Income Tax Info for Toronto Crews

[Brent]

Hi CrewPixers,

I have just started doing my income taxes for 2002 and thought I would share some useful information with this board.

As you know, many production co's in T.O. use payroll services, or are part of a larger production company. This is confusing at tax time, because the payroll companies send out a single T4 slip per person.

  This sucks!

It's up to US to figure out what companies these T4 slips represent, the penalty for mistakes being an unpleasant afternoon with the Revenue Canada Auditor.

I have spent the day on the phone and wading through my accounting program, and have discovered the following:


Your Partners Film Company T4 slip INCLUDES work done for:
Partners
Revolver
Trailer Park
Untitled
Wire
Produce.

(It DOES NOT include Imported Artists or Radke)


AXIUM T4's include:
Treehouse North
Radke
Players
YYZ


EP Canada T4's include:
Engine Pictures
Little Minx (Lenny Kravitz concert)


It looks like T4's for the following companies all are sent individually:
Avion
Hoo Doo
Max
Mad
Spy
Industry
Blink
Bedlam
Imported Artists


This is only based on MY experience and may not reflect your situation. If the taxman comes to your house, don't call me!


KUDOS go out to ADP payroll service for sending T4's separately for each company they do payroll for. If I was a Producer looking for a payroll service, this attention to detail is what I would look for! ADP! ADP! ADP!

While we are at it, I have been trying for TWO YEARS NOW to convince Bulloch Entertainment Services to make a simple change in my address! If I were a producer, I would avoid lazy payroll companies who don't care about accuracy.


If you have additional companies / information to add, just reply to this message. These discussion boards seem to be a great way to share info like this!

Good luck staying out of tax jail!

Brent                    

[Brent]

Here is something else that you may find helpful. I have just found out that Canadian Income Tax and T4 slips are based on Cash accounting - meaning you don't count revenue until you actually receive it. That explains why my accounting reports never quite balance!

For example, if you did a job in December 2002, but got your cheque in January 2003 - the income is counted in 2003. I didn't know that until now!

Most small business accounting software uses accrual accounting by default, which counts revenue when you earn it NOT when you are paid. This is why your accounting may not always jive with your T4's.



While I'm on the subject of accounting and taxes, here's a warning:
Quicktax may be the most popular tax software in Canada, but there is a MAJOR problem with it.

You know how they make you call in to register Quicktax when you first install it? Well, if you try to open Quicktax files from past years, you have to RE-REGISTER if you have made any changes to your computer such as a hard drive upgrade or new version of Windows.

I recently tried to open Quicktax 99, which I paid for and registered years ago. It completely prevents me from opening it until I re-register with Intuit! They say I need a page from the manual I threw away 4 years ago to do it! "Oh, you don't have that manual? I'm sorry, you will have to RE-PURCHASE the software."

That's right, I paid and registered 4 years ago, but because of Quicktax's extremely restrictive "copy protection" I have to buy it again if I want to see my 1999 tax return!!! I was also told that their registration database from that far back has been deleted - so they can't help me.

What if someone needs access to tax calculations years later? What if they are audited and CCRA want's to see forms from previous years?!? What if Intuit/Quicktax goes out of business and can't provide the magic registration codes needed? You're screwed, that's what!

I will make it my personal campaign to discourage as many people as I can from using Quicktax / Intuit products. This includes Quicken and the Quickbooks accounting software. All of their programs have these extremely restrictive copy-protections built in, and there is a very serious risk that when you need to access historical accounting and tax data you will be locked out of it!!.

I am all for publishers protecting their rights, but software that essentially self-destructs after it is used is taking it just a little too far. Accounting and tax data are crucial to any business. Software that holds this data for ransom should be outlawed![/size]

An excellent alternative for small business accounting is Simply Accounting 2003 ( http://www.simplyaccounting.com/ce/default.asp ). Same or better features than Quickbooks, less restrictive "rights management", cheaper, interacts better with other programs like Microsoft Office.

For better, less-restrictive tax software check out Cantax ( http://www.cantax.com/ )

Avoid QUICKTAX, Quickbooks and Quicken at all costs, or you will be sorry in the future!                    

[Anonymous]

Jeez, I knew software that goes over the top with registrations was annoying. Who would have thought it could 'hold your business hostage' too!

No wonder you dumped those programs. I'm gonna do the same. I have used Quicktax for several tax years now and hadn't even considered that my old returns might be locked. Scary. I'm going to check that now.

I think Quicktax has gone down hill the last few years anyway. The online help says things like "Line 151 Sub Fleem Radiant income: enter your Sub Fleem Radiant income here" . It just repeats the names of things without telling you what they mean. Very helpful <sarcasm>. Quicktax used to analyse your returns and warn you when you might trigger an audit, but it doesn't do that any more. They also serverely limit the number of returns you can do.

I also suspect that they sell the personal you are FORCED to give them when registering. You can't use the software without giving up all kinds of personal info and then they sell it to marketers. I have received spam emails addressed to special single-use email addresses I used ONLY for registering Quicktax.

All in all this is software to be avoided. Thanks for the warning.

...so, will you re-buy the old versions when you need to access thos locked returns?                    

[Anonymous]

thanx for bringing this to my attention. i was going to buy my tax software today. now i know what not to buy                    

[Anonymous]

Yo doofus,

You have to buy the tax software every year because the forms and stuff change!

Duh!                    

[Brent]

You have to buy the tax software every year because the forms and stuff change!

I realize that. I have no problem with that.

If you read my message you will see that I am trying to open a previous year's tax return using that year's version of Quicktax, which I paid for and legitimately registered over 5 years ago. Quicktax is saying that since I dared to upgrade my operating system during those 5 years, I now somehow do not "own" Quicktax 98 anymore and have to pay them more money for an obsolete program if I ever want to see my data again!                    

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to say thanks for the first message in this thread. I have just done my 2002 taxes and it would have taken several hours longer if I hadn't had Brent's T4 cheat sheet.

Nice Work! Thank you!

Do you think payroll companys will ever get their act together and start issuing individual T4s for each company they represent?

If I ran a production company, I would be upset that my accounting department has to field tons of confused calls just because my payroll processor lumps my jobs together with my competitors!                    

[Anonymous]

Just so you'all know in the U.S. the situation is very similar and I applaud Brent for taking the time to suss out the breakdown for the payroll services.

We receive W2 (taxed labor) and 1099s (un taxed labor) very confusing but I find good record keeping makes for a quick recovery. I note on my invoices what payroll service is working with the Prod Co. and/or have records for amounts that are usually unique enough to find quickly.

Our Unions also do P&H pension and health as well as percentages. We receive quarterly statements from the P&H an monthly from the percentage recorder. We must track these to be sure the proper percentages are being deposited into the proper funds.

When a feature comes in, depending upon which contract they are working under, we often must deal with a different percentage amount being deposited and the record keeping is very general - not detailed.

The organization I started this year holds tax seminars around March/tax season to help in this effort.                    

[Brent]

It's Tax Time again!

I did all the work last year so... Who's up for it this time?

Who processes whose payroll? Who has merged, changed names, closed up shop?
What companies are combined on what T4 slips, etc.

Say a certain company owed you money but they closed up shop, did the "midnight move-out" and were reborn after removing 3 letters from their name? (Not that that would ever happen )  How would you handle that on your taxes?

Can you claim your pets or the bartenders at Betty's as "dependants"?

Do the "tomatoes" you grow in the basement count as farming income?

Does working and living in Toronto qualify as a "vow of perpetual poverty"?

Who's got the answers?!?


Good luck. Don't get audited!