I got a phone call today from the CPA. He had good news about the taxes  ! He also said that the repairs I made on the rental house and on this house will help as deductions.

It makes me so glad that I fired the CPA  I hired in 2007 !  The CPA who called me today has an office in town and he knows all sorts of wonderful loopholes for deductions that are completely legal !

He said that getting new heat pumps that are energy efficient will save me on taxes as well as on my electric bills. I haven't gotten the new heat pumps yet.

He chuckled at how I wanted to use Aurora as a tax deduction. It can't be done, but it sure would be nice if I could use her as a deduction.

My widowed friend changed CPAs this past year also. Her new CPA found her a lot of wonderful deductions !

That is good news!  A good CPA is worth a lot!

Ours is very good. very well qualified.    here there is a question about declaring homestay student payments and lots of people don't. popular place for homestay. even some accountants said not to declare them.  a student is 700 - 800 a month.

my acct says if you make money, you have to declare it. I get bitchy looks saying that you have to declare it so I asked him to get a ruling on it from rev. canada.  he saids it is like rental income or daycare income,  some people declare or some people do it under the table.  someone I know doesn't declare homestay and has two students $1500 a mth and declares the daycare income she earns and her acct says that is ok.  money you earned doing foster care is not taxable.

  you get writeoffs against the income too with household bills etc. cable, heat, renos etc. you write off the percentage of the bedroom the homestay student uses. so if he uses 10% of the house, 10% of bills are claimed.

all comes down to if you are ever audited.   not that I would rat someone out.