cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

How can I print off a record of payments to Public Mobile for the year of 2017 for Tax Purposes?

BoomDigital
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I need to get a record of payment for all my cellphone bills for 2017, you know like receipts so that I can do my taxes, by giving these receipts/proof of payment to my accountant. How can I get a record of this from Public mobile?

14 REPLIES 14

Mary_M
Retraité / Retired
Retraité / Retired

Good morning  @BoomDigital,

 

thank you for taking the time to reach out to us !

 

To confirm your question, you will need moderator assistance. Once we receive your info, we submit a request and a copy of your invoice is sent to you 🙂 I can see that you're already communicating with my colleague Simon, he's responded to you 🙂

 

Kind regards,

 

Mary

** Please do not post private info such as: phone number, account number, pin etc.. This is a public forum. **

koimr1
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

I think I've missed the point of @BoomDigital's original request:

 

"How can I get a record of this from Public mobile?"

 

The answer, as mentioned by others, is to ask the moderators via private message for the info.

 

 

Each time I renew my 90-day plan I request my billing history for the last six months (the maximum period allowed by the self-serve website) and take a screenshot or two.  Which I save locally and can submit (electronically or as hardcopy) whenever needed.

 

I've often advocated improvements to the self-serve portal before.  But I've never seen it change and I don't expect it ever will change, so I take it for what it is and I use my workaround.

@koimr1 keeping your credit card statement is useless as it does not meet the CRA requirements

 

To claim tax credits your invoice MUST show certain things; the most obvious missing factor from a credit card statement is it can not show the company you made a payment too was registered to collect HST/PST (depending on province).

 

That's the reason your real phone bills (incl the ones that Public issues to you on request) include registration info at bottom.

 

Your credit card statement also lacks the exact date (since pending charges are often posted a day or 2 later), the suppliers BN, etc

 

Also in general I will point out unless you have a dedicated business credit card & chequeing account, it is very dangerous to mix and try to pass off a credit card receipt at tax time (I know most do since collect aero points etc but this is foolishness and will cost them far more if audit)

 

 

As to accountant; mine is same way

They don't want to waste time going through a hundred paper receipts for things like gas, cell, food etc

I simply total in a spreadsheet and they plug in what I tell them

Originals get saved though as required

 

 

 

koimr1
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@kav2001cwrote:

Won't work

 


@koimr1wrote:

How do you pay? If by credit card then it's probably easiest to print off your plan details and then the applicable credit card payments via the card's online interface.

 


"Won't work" for what?

 

Unless he's being audited (in which case he would be asking his accountant and not this forum) he can definitely just keep track of his expenses and submit normally for income taxes:

 

"It is also possible that a seller or supplier may not provide you with a receipt. In such a case, write the name and address of the seller or supplier, the amount paid for the goods or services, the date you made the payment and the details of the transaction in your expense journal."

 

Source: Canada.ca - Business records - Expense records

 

"You can use your credit card statement to prove the payment, but the amount and name of vendor must line up exactly to the expense or else the CRA could request further evidence."

 

Source: Tax Tip: Keeping official receipts for the CRA

 

"koimr1 - stop sending me all this crap, just one bill is fine as long as it's consistent over the year - I only send the amounts and not the actual receipts, those are kept only in case CRA asks for them, we've been over this...."

 

Source: My accountant for the past ten years

 

Of course it certainly doesn't hurt having the full year's invoice and obviously if he's being actively audited then yes - he'll need to back up his amounts but for doing one's tax return and being able to claim cell phone usage as an expense - just submit the amount and if CRA wants to verify they'll let you know. It "works" just fine. 🙂

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Paying-for-your-service/Bill-Receipt-for-payment/m-p/...

 

To be honest, any "reasonable" proof of purchase - like your current monthly phone bill (times twelve) or a recurring charge from "Public Mobile" ("Telus Mobility", whatever) on your credit card summary - should be enough to satisfy most auditors.  You're talking about a phone bill (say, $40~$50 per month = less than $600 per year) not a large-ticket item involving large sums ... I know it all adds up but things like a $20 discrepancy on your reported phone payments for the year are not going to draw any ire unless your whole tax claim is already full of shady deductions or you've been flagged as a troublemaker of some sort.

 

Just my opinion, I've been through personal and business audits before.  As long as things are "legit" and "reasonable" then the evil tax collector doesn't really care too much about tracking the small numbers, they always focus on the big items.

Won't work

 


@koimr1wrote:

How do you pay? If by credit card then it's probably easiest to print off your plan details and then the applicable credit card payments via the card's online interface.

 

@BoomDigital

NO

This is not a valid receipt and will get rejected should you ever get audited or reviewed

Don't do it

 

Email mods as suggested above

 


@BoomDigitalwrote:

I see now i'm wondering if simply printing out payment history will be enough for my accountant.


 

Lg85
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@BoomDigitalwrote:

I see now i'm wondering if simply printing out payment history will be enough for my accountant.


It could be enough for your accountant, but not enough for Canada Revenue Agency, especially if you are a GST registrant and need to claim the GST paid (input tax credits), you will need a copy of the invoice because the invoice has Public Mobile's GST registration number. In the event of an audit from CRA, you will need to provide them with the invoice. 

Lg85
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

In order to get a copy of an invoice from Public Mobile, you will need to send the moderators a private message by clicking here  and indicate which period (i.e. January 2017 - December 2017) you want them to issue you an invoice for as well as your Public Mobile phone number, your name, and PIN#. They will email you a copy of the requested invoice within 30 days. (I previously requested one and it took almost 30 days to get). 

koimr1
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@BoomDigitalwrote:

I need to get a record of payment for all my cellphone bills for 2017, you know like receipts so that I can do my taxes, by giving these receipts/proof of payment to my accountant. How can I get a record of this from Public mobile?


How do you pay? If by credit card then it's probably easiest to print off your plan details and then the applicable credit card payments via the card's online interface.

Acekiller
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

the records only go back 12 months, so it may not have the record you want.

BoomDigital
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I see now i'm wondering if simply printing out payment history will be enough for my accountant.

PJC
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

As far as I know, the only way to get invoices is to send a message to the moderators to have them issue one for you, and from what I've read, it can take some time to generate.


Good luck!

Need Help? Let's chat.