PAGE 22, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1981, WHITB' FREE PRESS The Church Speaks Going back to the land has tax benefits, too By Donald Shaugbnessy, CA Fed up with city life? Want to try the peace and quiet of the country, go back to the land? There are lots of reasons for choosing an alternative to a complic- ated urban lifestyle, but if you need one more, con- sider taxes. We all pay them, and most people have no choice in the matter, since their employers deduct tax from their salary. A farmer, however, is hisown employ- er. This gives him an advantage that a school teacher, factory worker or secretary does not have: Planning his or her own income and expenses to minimize the tax burden. You can't have it both ways, however -- run a so- called farm on the side, and Dollar Sense offers general financial advice by mem- bers of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. use the losses to offset the income you earn some- where else, when you can prove you will eventually be running a profitable farm. Hobby farms are fun, they're no tax haven. The full-scale farmer, on the other hand, has many ways of declaring his income. But to caution would-be farmers, here is a list of things he cannot do. 1. Eat the food that he grows without attributing it to personal income -- however you can buy from yourself at wholesale prices. A beef farmer, for example, must keep a record of farm products taken for personal use, or for the use of employees, or to pay debts. The same goes for poultry, eggs, milk and every other farm commodity. 2. Fill up the car with farm gasoline, and use it for personalreasons. The farm- er who drives the children to school, even if he does so in the pickup truck, cannot claim the gasoline and truck depreciation as a farm expense. The accepted division is 2/3 business use for full-time farmers and 50-50 if its a hobby farm. 3. Claim any salary for the thousands of hours he works as a business ex- pense, urless the farm is incorporated. The same goes for the farmer's wife. 4. Claim as a farm expense the cost of driving back and forth to the farm, if he does not live there. The tax laws generally allow a deduction for all expenses incurred in the process of earning income, provided the expense is reasonable in nature, and is not of a personal or capital nature. Some specific deductible expenses include: 1. Wages to the children, if (a) they were actually paid; (b) they provided services that produced income; (c) the services would have otherwise been performed by hired help; and (d) the amounts are reasonable. 2. Farm home expenses. The cost of upkeep of those parts of the home that are actually used in the process of earning income is a tax deductible expense. Here again, the claim must be reasonable; but usually not more than a maximum of 25% of total home expen- ses. If the home is shared by hired hands, they of course, become liable for the tax on an employment benefit. If one room is set aside as the farm office, the cost of paying for the space and heating, lighting and furnishing it is a deductible expense. 3. The Ontario government refunds one-half of the municipal taxes paid by the farmer if the farm is able to produce $4,000 of gross revenue. The tax rules are much more complicated than these few examples might suggest. The Income Tax Department publishes a special guide for farmers, and you would do well to study this. It's available at district taxation offices. In the meantime, hold close to your idea of a dream farm. Most have found it's a lot less taxing than urban life. Mr. Shaughnessy is with G.H. Ward & Partner, Cobourg, Ontario Drea speaks AS•O. IBRULMEYI 1 - ASHBURN HOME - 3 bdrm. brick bungalow with separate dining room, extra high base- ment, det. garage, effi. cient woodburning stove, country size gar- den lot, good financ- ing, just listed at $68,900. 2. CENTRAL WHITBY - Gleaming 2 bdrm. bungalow with sep- arate dining room & walk-out to a covered cedar deck, new gas furnace, central air con- ditioning, full base- ment with wood- burning stove, dbl. paved drive & att. gar- age, lovely garden size lot 66 x 135, near schools, - apping, library & post office, price low at $63,900 for quick sale. 3 . MINI FARM - 10 rolling acres with brick farm house, 10% mort- gage/85, ideal spot for horses, goats or the egg farmer. Asking $140,000. Frank Drea, Ontario Minister of Community and Social Services, will be speaking at an inter- agency luncheon spon- sored by the Social Planning Council of Oshawa-Whitby. The topic for this lun- cheon is "After the Year of the Handicapped." Drea is a native of St. Catharines but, curren- tly lives with his wife and three children in Scarborough. Garage Sale Signs Courtesy Of GOLDJ-ACKET |668-6221 ] A journalist by trade, he entered the field of politics in 1971 as M.P.P. for the riding of Scarborough Centre. Since then he has acted as a parliamentary assistant to the then Minister of Consumer & Commercial Relations, has held the post of Minister of Correctional Services and Minister of Consumer & Commer- cial Relations. In April 1981, Drea was appointed Minister of Community and Social Services. For agency workers and' the interested public, Frank Drea will be speaking at the Genosha Hotel, Oshawa at 12 noon, Wednesday, November 18, 1981. The cost for lunch is $7. For tickets call 725-4774. Are we a carbon-copy society? By THE REV. J.A. RONEY Rector All Saints' Anglican Church Think of all the ways in which we try to make everything the same. Photocopying, metal stamp- ing, mass production and multi-graph. Thank good- ness the idea of duplicating people is limited to the science fiction copies of human beings called an- droids. It is part of God's plan that living things should be unique, different, no two alike. Yet as we enjoy the immense variety both family and society tend to make us into the same mould. Teenagers get caught in this bind. Freedom is something young people have always been looking for as they try to become independent. Most paren- ts recognize the necessity for putting freedom and responsibility hand in hand. So an adolescent, having passed the driver's test, is permitted to drive the car (freedom) provided he pays the in- creased insurance (responsibility). Other exam- ples will spring to mind. There are pressures to conform which we all feel, but especially by those who are growing up. Family may exert a pressure to make the children do what parents did, or what parents couldn't do, like get- ting a good education. Freedom falsely can seem to be getting out of school as quickly as possible. One- month ago today, (October 4) we celebrated the life of a young man who resisted the family pressure to have him get into his father's business. Now in this case, dad had a marvellous business in the sale of cloth. His son heard a different, more compelling Voice than his father, Petro Bernadone's voice. When he met hunger, poverty and disease around him, Francis sensed God calling him to indepen- dence and responsibility. The independence was from a concern for clothing and money. The responsibility Francis of Assisi saw was in serving the needy and spending time in prayer. We are all the better for the response Francis made to God's call. No family can really know what a son or daughter was made to become. Many parents have pushed their will on a young person and found rejection and broken relationships. That isn't to say that all a parent stands for is rejected. God gives each of us a sense of what we're made to become or do. The appeal of aptitudes is genuine, and the 'artist' may not have skills for a profess- ional career, but sufficient skill for leisure time in a hobby. God sometimes gives us hereditary gifts that seem to equip us to actually follow 'in father's footsteps'. But if parents back off on specific suggestions about life work, young people will not re-act and go in the opposite direction. Freedom is essential, but.... Another pressure is also present, the social pressure. Peer pressure is so strong that industries make millions of dollars on jeans, shampoos, foot wear, records, magazines, all catering to a desire amongst teenagers to wear, do, need and enjoy the same things. Those who resist any uniform at school respond to the denim "uniform" of the gang. What every young person needs is a chance to become different while being the same. Looking like everyone else in hair style, clothing and taste does not mean you are like everyone else. Indepen- dence is the inner response to meaning and purpose in life. Each of us is unique. St. Francis objected to flambouyant clothing and his father's cloth business. Instead, he and his followers adopted a brown peasant garb. Doesn't it sound familiar today? But Francis heard God's call as he looked at the world around him. Young people today are hearing a call which they may not recognize is from their Creator. Slowly, but surely, God will reach us and draw us into new areas of work. Many people do assembly-line jobs, and yet do much of 'St. Francis' work' after hours. Their freedom may be limited to their job, their leisure time is spent in many ways that assist others to survive. Volunteers work from brownies to boards of social service agencies. In- formaI work of visiting older people, or doing com- munity care service are open and I believe fui- filling. Fulfilling, that is, both to the inner self and to God's purpose for you. We aren't ail the ame. Neither were the autumn leaves that felI. We ail have some worthwhile con- tributions to make. We have freedom to respond to the inner conviction (God's call) and to assume responsibility for making the world a garden, not a jungle. WANTED HOMES IN WHITBY & BROOKLIN FOR PROSPECTIVE PURCHASERS. REALESTATEFEE 31/2% CALL 668-0515 ASTON BRUMLEY REAL ESTATE LTD. 'YU4,