beekeeping business

[Ben Little]

I there a way to get some of the equipment i bought for the year 2012 used as an expense against my own income ? I have been hearing different answers about extracting equipment and woodenwear +++.

I guess what i am trying to ask is how did any of you start using your expenses against your earnings for the Canadian Gov Federal/Provincial. Once you have a tax number of course.

Or should i just go to an accountant that deals with farms ?

Thanks

Ben

[Allen Martens]

Best to go to an accountant that deals with farms if you have no experience in tax prep in my opinion. Shop around some, prices and services provided vary greatly, at least they do around here. Its worth getting familiar basic tax law for planning and following how your accountant is doing your tax prep and why.

The answer to your question is yes, however, it is not a straight up deductions, but a depreciable capital item. CRA lists beekeeping equipment as class 8 with a 20% depreciation rate. If employment income is your main source of income, your losses would be restricted losses and you would only be able to used a portion of your loses to a maximum of $8750 and the rest would be carried forward. A recent supreme court ruling has changed this bit by strengthening the "combination rule" so I'm not sure what accountants do with this now. Inventory adjustments also need to be considered. So its either an accountant or lots of reading and studying.

[Ian]

assuming your pulling revenue from your business, channel anything and everything in relation to your business against your revenue. Like Allen mentioned, it has to be channeled the right way.

[StevenG]

In the States I use TurboTax, which does the hard work for me. There should be something comparable in Canada. You input the data where requested in the tax program, the program does the work for you.
Regards,
Steven

[Allen Martens]

Good point about maximizing your expenses. Some things require some organizing and bookkeeping but are well worth it. Things like a mileage log for business use of a personal vehicle can be a nice income reduction.

Steven, TurboTax has a nice setup for Canada as well. It has features specifically tailored to farming. I use the corporate version my self and like it a lot, though I work in the form view as much as easy steps. However, I still think, that when it comes to tax prep for a business, if you don't have some basic knowledge of tax rules pertaining to business, you are usually ahead with a professional as opposed to diy.

[Specialkayme]

In the States I use TurboTax, which does the hard work for me.

Or at least, you think it does the work for you.

Don't worry, in my practice as a Tax Attorney I've never seen TurboTax totally screw up a return, ESPECIALLY when it comes to depreciation and business expenses . . .