Louis Shalako
When filling out the Income
and Expense Report form for the Ontario Disability Support Program, it is
important to get all the information first. This report form is therefore filled
out last.
It doesn’t matter whether you fill out the mileage
form or the time sheets first. I do the mileage form(s), using rough notes that I
collect day-by-day. My rough notes give mileage readings, where I worked, (perhaps
from two or three different part-time gigs) and I also put down the number of
hours. I have a clipboard. There is a pen and a few sheets of paper on it.
When I get in the car, I write down the date, the
destination, and the mileage.
When I get to work, I write down the mileage, if I go
somewhere on business, including Shared Services, I write down the before and
after mileage.
The mileage forms are the most tedious and so I do
them first. I do a few entries, checking them off on the rough notes as I go. I
take little breaks because I hate paperwork. The whole thing might take an hour
and a half on a bad day, i.e., I’ve been busy making too much money.
Then I go through and make up official time sheets. I
check them off as I go.
The next thing to do is to gather all of your receipts
and statements. Keep them all in the same place, and yet separate from your
personal, household accounts. I write off the phone, the internet and other necessary
business expenses. If I buy stamps, envelopes or computer equipment, I keep the
receipt. In the case of my phone, the invoice actually comes to my email inbox
and so I just print that out once a month. I print out my bank activity once a
month.* If you have a business vehicle, keep all receipts for repairs,
insurance, licenses and stickers. I do the math on a blank sheet and share that
with the ODSP, who apparently aren’t very good at that sort of thing…
Add up all income. This is the figure that goes on the
Income Report. Add up all mileage, multiply that by the rate of $0.40. This
gives a figure in dollars. Enter the mileage and the dollar amount on the
Income Report. Any slot on the form that is empty, I just put a stroke through
it so they know that I saw it. (Nothing to report.)
Enter expenses in the appropriate slots on the Income
Report. For example, there is a separate slot for banking charges. This is
eligible, especially so as the ODSP may require you to have a separate account
for business. Enter this amount, your monthly charges of $10.95 or whatever. Individual
cases and circumstances may differ.
In my own case, I enter phone and internet, added
together, on the appropriate line.
If you buy a printer, enter it under ‘equipment’, etc.
If you take income and put it toward an investment into the business, it’s better
to get approval, and enter this into ‘approved business investment’. (Assuming
you bought a forklift or something.) This one appears to be for major
investments into the business. A $700.00 computer probably doesn’t require
approval assuming your old one blew up or something. It is, after all,
essential to the business, in much the same way a radiator repair is essential
to the business vehicle. I would never ask permission for that, as it is just
plain bad policy.
On or about the seventh of the next month, I go to
Shared Services downtown. I photocopy all sheets, statements and receipts.
I make two copies and give the ODSP the originals
except the internet bill, the original I keep for myself. They want an
original, pen and ink signature on the forms, which is just my interpretation. I don't really need that for my own purposes.
I keep one copy for my own records, and also provide a
copy to my major employer and business mentor for their own records and tax-reporting.
This gives me backup hard-copies in the case of fire, loss or destruction—and I
don’t have to ask the ODSP for it.
Generally, it is more favourable to claim mileage as
opposed to keeping fuel receipts.
This allows you to offset income which would otherwise
be clawed back at the rate of $0.50/dollar once you get over their punitive, $200.00/month allowable income limit/barrier.
Just as an example, Party A spent roughly $10.00/day
to put gas in the car in a recent month. That’s $300.00 in fuel expense for the
business. Yet the mileage worked out to $541.00. This results in $231.00 in
offset income. The client gets to keep that.
And why not?
You earned it, after all.
END
*My book royalties are shown on the printout of my bank account, which I report separately.
Interestingly, the ODSP adds it all together after a year and scratches their collective heads, trying to figure out how to ding me for an overpayment. So far, I just haven't made that kind of money, although in the past, (2003), I have been forced to write them a cheque from my business account.
Thank you for reading.
