Using Your Home for Daycare

P134(E) Rev. 11

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Table of contents

• Is this booklet for you?
• What's new for 2011?
• Are you a self-employed individual or an employee?
• Reporting your income
  • Goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax (GST/HST)
  • Fiscal period
  • Accrual method
• Claiming your expenses
  • Advertising
  • Business tax, fees, licences, dues, memberships, and subscriptions
  • Maintenance and repairs
  • Management and administration fees
  • Motor vehicle expenses
  • Office expenses
  • Supplies
  • Legal, accounting, and other professional fees
  • Salaries, wages, and benefits
  • Field trips
  • Capital cost allowance
  • Business-use-of-home expenses
    • Rooms for daycare use only
    • Rooms used for both daycare and personal living
  • Other expenses
    • Telephone
    • Training
    • Private health services plan premiums
    • Other reasonable expenses
• Keeping records
  • Time limit
• Your employees
• Instalment payments
• Issuing receipts
  • Sample receipt form
• For more information
  • What if you need help?
  • Forms and publications
  • My Account
  • My Business Account
  • Represent a Client
  • Electronic Payments
  • Tax Information Phone Service (TIPS)
  • Teletypewriter (TTY) users
  • Our service complaint process
  • Your opinion counts!

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Is this booklet for you?

If you run a daycare in your home, you may be able to deduct business expenses from the income you report on your income tax return.

This booklet will help you determine the expenses you can claim. It also explains your responsibilities as an employer, and the importance of keeping good records.

If you are thinking of setting up a daycare business, you should also know about municipal, provincial or territorial, and federal laws or regulations that could affect you. You can get information from municipal offices, provincial or territorial ministries, or applicable Government of Canada departments and agencies. Often local chambers of commerce and boards of trade will offer help to new businesses.

The term income tax return used in this booklet has the same meaning as income tax and benefit return.

What's new for 2011?

Are you a self-employed individual?

The amount of control a parent has over your work determines whether or not you are a self-employed individual and whether or not you can deduct daycare expenses from your daycare income.

Generally, you are a self-employed individual if you control:

• the number of hours you work;
• the premises and materials you use; and
• the way you perform your daycare duties.

You can claim daycare expenses on your income tax return if you report self-employment income.

Generally, you are an employee if the parent:

• specifies the work to be done;
• specifies the working hours; and
• supervises your work.

As an employee, you cannot deduct daycare expenses.

If you are not sure about your situation, see Guide RC4110, Employee or Self-Employed?

If you care for children part-time or occasionally, you cannot deduct business expenses. You will report your earnings as “Other employment income” on line 104 of your income tax return.

Reporting your income

If you determine that you are self-employed, report your income from daycare as business income on your income tax return. Include gross income on line 162 and net income, or loss on line 135.

To calculate your net income (loss), we encourage you to use Form T2125, Statement of Business or Professional Activities. However, we still accept other types of financial statements.

If you use Form T2125, complete the "Identification" section. In the "Industry code" box, enter "624410," which is the code for daycare.

Enter your gross income from daycare on line A in "Part 1 Business income" of Form T2125.

Your gross income from the daycare business includes all the income you earned by providing daycare during the year. This income would include payments from parents, as well as subsidies (such as provincial or territorial grants to care for children).

If you receive a grant to buy daycare equipment, do not include in your income the part of the grant that you used to buy depreciable equipment. Instead, reduce the capital cost of the property by the applicable part of the grant. See Capital cost allowance.

To calculate your net income, you can generally deduct (from your gross income) expenses that you incur to earn income from your daycare services.

Include all your income when you calculate it for tax purposes. If you fail to report all your income you may be subject to a penalty of 10% of the amount you failed to report after your first omission.

A different penalty may apply if you knowingly or under circumstances amounting to gross negligence participate in making a false statement or omission in your tax return. In such a case the penalty is 50% of the tax attributable to the omission or false statement (minimum $100).

If you have self-employment income, you and your spouse or common-law partner must file your income tax return by June 15 to avoid possible late-filing penalties. However, to avoid interest charges, you have to pay any balance owing by April 30.

If either date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or statutory holiday, you have until the next business day to file your return or make your payments.

Goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax (GST/HST)

If you provide care and supervision in your home to children 14 years of age or under for periods of usually less than 24 hours per day, the daycare service you provide is exempt from GST/HST. This means that you cannot add this tax to the amount you charge the parents of the children in your care and you cannot register for GST/HST. For more information, see Guide RC4022, General Information for GST/HST Registrants.

Fiscal period

Report your business income on a fiscal-period basis. A fiscal period is the time covered from the day your business starts its business year, to the day it ends its business year. For an existing business, the fiscal period is usually 12 months. Although a fiscal period cannot be longer than 12 months, it can be shorter. This may happen when a new business starts or when an existing business stops.

Self-employed individuals generally have to use a December 31 year-end. However, you may be able to use an alternative method of reporting your business income. This will allow you to keep a fiscal period that does not end on December 31. If you have a fiscal year-end that is not December 31, see Guide RC4015, Reconciliation of Business Income for Tax Purposes. The guide will help you determine how to calculate the amount of business income to report on this year's income tax return. The guide includes Form T1139, Reconciliation of Business Income for Tax Purposes.

In most cases, if you filed Form T1139 with your prior year's income tax return, you have to file the form again this year.

Accrual method

As a self-employed individual, you must report business income using the accrual method of accounting.

With this method, you :

• report your income in the fiscal period you earn it, regardless of when you receive the income; and
• deduct expenses in the fiscal period you incur them, whether you paid them in that period or not. Incur usually means you either paid or will have to pay the expenses.

For more information, see Guide T4002, Business and Professional Income.

Claiming your expenses

You can deduct on your income tax return any reasonable expenses you incur to earn your daycare income. However, you cannot deduct personal expenses.

In this section, we describe many of the expenses you can deduct if you incur them to run your daycare. Also, we tell you on which line of Form T2125, Statement of Business or Professional Activities, you can claim each kind of expense.

For more details and information on other expenses that may apply to your situation, see Chapter 3 in Guide T4002, Business and Professional Income.

Note
Do not send your receipts or other records with your income tax return. However, you must keep them in case we ask to see them later. For more information, see Keeping records.

Advertising

You can claim the cost of advertising your daycare in Canada. You can also claim the cost of business cards.

Report this expense on line 8521 of Form T2125.

Business tax, fees, licences, dues, memberships, and subscriptions

You can deduct any annual licence fees and business taxes you incur to run your business. You can also deduct annual dues or fees to keep your membership in a trade or commercial association.

Report this expense on line 8760 of Form T2125.

You cannot deduct club membership dues (including initiation fees) if the main purpose of the club is dining, recreation, or sporting activities.

Maintenance and repairs

You can deduct the cost of labour and material for minor repairs done to your home if:

• you can show that the damage is from running a daycare business; and
• your insurance company did not pay for the repairs or reimburse you for the expense.

Keep all original receipts, sales invoices, and contracts for repairs or replacements.

Report this expense on line 8960 of Form T2125.

Note
You cannot deduct the cost of your own labour or the cost of replacing furniture or floor coverings.

Management and administration fees

You can deduct management and administration fees, including bank charges that you incur to operate your daycare business. Bank charges include charges for processing payments.

Report this expense on line 8871 of Form T2125.

Motor vehicle expenses

If you use your vehicle occasionally for business, it may be easier for you to claim gas and other expenses for each trip. For example, taking children to a park or on a day's outing might involve expenses for gasoline, parking, and entrance fees. These are all business expenses that you can claim.

However, when you regularly use your vehicle for business and personal trips, you can claim part of the total operating expenses for business use. Keep accurate records to show the portion of the total kilometres that were driven to earn business income. For more information on motor vehicle records, see Keeping records.

Operating expenses include licence and registration fees; insurance; gas and oil; maintenance and repairs; the interest you pay on a loan used to buy a vehicle; and leasing costs.

Do not include capital cost allowance (CCA) in your operating expenses. It is claimed on line 9936 of Form T2125. For more information about CCA, see Capital cost allowance.

To calculate the vehicle expenses you can claim, multiply the total operating expenses for the vehicle by the business kilometres and divide the result by the total kilometres.

Report this expense on line 9281 of Form T2125.

Note
There is a limit to the amount of CCA, interest, and leasing costs you can deduct for the vehicle that you use for your daycare. We explain these limits under “Motor vehicle expenses” in Chapter 3 of Guide T4002.

Office expenses

You can deduct the cost of things such as stamps, envelopes, paper, and receipt books that you use for your business.

Report this expense on line 8810 of Form T2125.

Supplies

You can deduct the cost of:

• supplies, such as toys, books, and arts and crafts items that the children in your daycare use;
• household supplies that the children in your daycare use, such as blankets, towels, toothbrushes, diapers, and shampoo; and
• food you buy to feed the children in your daycare.

Report the total expenses for supplies and food on line 8811 of Form T2125.

Legal, accounting, and other professional fees

As a self-employed individual, you can deduct accounting and legal fees you pay for advice and help preparing and filing your income tax return.

Report this expense on line 8860 of Form T2125.

Salaries, wages, and benefits

You can deduct the salaries you pay to your employees. Also, as an employer, you can deduct your part of payroll deductions, such as:

• Canada Pension Plan or Quebec Pension Plan contributions;
• provincial parental insurance plan premiums (if applicable to your province); and
• Employment Insurance premiums.

For information on your responsibilities as an employer, see Your employees.

Report this expense on line 9060 of Form T2125.

Field trips

You can deduct expenses for field trips for the children in your care. You should support these expenses with documents, such as taxi receipts, parking receipts, and entry-ticket stubs.

If you use your vehicle occasionally to take children on field trips, you can claim the cost of gas used instead of calculating a percentage of your total vehicle expenses. Read about motor vehicle expenses.

Report this expense on line 9200 of Form T2125.

Capital cost allowance

You cannot deduct the cost of a vehicle, furniture, or office equipment if you use them for business purposes. However, since these properties (which we call depreciable properties) will decrease in value over time, you can deduct part of their cost as capital cost allowance (CCA).

There is a maximum amount of CCA that you can claim for each type or class of depreciable property. For example, the CCA rate for class 8, which covers most furniture and equipment found in a daycare, is 20%.

In most cases, the capital cost of property is the amount you pay for it, including delivery charges, provincial or territorial sales tax, and GST or HST. If you use property, such as a vehicle, for both business and personal use, you can claim CCA on the business part only.

Some provinces and territories give grants to buy daycare equipment. If you receive such a grant and buy depreciable property, do not include in your income the part of the grant that you used to buy the depreciable equipment. Instead, reduce the capital cost of the property by the applicable part of the grant.

You can use Form T2125 to calculate your CCA. For more information, see Chapter 4 of Guide T4002.

Report your CCA expense on line 9936 of Form T2125.

Business-use-of-home expenses

If you use your home for your daycare business, you may be able to claim part of the expenses of running your home, such as:

• electricity
• heat
• water
• insurance
• maintenance
• mortgage interest
• property taxes
• rent

You have to calculate which part of the total expenses related to running your home is for business use and which part is for personal use. To calculate the part you can deduct, use a reasonable basis, such as the area used for daycare divided by the total area of your home. You will have to reduce the amount you can deduct if you use the rooms for both your daycare and personal living.

The amount you can deduct for business-use-of-home expenses cannot be more than your net income from the business before you deduct these expenses. In other words, you cannot use home expenses to create or increase a business loss. However, you can deduct these excess expenses from daycare income in a future year, as long as you are still using your home for daycare and these expenses would not create or increase a business loss in that year.

Report these expenses on line 9945 of Form T2125.

Rooms for daycare use only

If you have one or more rooms that you use only for your daycare, including a finished or unfinished basement, you can determine the amount to claim based on the area you use.

You can claim expenses for the business use of your home by dividing the area of the home you use for your daycare by the total area of your home, and then multiplying the result by your total annual home expenses.

Rooms used for both daycare and personal living

If you use part of your home for both daycare and personal living, calculate how many hours in the day you use the rooms for daycare, then divide that amount by 24 hours. Multiply the result by the daycare part of your total annual home expenses (see the previous example). This will give you the home expenses you can deduct.

If you run the business for only part of the week or year, reduce your claim accordingly.

Other expenses

Telephone

You can claim the cost of long-distance telephone calls that relate to your daycare. However, you cannot deduct monthly telephone service charges unless you use the telephone only for your business.

You can also deduct the percentage of airtime expenses for a cellular telephone that reasonably relates to earning your business income.

If you lease a fax machine, you can deduct the percentage of the lease costs that reasonably relates to earning your business income. However, you cannot deduct the cost of such equipment if you buy it.

Training

You may be able to deduct the cost of taking a course or seminar on child care. For more information on this subject, see Interpretation Bulletin IT-357, Expenses of Training.

However, you cannot deduct tuition fees you paid to educational institutions such as universities and colleges. You may be able to claim a tax credit for these fees. For more information, see "Line 323 - Tuition, education, and textbook amounts," in the General Income Tax and Benefit Guide.

Private health services plan premiums

Self-employed individuals who pay premiums to a private health services plan may be able to deduct those premiums from their business income. For more information, see Guide T4002.

Report these expenses on line 9270 of Form T2125.

Other reasonable expenses

It is often difficult, for example, to separate the cost of feeding your own children from the cost of feeding children in your daycare program when groceries are bought together or if your own laundry is done at the same time as laundry used during the course of business. As long as the expense claimed associated with these daycare related activities is reasonable, it will be allowed.

Keeping records

You have to record your income and expenses, and keep bills, receipts, bank statements, and cancelled cheques that relate to your daycare. Your records should be complete, organized, and filed by year.

Good records will help reduce the time you spend preparing your income tax return. They can remind you of expenses you can deduct which you might otherwise overlook. Good records can also prevent problems you may have if we audit your returns.

If you are claiming motor vehicle expenses, you will need a record of the kilometres you travelled for personal and business purposes. If you change vehicles during the year, record the mileage for each vehicle when you start and stop using it. To claim capital cost allowance, you have to have the original invoice for your vehicle or, if there is a change in use, record the fair market value (FMV) of your vehicle when you first begin to use it for business purposes. In the future, if you change the use of the vehicle, from business back to personal, you will have to determine the FMV of the vehicle at that time. For more information on FMV, see Guide T4002, Business and Professional Income.

Monthly credit card statements are good reminders of expenses, although you have to support them with individual invoices. In the same way, a personal chequing account may be convenient because you may get a monthly statement from your financial institution. Regardless of what kind of account you have, we suggest you mark the date, amount, and purpose on all cheque stubs when you write the cheques.

Do not send us your records with your income tax return. However, keep them in case we ask to see them later. For more information on keeping records, see Guide RC4409, Keeping Records, or go to Keeping records.

Time limit

You must keep your records for at least six years from the end of the tax year to which they relate. There are some exceptions to this rule; for more information see Guide RC4409, Keeping Records. If you want to destroy your records before the end of the six-year period, you have to get written permission from your tax services office. To do this, either use Form T137, Request for Destruction of Records, or prepare your own written request. For more information, see Information Circular IC-78-10, Books and Records Retention/Destruction.

Your employees

Generally, as an employer, you have to deduct Canada Pension Plan (CPP) or Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) contributions, Employment Insurance (EI) premiums, and income tax from your employees’ remuneration. You also have to deduct provincial parental insurance plan (PPIP) premiums such as the Quebec Provincial Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP). Furthermore, you have to contribute employer amounts for CPP or QPP contributions and EI and QPIP premiums.

To find out how to deduct, remit, and report payroll deductions, go to Payroll or see Guide T4001, Employers’ Guide - Payroll Deductions and Remittances and Guide RC4120, Employers’ Guide - Filing the T4 Slip and Summary.

The CPP is for all workers, including self-employed individuals. Most employers, employees, and self-employed individuals must contribute to the fund. The CPP can provide basic benefits when you retire or if you become disabled. Furthermore, following a contributor's death, the Plan can pay benefits to the surviving spouse/common-law partner and dependent children. For more information on CPP, visit the Service Canada Web site.

If you have never sent us these amounts before, go to Business Number (BN) registration to find out how to get a payroll program account, remit your deductions, and get other useful information.

To help you calculate your contributions, go to the Payroll Deductions Online Calculator - Disclaimer.

The Quebec provincial government collects its own pension plan contributions. If your business is in Quebec, you will remit QPP contributions instead of CPP contributions. For information on the QPP, visit Revenu Québec's Web site or contact Revenu Quebec :

Revenu Québec
3800, rue de Marly
Ste-Foy QC G1X 4A5

Telephone : 1-800-567-4692
Outside Canada: 1-418-659-4692

Instalment payments

Once you start to operate a daycare as a self-employed individual, you may have to pay your income tax and CPP or QPP contributions on self-employment income by instalments.

If you decide to contribute to the voluntary Employment Insurance Regime, you may also be required to pay EI contributions on self-employment income by instalments.

Your 2012 instalment payments are due on March 15, June 15, September 15, and December 15.

Note
If any of the dates mentioned above fall on a Saturday, Sunday or statutory holiday, you have until the next business day to make your instalment payments.

There are different methods that you can use to calculate instalment payments. To determine which calculation method is the best for you, see Booklet P110, Paying Your Income Tax by Instalments. However, in most cases, we will send you a notice indicating an instalment amount we have calculated for you.

You may have to pay interest and a penalty if you do not pay the full instalment amount you owe on time.

To help you calculate your instalments, go to Paying your income tax by instalments.

Issuing receipts

As someone who runs a home daycare, you will be expected to issue receipts to the parents of the children in your care. You should do this as soon as possible to give them time to file their income tax returns.

Here is a sample receipt form to help you. You can use any format you want, but this sample shows the information we need.

Sample receipt form

For more information

What if you need help?

If you need more help after reading this booklet, visit our web site or call 1-800-959-5525.

Forms and publications

To get our forms or publications, go to Forms and publications or call 1-800-959-2221.

My Account

My Account is a secure, convenient, and time-saving way to access and manage your tax and benefit information online, seven days a week! If you are not registered with My Account but need information right away, use Quick Access to get fast, easy, and secure access to some of your information. For more information, go to My Account or see Pamphlet RC4059, My Account for individuals.

My Business Account

My Business Account is a secure and convenient way to access and manage your business accounts online.

You can :

• view your account balance and transactions
• request additional remittance vouchers
• file your return and view its status
• calculate your instalment payments
• view notices, letters, and statements
• view address and banking information
• transfer payments and immediately view an updated balance

Quick. Easy. Secure. For more information, go to My Business Account.

Represent a Client

Representatives authorized for online access can view account information and transact online on behalf of individuals and businesses through the Represent a Client service. For more information, go to Represent a Client.

Electronic payments

Make your payment online using the CRA's My Payment service at My payment or using your financial institution's telephone/Internet banking services. For more information, go to Electronic payments or contact your financial institution.

Tax Information Phone Service (TIPS)

For personal and general tax information by telephone, use our automated service, TIPS, by calling 1-800-267-6999.

Teletypewriter (TTY) users

TTY users can call 1-800-665-0354 for bilingual assistance during regular business hours.

Our service complaint process

If you are not satisfied with the service that you have received, please contact the CRA employee you have been dealing with or call the telephone number that you have been given. If you are not pleased with the way your concerns are addressed, you can ask to discuss the matter with the employee's supervisor.

If the matter is not settled, you can then file a service complaint by completing Form RC193, Service Related Complaint. If you are still not satisfied, you can file a complaint with the Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsman.

For more information, go to Service Complaints or see Booklet RC4420, Information on CRA - Service Complaints.

Your opinion counts

If you have any comments or suggestions that could help us improve our publications, we would like to hear from you. Please send your comments to:

Taxpayer Services Directorate
Canada Revenue Agency
750 Heron Road
Ottawa ON  K1A 0L5