A little help at tax time

A couple of times out on set, I've been asked if I knew any quick and easy ways to prepare a personal income tax that didn't cost. This last point is expecially crucial considering we "background actors" work in special circumstances.

Extras and actors are considered by Revenue Canada as self employed, and are therefore entitled to some unique perks. Such as the ability to deduct much of their professional fees, utilities, and travel expenses. Many of whom I have talked to do not realize that we were entitled to these deductions or just the percentage of the gross sum on the T4A that was allowable.

Before 2004 I did my income tax the old fashioned method, trying to figure out all the calculations with my trusty HB pencil, ending up with a tax form that looked like swiss cheese. Last year I found out about a FREE online service designed for people in my position, short of funds and short on patience.

QuickTaxWeb is the convenient online solution for preparing and filing your personal taxes with accurate calculations. If you prefer the freedom of preparing your tax return from any computer connected to the Internet, QuickTaxWeb is the perfect choice.

QuickTaxWeb is designed to maximize your tax savings, and minimize the time you spend on tax preparation. QuickTaxWeb is an online tax preparation product from the makers of QuickTax, Canada's #1 best-selling software.1 Unlike software products that you purchase in a store and install on your computer, QuickTaxWeb resides on Intuit's secure Web servers and works without downloading the software onto your computer.

QuickTaxWeb is very user-friendly and net filing my return was simple and quick.
Marian Wong

Simplify tax preparation. Answer simple questions in plain language - QuickTaxWeb places your answers in the right forms and performs all the calculations automatically!

Save time. There's no software to download and on average QuickTaxWeb takes less than half the time to prepare your taxes than with pencil and paper.2

Work at your own pace. Access your tax return whenever and wherever you have Internet access.

Avoid hassles. FREE technical support means there's always help when you need it, 7 days a week.

Speed up your refund. Get your money in as little as 8 days with NETFILE (Please Note: For the 2005 tax year the Canadian Revenue Agency's on-line transmission process, NETFILE, will be available February 13, 2006.) 3

Maximize your Refund. The average refund for online tax preparers is 20% higher than the refund received by pencil and paper preparers.4
Online preparers: 83% received a refund; Average refund = $700
Manual preparers: 68% received a refund; Average refund = $585

Prepare and file your taxes in 4 simple steps!

Getting started with QuickTaxWeb couldn't be easier. Here's how it works:

1. Set up your account with a username and password that you choose, so it's easy to remember! Come back as often as you'd like to complete, review or change your tax return. Your information is securely stored on Intuit's servers, operating under strict security guidelines to protect your information and comply with CRA requirements.
2. Enter your tax information with the same EasyStepTM Interview in QuickTax CD-ROM products. Valuable tax tips will help you maximize your deductions as you work through your return.
3. Review your tax return one last time with Final Review. QuickTaxWeb even points out any deductions you may have missed.
4. File your return. File electronically using NETFILE, over the phone using TELEFILE, or print your return and mail it. Just $19.95 for an individual return created with the same account, and $10.00 for any additional individual returns, including a spouse. You may qualify for the QuickTax Freedom program if your individual gross income is $25,000, or less per year.

1 NPD data as of month ending July, 2005.
2 Ipsos-Reid Customer Satisfaction Study 2001.
3 Some restrictions apply. Visit www.netfile.gc.ca for details.
4 Tax Year 2004 Commins Wingrove Usage & Attitude Study, July 2005.

Account sign up

I am also including a sample step by step 2005 Canadian income tax return for the typical persons in the acting and background field, including the typical types of deductions one would have. All figures and names are purely made up, but are similar to one might have.

INTRO
Mr/Mrs Joe Average Canadian
Single filer in Ontario
no dependants

Personal Profile
self employed(extra work)
part time job
some RRSP'S

INCOME
Net employment earnings-------------------------11900.00
Pension income--------------------------------------0.00
EI benefits-----------------------------------------0.00
Dividends, interest and investment----------------100.00
--------------T5 - A Bank in Canada 100.00
Rental income---------------------------------------0.00
Taxable capital gains-------------------------------0.00
Taxable support payments received-------------------0.00
RRSP income-----------------------------------------0.00
Other income------------------------------------8,000.00
--(box 28)T4A - ABC Entertainment------1,500.00
----------T4A - DEF Entertainment------5,000.00
----------T4A - Pick Me Entertainment--1,000.00
----------T4A - ZEN Entertainment--------500.00
Net self-employment income--------------------------0.00
Social assistance income----------------------------0.00
Total Income---------------20,000.00

RRSP CONTRIBUTION SUMMARY
Some Canadian Bank (see maximum limit on your 2004 statement of return)
--------------------------------------------------500.00

DEDUCTIONS SUMMARY

Total Income----------------------------------- 20,000.00
Deductions
RPP/RRSP------------------------------------------500.00
Union or professional dues--------------------------0.00
Child and disability supports deductions------------0.00
Moving expenses-------------------------------------0.00
Carrying charges, support and OTHER-------------4,000.00
(all supported with receipts, a safe figure is between 30-50% of self-employment income although you can deduct up to 100% in special circumstances)
---------------Agent Fees-------------------------800.00
---utilities(gas,hydro,water)--------------------1200.00
---------------clothing---------------------------300.00
--------------telephone-------------------------- 500.00
other expenses(personal,home and auto insurances),1200.00
Deduction for CPP/QPP (self-empl.)---------------1000.00
Employment expenses---------------------------------0.00
Social benefits repayment---------------------------0.00
Net Income--------------------------------------14500.00
Other deductions------------------------------------0.00
Losses of other years-------------------------------0.00
Capital gains deduction-----------------------------0.00
Northern residents/additional ded.------------------0.00
Taxable Income----------------------------------14500.00

Federal Non-Refundable Tax Credits
Personal amounts--------------------------------8,648.00
CPP and EI----------------------------------------500.00
Other amounts---------------------------------------0.00
Allowable medical expenses--------------------------0.00
Amounts multiplied by 15%------------------------3000.00
Charitable donation credit--------------------------0.00
Total Federal Non-Refundable Credits-------------3500.00

Federal Credits
Federal political contribution tax credit-----------0.00
Labour-sponsored funds tax credit-------------------0.00
Federal logging tax credit--------------------------0.00
Total Federal Credits-------------------------------0.00

Refundable Tax Credits
Canada Pension Plan overpayment---------------------0.00
Employment insurance overpayment--------------------0.00
Refundable medical expense supplement---------------0.00
Employee & partner GST/HST rebate-------------------0.00
Tax deducted----------------------------------------0.00
Tax paid by instalments-----------------------------0.00
Total Refundable Tax Credits------------------------0.00

Ontario Tax and Credits Summary
Ontario Propertt Tax and Rental Credit----2000.00
the rest of your provincial tax credits are automatically calculated based on the rest of your calculations.

Total Refund $200-$500 average

Later,
Kenaz

The loss of two small screen ledgends

Actor Dennis Weaver, a regular on the television series Gunsmoke and McCloud, has died at age 81. Weaver died of cancer last Friday at his home in Ridgway, Colo. The actor was most memorable for his portrayal of slow-witted Deputy Chester Goode in the long-running western Gunsmoke, and a cowboy detective in New York City in McCloud.

Weaver was born in June 1924 in Joplin, Mo., where he performed in high school productions. He served in the U.S. navy during the Second World War and then enrolled at the University of Oklahoma. A gifted athlete, he placed sixth in the decathlon at the 1948 U.S. Olympic trials.

The budding performer studied at the Actors Studio in New York City and appeared in plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire. He headed to Hollywood during the 1950s, delivering flowers to survive when he was offered the Gunsmoke spot on CBS.

Weaver revealed in his 2001 autobiography that he found the Chester role "inane."

“With all my Actors Studio training, I’ll correct this character by using my own experiences and drawing from myself,” said Weaver, who gave his character a bad leg and a limp out of fear that he would not be noticed when playing scenes with the 6' 9" James Arness unless his character had an unusual trait that would call attention to him..

The role, which he played for nine years, won him an Emmy in the 1958/1959 season. In 1966, Weaver starred in another series, Gentle Ben, about a family that adopts a black bear as a pet. It lasted two seasons. He was later offered the character of Sam McCloud, calling it “the most satisfying role of my career.”

McCloud ran from 1970 to 1977, with Weaver playing the fish-out-of-water role of a New Mexico detective who brings his unique crime-fighting tactics to the streets of New York.

His film credits include Dragnet (1954), Seven Angry Men (1955), Touch of Evil (1958), and Way … Way Out (1966). He has more than 100 film and TV credits, making TV appearances until 2005. Most notably, he appeared as the lead character of David Mann in the 1971 television movie Duel, about a commuter who is terrorized by the driver of a tractor-trailer. The movie was one of the first ever directed by Steven Spielberg. Weaver's other TV series include Kentucky Jones, Emerald Point N.A.S., Stone and Buck James.

Weaver also was a committed environmentalist and combated world hunger. He headed Love is Feeding Everyone, which served meals to 150,000 needy people every week in Los Angeles. He also founded the Institute of Ecolonomics, focusing on solutions to economic and environmental problems. Weaver and his wife Gerry once built a solar-powered home out of recycled tires and cans dubbed “Earthship.”



Also passing away on Friday was Don Knotts, who won TV immortality and five Emmys for playing the bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on 'The Andy Griffith Show' with self-deprecating humor, was remembered by his friend and co-star as a comedic genius who wrote some of the show's best scenes.

''Don was a small man ... but everything else about him was large: his mind, his expressions,'' Griffith told The Associated Press on Saturday. ''Don was special. There's nobody like him.''

Knotts, 81, died Friday of pulmonary and respiratory complications at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, said Sherwin Bash, his friend and manager.

His half-century career included more than 25 films and seven TV series, most notably playing the bug-eyed deputy who carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.

The show ran from 1960-68, and was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final year. It is one of only three series in TV history to bow out at the top: The others are ''I Love Lucy'' and ''Seinfeld.'' The 249 episodes have appeared frequently in reruns and spawned a large, active network of fan clubs.

Knotts, whose shy, soft-spoken manner was unlike his high-strung characters, once said he was most proud of the Fife character and didn't mind being remembered that way. He also played the would-be swinger landlord Ralph Furley on ''Three's Company,'' which he joined in 1979, and was an original cast member of ''The Steve Allen Show,'' the comedy-variety show that ran from 1956-61.

Knotts' G-rated films were family fun, not box-office blockbusters. In most, he ends up the hero and gets the girl -- a girl who can see through his nervousness to the heart of gold. In the part-animated 1964 film ''The Incredible Mr. Limpet,'' Knotts played a meek clerk who turns into a fish after he is rejected by the Navy and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) in which he plays a quirky typesetter for the town paper who aspires to move up from his basement office to be a full-fledged reporter. He also pines for town babe Alma.

Both of these films I remember seeing a decade later in a small single screen cinema here in Hamilton, and being thoroughly entertained. More than I can say for today's 'G' rated fare which rely on 'toilet humour and rarely develop any new comedic talent.

In 1998, he had a key role in the back-to-the-past movie ''Pleasantville,'' playing a folksy television repairman whose supercharged remote control sends a teen boy and his sister into a TV sitcom past.

film facts courtesy, IMDB, CBC Entertainment and the NY Times.

Later,
Kenaz