Tax filing in Canada looks straightforward until CRA audits you in retrospect. Evelyn Jacks, President of the Knowledge Bureau, tracks where self-employed Canadians and small business owners get it wrong.

Mixed use expenses are the most common miss: car, home office, client entertainment. Entertainment is capped at 50 percent. Conferences are limited to two per year for the self-employed. A tuition receipt changes the rules again. What your friend wrote off may not apply to your business at all.

CRA does not itemize every allowable deduction. They apply a reasonableness clause. Jacks puts it plainly: if you can tell the story of your business and justify the expense against a reasonable expectation of profit, CRA will listen.

Topics: tax filing Canada, self-employed tax deductions, CRA audit, mixed use expenses, startup losses

GUEST: Evelyn Jacks | http://learn.knowledgebureau.com

Originally aired on 2026-04-29