[philraymond]

My title says it all. I received $1200 cash back on my business credit card. I suppose I could credit 'bank charges', but that would result in a negative expense there. Or maybe it should be in some kind of 'other income' field? The cash was put back into my business bank account, and it's clearly a benefit to my business, so I presume I have to account for it somehow. Thanks!

 

[nobleea]

For individuals, it's considered a rebate of money already spent. The money that was spent in the first place is after tax, so to tax the rebate would be double income taxation.

For companies it might be different since tax is determined after expenses. I don't know. I suspect your CC company supplies no forms to CRA.

 

[RussT]

I suggest the cash-back amount is a reduction of the business expenses that gave rise to the credits, so theoretically it should reduce the various expenses of the business to which it relates. That is probably more difficult and time consuming than it is worth in terms of the information value. I would be inclined to reduce miscellaneous expenses or create an account called expense credits which would have a negative (credit) balance.

 

[Onagoth]

Technically, it is a reduction of the outlay....whether it'd be for capital expenditures or operating expenditures.

I don't think the CRA would object to you including it in income as its own line item...but if you had capital purchases, it would be more tax efficient to allocate whatever rebate you can to those. Such a treatment would result in an amortization of the rebate over the life of the asset in question instead of a 100% income inclusion in the year the rebate is received.