Steps to take
for this tax season

personal taxes

• T4 slips (from employment), T4A slips (from self employment from some employers)
• Medical receipts
• RRSP slips
• Any other investments and their value (such as stocks)
• Child care receipts
• School fees (post secondary) T2202
• If you work from home as a rule, then a T2200
• Charity receipts
• If you bought/sold a house, the purchase documents
• If you are interested in being a client, please contact us

self employed / sole proprietor

• Taxes are due to be paid by April 30, but they do not have to be filed until June 15. Therefore, if you think you own money, make sure you pay it by April 30.
• Finalize your kilometer log, making sure you have all your business KMS recorded. If you need to “rebuild” it for the year, go back to each receipt you have and ensure you have kms recorded for each receipt purchase.
• Take your starting KMS for the year (as of January 1, 2020) and your ending KMS for the year (December 31, 2020) and give this to the accountant.
• When using the totals from the receipts, use this rule of thumb:
  • If you are registered for GST/HST, then you use only the total of the item and put the GST/HST in a different column.
  • If you are NOT registered for GST/HST, then you use the total including GST/HST.
  • For the full listing of Steps to Take, download this resource
  • Consider purchasing our DIY Bookkeeping Kit

incorporated

• Gather up your business bank statements and credit card statements. For some people that mix business and personal, this may not be comfortable. In this case, go through all your statements and compile a list of anything business related.
• If you registered for GST/HST in the past year, make sure you have the exact date this happened, as your tax person will need to know.
• If you charged GST/HST and you had customers across Canada, calculate the GST or HST that was charged and the amount of revenue for each province.
• If you hired any subcontractors, make sure you have an invoice from them for each payment you made.
• For the full listing of Steps to Take, download this resource
• Consider purchasing our DIY Bookkeeping Kit

any business, every day

1. Make sure you have a different bank account for your business, and you are not mixing business and personal transactions.
2. Always have dedicated credit cards for your business. This can be in your personal name, but the usage should be dedicated to your business.
3. Watch your sales to see if you have to qualify for GST/HST. This can be any time during the year, and not necessarily only on a “per year” basis.
4. Record your kilometers. Find a reliable method or app to do so. Our recommendation is Triplog.
5. Write the names/reason why you are expensing on meal receipts.
6. Tell your insurance company (home and vehicle) that you have a home based business.
7. If you gave away gift certificates, have a list of who you gave them to, date, amount, and reason.
8. Put away 20% of all money you receive into a separate bank account.