[biozon]

I welcome Canadian Uber drivers to discuss declaring income for 2014 in this thread.

Questions I have so far:

1) What business code do you choose for business? Is it 48531/48532 "Taxi/Limo" or 485990"Other"?
2) Do you go the "Partnership" way or just the regular self-employed "professional income" way?
3) Do you state the "Telephone and utilities" and "meals" expenses on your tax return?

Welcome to discussion!

 

[hasan]

Hi,
I'm getting ready to file my taxes for 2014 and I'd like to know how to show my additional income from uber. Do I need a HST number?

 

[biozon]

You don't need to register the business (and collect HST) if your income from this business is less than 30K yearly. Since I cannot imagine a scenario when you can make more than 30K working for Uber, you don't need the HST.

You will need the T2125 form to declare your income. You can show all your expenses and deductions there, too.

 

[Actionjax]

I welcome Canadian Uber drivers to discuss declaring income for 2014 in this thread.

Questions I have so far:

1) What business code do you choose for business? Is it 48531/48532 "Taxi/Limo" or 485990"Other"?
2) Do you go the "Partnership" way or just the regular self-employed "professional income" way?
3) Do you state the "Telephone and utilities" and "meals" expenses on your tax return?

Welcome to discussion!

I haven't gotten that far yet but I think I will go with the Other route so as not to flag Tips as a source of income for Taxi/Limo. Just a guess here.

It will be self employed income and as far as Telephone and meals I would say no. (Unless you are using your own phone for Uber).

I use Uber's phone and still haven't got charged on it yet.

 

[biozon]

Yes, I'm using my phone for Uber.

As for tips - after almost 500 trips I have been tipped three times resulting in a whopping 7$ and misc cents. I really don't think it's worth reporting.

 

[water4tips]

I just started in 2015. Has anyone done the calculations on the t2125? I wonder if I can do a mock sheet on simple tax. And yes claim gas and maintenance phone and most importantly water! Not to mention car washes and armorall.. febreeze..I will fill the home office stuff for shits and giggles considering my office is an s4 in my den where i wait for pings.
Or maybe just launder the money through a brangelina charity lol

 

[water4tips]

Oh and never claim cash tips. It's off the books. Why do you think the powers that be allow uber to exist. It's part of this trend towards a paperless fully trackable economy.
Anyway my point is you the tax payer are being fleeced of multitudinous billions by the big corporations yet never pay their fair share, out of 50 top corporations in Canada only 2 pay the required 25% of profits. The rest offshore it. And we're made to feel guilty for hoarding coffee money?

 

[Actionjax]

Oh and never claim cash tips. It's off the books. Why do you think the powers that be allow uber to exist. It's part of this trend towards a paperless fully trackable economy.
Anyway my point is you the tax payer are being fleeced of multitudinous billions by the big corporations yet never pay their fair share, out of 50 top corporations in Canada only 2 pay the required 25% of profits. The rest offshore it. And we're made to feel guilty for hoarding coffee money?

Just be careful with that. Industries that have tipping revenue Canada expects to see that claimed as well. (They can't verify but if you don't they will give an estimate and count it)

That's why you may be best to stay away from Taxi limo classification. Uber does not receive tips but if you classify yourself in a tipping industry it could red flag if you don't. It would be easy to prove it but do you really want an audit for that?

 

[biozon]

I just started in 2015. Has anyone done the calculations on the t2125? I wonder if I can do a mock sheet on simple tax. And yes claim gas and maintenance phone and most importantly water!

Water is most important, really? It costs 2$ for 10-15 bottles, I spent like 20$ during four months.

Gas being the main expense, of course, then depreciation and maintenance, then phone, then cleaning / deodorizing chemicals.

Car washes are also important if you buy them (I very rarely buy them, as I usually use my Esso points for that).

I started filling in (very roughly) T2125, but not yet completed.

 

[Bob Smith]

i got my first uber pay late, in January. so i need to keep all my receipts and logs for next year.

 

[uberThere]

biozon,

I was a CPA for a decade, so here are some things you should know.

1) make sure that place your car, and other business assets in the correct classes as market value - your car should be Class 10, or 10.1 if it is over $30K plus HST
2) make sure you deem your assets disposed and claim any capital gains, but this is unlikely
3) unless you have a phone that is exclusively for Uber, you can't claim the base phone, but you can claim the portion of the data plan used for business
4) home office, you should dedicate a room for it and then use either the % of square footage, or the ratio of 1/# of rooms in your house - rule of thumb is it should be 15% or less
5) keep a detailed millage log, I can't stress this enough!!! Make sure it has all your deadhead miles, as well as any millage you use to run errands,
6) water should be under entertainment and food, which is written off at 50%, but you could get a different opinion form another accountant.
7) all car expenses such as car washed, licences, insurance, loan interest are written off at the proportion that you use your car for business.

I hope this helps, if you have other specific questions, let me know.

Disclaimer, all information here should be considered for informational purposes only, and is not to be considered tax advice. You should consult your personal tax expert for your personal situation.

 

[uberThere]

Just be careful with that. Industries that have tipping revenue Canada expects to see that claimed as well. (They can't verify but if you don't they will give an estimate and count it)

That's why you may be best to stay away from Taxi limo classification. Uber does not receive tips but if you classify yourself in a tipping industry it could red flag if you don't. It would be easy to prove it but do you really want an audit for that?

Technically, since Uber isn't a taxi or limo service, 485990 would be the correct alternative. Taxis and limos also have a better chance of being audited in my experience due to the tips and self-employment aspect.

 

[Noobler]

Thnxs guys alot of good info here.

 

[Actionjax]

Technically, since Uber isn't a taxi or limo service, 485990 would be the correct alternative. Taxis and limos also have a better chance of being audited in my experience due to the tips and self-employment aspect.

Thanks. Had a feeling about that.

 

[biozon]

uberThere
That is a very detailed and good piece of advice, thanks!

I was self employed in 2009-2012, so I know I can only write off relevant portions of rent, equipment, etc, that I use for my work.

Thankfully, I keep a detailed log of mileage for Uber that includes dead miles (start-stop), gas, etc, so that should be no problem. The Studiotax software I use allows to automatically calculate the percentage of Uber usage out of the overall mileage for the year. Thank includes the rest of the vehicle expenses as well.

Luckily, I started Ubering only in November 2014, so it shouldn't be an issue to audit myself in detail for declaring taxes.

One last question: since I started Ubering in November, do I have to report the overall mileage since I started with Uber and then the Uber part (and relevantly any vehicle expenses, such as gas, maintenance, repairs, etc, etc, only for that period [November-December] or do I still have to report the overall mileage for the whole year of 2014 and then the Uber part. See, my confusion here is that I didn't use the vehicle for Uber before November, so I don't know if I should use the specific period for declaration purposes or the whole year.

E.g (just for relevance, these are not actual figures).
1) In 2014 I drove 20000 kilometers overall (from January 1-st to December 31-st 2014). I spent 6000$ overall for my vehicle expenses in 2014 (including insurance, loan interest, gas, maintenance, repairs, licencing, car wash, etc, etc). Out of those 20000 I drove 5000 kilometers for Uber specifically (From November 7-th to December 31-st, 2014).

Therefore my Uber part of the overall vehicle expenses would be 25% in this case. Which corresponds to 1500$.

However if I use only the period I used the vehicle for Uber, it will be as following:

2) Since November 7-th till December 31-st I drove 7500 km overall. I spent 2000$ for this period. Out of those 7500 I drove 5000 kilometers for Uber specifically (From November 11-th to December 31-st, 2014).

Therefore my Uber part of the overall vehicle expenses would be 67% in this case. Which corresponds to 1340$.

Which of these scenarios should I use?

The actual figures will be different, of course, but there will definitely be a difference.

I tend to the first one.

 

[uberThere]

Thanks. Had a feeling about that.

You were correct about that. If you really want to get audited, you should list yourself as a consultant. They seem to get a lot of love, too.

uberThere
That is a very detailed and good piece of advice, thanks!

I was self employed in 2009-2012, so I know I can only write off relevant portions of rent, equipment, etc, that I use for my work.

Thankfully, I keep a detailed log of mileage for Uber that includes dead miles (start-stop), gas, etc, so that should be no problem. The Studiotax software I use allows to automatically calculate the percentage of Uber usage out of the overall mileage for the year. Thank includes the rest of the vehicle expenses as well.

That means you're probably ahead of more than 90% of those who are driving for Uber. I'm really worried that many won't even realize that they actually have to claim their income as a business.

Luckily, I started Ubering only in November 2014, so it shouldn't be an issue to audit myself in detail for declaring taxes.

One last question: since I started Ubering in November, do I have to report the overall mileage since I started with Uber and then the Uber part (and relevantly any vehicle expenses, such as gas, maintenance, repairs, etc, etc, only for that period [November-December] or do I still have to report the overall mileage for the whole year of 2014 and then the Uber part. See, my confusion here is that I didn't use the vehicle for Uber before November, so I don't know if I should use the specific period for declaration purposes or the whole year.

E.g (just for relevance, these are not actual figures).
1) In 2014 I drove 20000 kilometers overall (from January 1-st to December 31-st 2014). I spent 6000$ overall for my vehicle expenses in 2014 (including insurance, loan interest, gas, maintenance, repairs, licencing, car wash, etc, etc). Out of those 20000 I drove 5000 kilometers for Uber specifically (From November 7-th to December 31-st, 2014).

Therefore my Uber part of the overall vehicle expenses would be 25% in this case. Which corresponds to 1500$.

However if I use only the period I used the vehicle for Uber, it will be as following:

2) Since November 7-th till December 31-st I drove 7500 km overall. I spent 2000$ for this period. Out of those 7500 I drove 5000 kilometers for Uber specifically (From November 11-th to December 31-st, 2014).

Therefore my Uber part of the overall vehicle expenses would be 67% in this case. Which corresponds to 1340$.

Which of these scenarios should I use?

The actual figures will be different, of course, but there will definitely be a difference.

I tend to the first one.

You would only include the operating expenses for the time you were running the business, and pro-rate the expenses based on that time frame, which is what you layout in choice number 2. Unless the rules have changed, you would also do the same for CCA because it is put in a 1/2 rule for the first year, anyways to account for this type of scenario.

 

[biozon]

uberThere
Thanks again!

 

[erca]

Hi !

Thank you for all this information.

I have a question regarding GST/HST. I use TurboTax. Do I write an amount for GST ? Do I leave it at zero if Uber income is less than 30k $ ?

 

[erca]

Another question : How do I claim CCA ? What should I write ??

 

[uberThere]

Another question : How do I claim CCA ? What should I write ??

CCA is claimed on page 5 of the T2125 form, but autos are claimed a bit different.
If you have a car that is over $30K plus HST, then it is put in a separate class (10.1).

Since you can only claim the business % of the depreciation, you need to claim only the business portion available, and the rest remains in the ending UCC balance.
I hope that makes a bit of sense.