Starting in 2014 for corporations, new Schedule 88 – Internet Business Activities – has been initiated by CRA’s Compliance Programs Branch. The information to be submitted is intended to fill a hole in the information currently available to CRA regarding a corporation’s business activities conducted over the internet.
A similar information requirement has also been introduced for individuals as part of the 2013 T1 Income Tax and Benefit Return (i.e., the information is requested on form T2125, Statement of Business or Professional Activities). The overall intent of the new schedule is to potentially assist CRA in identifying unreported income generated by taxpayers over the internet.
Who must complete Corporate Schedule T2 schedule 88?
A corporation is considered to earn income from one or more webpages or websites if the corporation:
- Sell goods or services through a webpage or website that are processed online by the corporation or a third – party service.
- Sell goods or services through a webpage or website that requires the customer to call, complete, and submit a form, or email the corporation to make the purchase, order or booking;
- Sell goods or services on auction, marketplace or similar websites operated by others ( such as ebay or Kijiji): or
- Earns income from advertising, income programs, or traffic generated by the website ( such as where the corporation’s website sells advertising space to other businesses);
A corporation must also complete T2 Schedule 88 if it doesn’t have its own website but has an internet profile (or description of the business) on a blog, auction, marketplace, or any other portal or directory website from which it generates income.
What must be reported on T2 Schedule 88?
The new schedule requires a corporation to report the number of webpages or websites from which the corporation earns income, and the percentage of the corporation’s total gross revenue that is generated from the internet. In addition, the corporation must list the URL addresses for the top five internet webpages or websites from which it generated income.
Schedule T2SCH88 can be viewed or obtained from the CRA website at
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t2sch88/README.html