TORONTO, Ont. — Trucknews.com has produced a six-part video series called Tax Talk, featuring tax and finance advice for owner/operators and small fleets from Scott Taylor, vice-president of Transport Financial Service and a 25-year trucking tax advisor.

The series, available for free in the Learning Centre window on Trucknews.com and also at Trucknews.com/videos, is sponsored by Michelin and based on Taylor’s popular Tax Talk column in Truck News and Truck West magazines.

The videos each run about seven to nine minutes in length and cover topics crucial to the financial success of owner/operators and managers of small fleets.

In Part 1, Taylor discusses the issue of incorporation.

“The question of incorporating has been around for owner/operators in trucking for many years, and a big part of that is taxes,” he tells Truck News editor James Menzies in the first installment. “Revenue Canada is changing its focus on meals. For years, sole proprietors were allowed to, like drivers, use their logbooks for meal claims. Revenue Canada has decided that’s no longer going to be allowed. The way to get around that for an owner/operator is to incorporate and then you are also an employee of the corporation when driving the truck and using the logbook is a perfectly legitimate way to claim meals.”

Taylor noted the recent changes at Revenue Canada have made incorporating much more compelling for O/Os who want to maximize their meal tax refunds.

“In all these years I’ve done this, no one has ever brought into me thousands of dollars in meal receipts – it just doesn’t happen,” he said. “So when you’re looking at $17/meal, three times a day at 80% now, that’s a lot of money you could be deducting and saving taxes on.”

Sole proprietor owner/operators who don’t keep all their receipts could be leaving money on the table, Taylor warned.

You can watch the complete episode here. Check back ever week for a new episode of Tax Talk, brought to you by Michelin.