Hi everyone! Pjjjjj here! LTNS! I got an email from EO today and I followed the link to find this forum again! I've been meaning to pay a visit! Hope you're all doing well! I saw this post, and couldn't help but reply! Where are all the Canadians??
We haven't been in expediting for a longg time.. but this is how it was back in 2008 or whenever it was... an expediter owns his own vehicle (or rents it, or leases it, or has a loan on it).. you are self employed! You claim all of your expediting associated expenses against your expediting revenues. That means... you can deduct your lease payment if you lease, or.. if you purchased your vehicle outright, you claim it originally as a capital cost which is amortized over several years. You claim your fuel expenses, your insurance, any licensing fees, accounting/bookkeeper fees, legal fees, paper supplies required, truck washes, cellphone costs, any charges passed onto you from your carrier for whatever 'services' they might provide to you, the commission that comes off the top that you give to your carrier for getting you loads, your home-office expenses, your vehicle repairs and maintenance expenses, uniform expenses (if you have to wear one for your carrier), accommodations expenses if you have to get a hotel room while out on the road once in awhile, you can claim a meal allowance subject to certain things such as how far away from home you were and for how long.. if you're registered as a GST/HST registrant, you would also get back any HST that you pay, via an HST return filed every whatever-your-filing-frequency-is.. if you are NOT registered as a GST/HST registrant, the total of your expenses/costs, including HST, is considered an expense when you do your year end taxes.
When you say you want to claim a 'mileage deduction'.. that is something that 'employees' claim, if they drive their own vehicles while working as an employee of a company, in my opinion. But with that, you would not be able to claim fuel expenses, insurance expenses, repairs and maintenance expenses, or anything vehicle related, as it would all be included within that mileage expense. Frankly, I would think it might be rather easy to get your expenses up there so that you wouldn't be showing a whole heckuva lot of revenue, and therefore you wouldn't be paying much in taxes.... unless things have changed a lot. But whatever your net earnings are, they are taxable, just like in any other business or like any other Canadian has to pay income taxes.
I think, imo, that OVM's calc above for home office expenses is a little bit off.. because if you have a 10x10 'office' (100 sq.ft.) in a 1500 sq.ft. house, that would be 1/15=6.67% of your..... utility bills, property taxes, certain repairs/maintenance, (or if you rent, it would be 6.67% of your rent).