Hello,
I am a Canadian van expediter who drives for a fleet owner. I get paid a percentage of our gross revenue, with no taxes taken out of my pay. Last year was my first year expediting and I made about $40,000 CAD (About $30,000 USD). I went to H&R Block today to get an idea of what I will owe in taxes for last year and it came out to be about $8000 CAD (about $6000 USD). Obviously this is way more than what I want to pay considering that I do not make much money doing this to begin with.
So my question is, what can I use as deductions to lower what I owe in taxes. I am not an owner operator so I can't deduct fuel or maintenance expenses. I'm thinking I could deduct meals and hotels. I do stay in hotels quite often with this job, simply because staying in the van too much is extremely boring and not exactly a comfortable way of living. But how many hotel stays can I really deduct, considering that hotels are not really a necessary business expense for me. It's something I usually do out of desire rather than out of necessity, so it's hard for me to believe that I could deduct the thousands of dollars I spent on hotels last year. However, I guess the government doesn't know that I have a bed in the van, so they may think it is a necessary expense. I don't have any rent or a mortgage by the way. My legal residence is my mom's house, but I rarely stay there. I lived on the road year round last year, sleeping in the van and hotels.
But yeah, having to pay $8000 CAD in taxes is going to completely wipe away all the profit I made last year and then some. I will have actually lost money last year if I have to pay that much to the government. So does anybody have advice for me? I realize that this not a typical issue here as most van expediters are owner operators.
I am a Canadian van expediter who drives for a fleet owner. I get paid a percentage of our gross revenue, with no taxes taken out of my pay. Last year was my first year expediting and I made about $40,000 CAD (About $30,000 USD). I went to H&R Block today to get an idea of what I will owe in taxes for last year and it came out to be about $8000 CAD (about $6000 USD). Obviously this is way more than what I want to pay considering that I do not make much money doing this to begin with.
So my question is, what can I use as deductions to lower what I owe in taxes. I am not an owner operator so I can't deduct fuel or maintenance expenses. I'm thinking I could deduct meals and hotels. I do stay in hotels quite often with this job, simply because staying in the van too much is extremely boring and not exactly a comfortable way of living. But how many hotel stays can I really deduct, considering that hotels are not really a necessary business expense for me. It's something I usually do out of desire rather than out of necessity, so it's hard for me to believe that I could deduct the thousands of dollars I spent on hotels last year. However, I guess the government doesn't know that I have a bed in the van, so they may think it is a necessary expense. I don't have any rent or a mortgage by the way. My legal residence is my mom's house, but I rarely stay there. I lived on the road year round last year, sleeping in the van and hotels.
But yeah, having to pay $8000 CAD in taxes is going to completely wipe away all the profit I made last year and then some. I will have actually lost money last year if I have to pay that much to the government. So does anybody have advice for me? I realize that this not a typical issue here as most van expediters are owner operators.
