can you claim your bike on your Taxes?
 

Obviously this will depend on where you live as there are regional laws etc..(i'm in ontario). But is there a way to claim your bike on your taxes? My bike cost me $1938.00. I use it for various purposes..commuting, business, pleasure.... is there a category it can fall under?

Thanks

Can you claim a car? How about your shoes?

Unless your bike is a business expense, I doubt it. Canada is different, but not that different.

Lol

no.

I do here - everything related to the bike (including a new bike) is considered a business expense. Costa Rica actually thinks bikes are a means of transportation - how backward is that?! :rolleyes:

i think you could if you had a paper route and the bike was used for that. i wonder if messengers can deduct the cost of their bikes? seems directly related to their business.

bike messengers work for cash and don't report their income.

That's not a very smart idea.

who's going to know?

the construction workers, landscapers, fixit-men, etc. do it all the time.

ever had a handyman ask you for cash?

i wonder why.

I'm sure it is the same rule as for cars, in the US. Ride to work and return, No. Ride from the office to another job site, and return to the office before going home, Yes, but just from office to site and return to office. I have no idea what you would claim as expense, though. Maybe depreciation on a 5 year class life asset for the expensible portion of the ride. That isn't going to come to enough to be worth the paper work, is it?

In Ontario in particular I can actually recall there being a proposed initiative to give cyclists a $1,000 tax exemption for the purchase of a commuter bicycle, but I don't know whether that initiative went through or not.

So far as i'm aware, no, you can't claim your bike on taxes.

I'd guess it would be just like a car. If it's used 100% (not 99.9%, 100%) for business purposes, then it would be acceptable (I Am Not A Tax Expert - so consult one first). You'd damn well be able to back it up though. Since you have already said that it's used for non-business purposes (commuting does not count towards business) then no.

You can claim transit passes, but not bikes (yet).

are you a bike messenger?

no...just a high school teacher who rides to work :)

At some point they'll ask you why you haven't had any significant income in the last ten years. "How have you been eating?" they'll ask ;).

The IRS is the last group you want to lie to.

It's also not necessarily true.
Courier companies aren't paying all their employees under the table. If that was the case, then much like the IRS asking a tradesman "How do you eat, if you have no income?" they'd be asking Company X Messenger Service "If your payroll is $0.00, then what are all these dudes on bicycles doing delivering stuff for you?"

What "business" are you in? If you business doesn't make that much money you can probably declare it as a hobby and not pay any taxes on the business.
Or,
Certain industry's allow certain deductions. When I was in lawn care writing off a four wheeler as a business expense was hard to do and usually not allowed. I would have a tax unprofessional do your taxes and if they let you do it just have them sign off on your taxes.

Backwards???? No, forward thinking.

answer: my girl friend supported me, and I did odd jobs.

(they bought it when said it)

IRS accountants= ones that couldn't start their own business or were passed over by accounting firms,........they're usually a taco short of a #4 combo plate

:D

I work for a tax software company, and I'm involved with electronic filing. I can tell you that the IRS has some stuff that they're working on that will be rolling out over the next 5 to 15 years that's going to catch a whole hell of a lot of fraud when they get it fully in place. Mostly they're more going after people who misreport corporate or partnership income, but they're going to start having a whole lot of data at their fingers in the next 10 or 20 years, and eventually they're going to be able to find a lot of stuff. Just sayin', watch out.

I spoke with Sporting Life last week while the bike show was on (could not go to the show. :( ). Thier bike department guy seemed rather up and up on the 'no tax' on the bikes thing. He told me that the bike no tax on bikes -$1000 or less, helmets, lighting, (I think) bells you don't pay taxes on. He told me that this is a one year trial thing to the best of his knowledge ending in Nov/2008 and thanks the MaGuinty goverment for this to help others get inolved in riding and take an alternative transportation.

I can't confirm what he said on that but I am appreciative of the tax breaks. I wonder if that covers locks? :)

Just last year you can do the same for transit passes in Toronto. It started last year to my knowledge. You have to save all your passes for a year if I reclal correctly.

The deductibility of riding a bike for your commute is the same as driving your car - zero, assuming Canadian tax rules are similar to US rules. As another poster pointed out, if the bike is being used for work other than a commute, mileage deductions or reimbursements from the employer may be available. That's how it works for me - if I go to a meeting at another building, I can charge mileage and get reimbursed and my employer gets a business expense. If my self-employed wife drives to a meeting, it's deductible mileage off business income (or a % of annual vehicle expenses). For individuals in the US, it's a miscellaneous deduction subject to a minimum % of income, or a straight business expense if they're filing a business return.

In theory, I could probably do the same with bike mileage if my employer's policy wonks interpret "bike" as "personal vehicle" or whatever the policy calls it. I haven't tried - yet :D

So is that a no sales tax thing at time of purchase, or do you claim it on your tax return? And that would have to be provincial tax - what's Ontario's sales tax now?

I have been spoiled living in Alberta with no provincial sales tax and the GST going down the last couple of years :). I started off in BC where PST was 8% for a while, plus 7% GST!