta

[mickyc]

depends on what you make and what your deductions end up being. There are tons of things you can deduct. Keep all receipts and claim it all!

For myself I claim 50% of my hydro, water, food, bank fees, TV, internet
100% for anything completely for daycare such as equipment, toys, office supplies, art supplies, advertising costs,
100% for cell phone but zero for home phone
I also keep track of km's driven for all shopping and we claim a portion of gas,
I total all reno receipts for any home repairs, car insurance, house insurance, interest paid on mortgage, property taxes, any capital property purchased (new fridge, new computer etc). I give my accountant totals for everything and he figures out what percentages to use.

My accountant claimed my expenses prior to me opening my first year while I got my daycare space ready. I use my whole basement as 100% dedicated daycare space instead of shared family space. It works out to more in deductions.

I also pay into EI as well. I believe I owed approx. $1800 last year and that included my CPP and EI. If you are opening in November your expenses will far outweigh your income. I think my first year (started in sept) I had over $7000 to carry over to the next tax year.

[reach_anna]

depends on what you make and what your deductions end up being. There are tons of things you can deduct. Keep all receipts and claim it all!

For myself I claim 50% of my hydro, water, food, bank fees, TV, internet
100% for anything completely for daycare such as equipment, toys, office supplies, art supplies, advertising costs,
100% for cell phone but zero for home phone
I also keep track of km's driven for all shopping and we claim a portion of gas,
I total all reno receipts for any home repairs, car insurance, house insurance, interest paid on mortgage, property taxes, any capital property purchased (new fridge, new computer etc). I give my accountant totals for everything and he figures out what percentages to use.

My accountant claimed my expenses prior to me opening my first year while I got my daycare space ready. I use my whole basement as 100% dedicated daycare space instead of shared family space. It works out to more in deductions.

I also pay into EI as well. I believe I owed approx. $1800 last year and that included my CPP and EI. If you are opening in November your expenses will far outweigh your income. I think my first year (started in sept) I had over $7000 to carry over to the next tax year.

can you claim all those expenses even if youre not licenced/have a registered business?

[Rachael]

can you claim all those expenses even if youre not licenced/have a registered business?

In-home day care is one of only two job codes in Canada that does not require your business to be registered if self employed. Licencing has nothing to do with it either - that's merely a status in terms of government funded places for subsidiaries.

You can claim these expenses providing :-
1. You are claiming the income - afterall, how can you have expenses on an income not declared?
2. You have receipts/proof of the expense

There are limits that CRA consideres "reasonable expenses" and these are not published but CRA knows what to expect from an in-home daycare providers annual return. And so will question excessive claims and request the supporting documentation.

They know roughly what your food bill will be based on the number of children in your care, they know what they consider reasonable for heating, water, etc. Don't forget, you are only claiming a portion of the bills as some are your families share. It's quite straight forward though.

[mickyc]

can you claim all those expenses even if youre not licenced/have a registered business?

Yes. I am a private in home daycare. I completely recommend getting a good accountant to help you out.

Side note: I do have a registered business name but that has nothing to do with my taxes. I can claim the cost of registering my business name. If you are going to name your daycare you should be registering it. That way no one can steal your name, your name can't be too similar to someone else and it guarantee's that you are not using someone else's name. I think it cost around $75 to start and then I renew it every 3 years for about $40. There was someone who was using a very similar name as mine (she actually even stole most of my wording from my ad). I contacted her stating that she could not use a name that was so close to mine. She quickly changed it. My guess is she wasn't registered.