Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 8:00 AM
To: taxman at centa.com
Subject: Tax question
My situation is this: I live in Toronto and have a triplex in Vancouver.
All three suites are rented out and I plan eventually to move back into
one of the suites. When I bought the place last summer, I had to fly to
Vancouver to sign the legal papers, meet with the tenants, walk through
the house with an inspector, plan repairs, etc. I flew down again later
in the fall to have some repairs done and meet with new tenants as two
suites were being vacated at the same time. Two accountants here have
told me that I can write off the trips, two accountants have told me
that I can't and in phoning the Revenue Canada help line, they were
quite vague in their response. What is the correct answer?
-----------------------------------------
david ingram replies:
It is hard for people to realize that flying to Vancouver or Miami or Palm
Springs or Hawaii to deal with a rental condo is not deductible. After all,
"everyone" does it and a lot of people have been doing it. I remember
attending several real estate seminars when the presenter would be telling
people that they could fly to Jamaica or Hawaii and write of the trip if
they looked at real estate for sale.
The answer is "NO"
Now, I want to justify that be stating that if you could write it off, the
other accountants who told you no, would have said yes. They are the
accountants who have seen with their own eyes, assessments come back with it
turned down. The biggest problem is that the CRA does not catch it enough
so that a lot of people think you can.
And think of this as an idea.
If you had $1,000,000 in a bank in Vancouver, would it make sense that you
could write off the plane fair to come to Vancouver to talk to the banker.
What you should be able to do is add up your cost prices including the
exploration and include them as part of the purchase price along with the
lawyers and transfer fees.
david
--
Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.10.3 - Release Date: 4/25/05
--
Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.10.3 - Release Date: 4/25/05
What's Related