Michael Scarborough is a salesperson for Fresh Harvest Foods, a small company operating out of Kelowna BC. During the 2020 calendar year Michael earned a base salary of $72,000 and commissions of $43,000. The following amounts were withheld from Michaels pay by the company:
Federal and Provincial Income Taxes $56,445
CPP contributions 2,898
EI Contributions 856
Registered Pension Plan Contributions 6,200
Group disability plan (Note 1) 240
Employee drug/dental plan (Note 2) 350
Union dues 1,200
Fresh Harvest Foods paid the following amounts on Michael’s behalf:
Registered Pension Plan Contributions 6,200
Employee drug/dental plan 350
Medical services plan (Note 3) 450
Note 1: Michael is a member of a workplace group disability plan with the premiums paid entirely by the employees. During the year Michael was forced to take two months off work due to injuries caused by a car accident. During his time off he received $5,600 in disability payments. Since starting at Fresh Harvest Foods Michael has paid $960 in disability plan premiums (note that this amount includes the 2020 premium withheld from his pay).
Note 2: Fresh Harvest Foods has an employee drug/dental plan with Manulife, a private insurance provider. Benefits are paid half by the employees and half by the company. During the year, the dental plan paid $1,850 to Michael’s dentist for work related to some cavities that Michael needed repaired.
Note 3: Fresh Harvest Foods pays MSP premiums for all of its employees (MSP is the provincial health plan in BC)
Other Information:
- For Christmas, the company gave every employee a membership in the cheese of the month club, valued at $200. Also, for his birthday, Michael was given a $500 gift certificate to The Bay. The company also rewarded Michael for being the top salesperson in 2020 with a watch, valued at $400.
- Due to the high amount of driving required by the job, Fresh Harvest Foods provided Michael with a car. The company purchased the car in 2018 for $47,000, including tax. During the year Michael had possession of the car for 10 months, for the two months that Michael was on disability the car was used by the assistant controller Steve. Michael drove the car a total of 42,000 km during the year, of which 33,000 could be considered employment use. Total operating costs for the year were $8,700, all of which was paid by Fresh Harvest Foods.
- Michael was required to travel extensively for work during 2020. His total non-meal travel costs, i.e. hotel, airfare and taxis, was $14,500. While away from home Michael spent $8,200 on meals, $6,000 of which was meals with clients. While in Kelowna Michael spent $4,400 on meals and entertainment with clients. He also spent $1,400 on promotional materials and another $1,200 to purchase a laptop. None of these expenses were reimbursed by the company and Michael did not receive an allowance.
- Fresh Harvest Foods provides employees with deeply discounted food. In 2020 Michael paid the company $1,200 for food with a fair market value of $8,000 and a cost to Fresh Harvest Foods of $3,000.
- As Fresh Harvest Foods insists that sales staff present a specific image to customers, that of the hard working farmer type, they provided Michael with a gym membership for the year, at a cost of $360.
- Due to having an extremely successful year in 2020, Fresh Harvest held an extravagant Christmas party for all of its employees. The Kelowna office has 180 employees and the total cost of the party was $25,000.
- Michael is required to maintain a home office by the company. He uses one of his spare bedrooms, which is 150 square feet out of a total for the entire house of 2,500 square feet. His costs related to his home are as follows:
Mortgage interest $6,800
Home insurance 800
Maintenance 1,500
Utilities 3,600
Property taxes 2,500
Compute Michael’s minimum net employment income for 2020.
