Wednesday, April 30, 2008

So what did I learn from tax season?

Taxes are done and in, and let me tell you: having an accountant do them is a godsend!

It wasn't the best case scenario for rebate/payments, but I did learn one very important thing:

If you're working as a sole-proprietor and the agency you're going through gives you a T4 at the end of the year, ASK QUESTIONS. Turns out that organizations that claim to have to with-hold EI or CPP don't...at least they shouldn't be for fully independant workers....and that's what happened with one gig I did for a local head-hunting firm.

As a result, that amount had to be recorded as taxable income (there's a T4...T4 = you worked somewhere).

I'm curious to see the actual print-outs to see how it was all calculated, but so far my first 6 months has had some good lessons learned, and I didn't take too much of a hit...so we'll see what shakes!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Tax Time

Here it is...my first tax submission for a year where I worked for half of it as a sole proprietor. I am a little nervous, as I really don't know what to expect. I know that I'm definately *not* getting a refund, but I'm also not sure what my bill is going to be. I've contributed quite a bit to RSP's, and I have a fair amount of expenses to claim (which is another thing...seeing exactly what does get claimed and what doesn't, or how much for some of the home bills since I work out of my home for some of my work). I just really don't know...

I'm going to be talking with my accountant about Incorporation again, mainly for the tax benefits and not so much the increased "safety" that it supposedly provides (which I've heard numerous times ove the last few months that its really a fallacy about how much protection you get going SP to Inc).

Anyway, time will tell...look for a tax report in the next few weeks!

CC