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Originally Posted by Thead
Ok, but this question hasn't been answered yet.
Directfiesta said that if you make more than 30k (even if it's not from canadian companies), you have to register. And if I need to register, I want to be sure how I should describe Affiliate Marketing to the Tax people. Because my experience with these people from the government is that one person will tell you something and another will tell you the opposite. And I better be prepared when I will go to their office because every details will make a difference and they are certainly not here to help me.
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I would definitely register - any canadian business should have a business number and file returns. Even if you over zero dollars, its much easier to be proactive.
If they ask about affiiate marketing - they don't need to know that it's a pay-per-sale commission. It's money for sales and marketing services that happens to vary on performace. You should create invoices every month internally for each sponsor program who has sent you money. On the invoices for canadian sponsors you would charge GST, on all the others, you would not. It's a good habit and an easy way to keep track of your streams of income.
In working with alot of affiliates there is something I notice quite often. I would say that the majority of individuals do not treat their webmaster activities as a business - they keep poor records (or none at all), and have generally bad business habits and few systems in place. (This isn't directed to you specifically.. im just going off on a tangent here)
The people I work with who make the most money also happen to run a tight ship. Now one might say "Oh If I was making $25,000 a month I would treat it more like a business". But the reality is, on order to even GET to that point, you need to have effective business systems in place. If you make $1k - $5k per month in revenue you might think it's redundant to have systems, but in many cases it is precisely what is holding people back from growing their business - it's a viscous cycle.