Transcript from national morning television show, Canada AM on CTV
August 14, 1997
Leslie Jones' interview with Alan Wayne Scott
Jones: As a courier, my next guest has travelled an estimated 200,00 kilometres by foot and bike. So he believes he should be able to claim the extra food and drink required for his job as a tax deduction.
Revenue Canada disagrees, arguing it doesn't qualify as a business expense and with his ongoing battle with the tax man, we are joined now by Wayne Scott.
Good morning Wayne
Scott: Hi Leslie.
Jones: This has been going on for a long time. Describe the battle.
Scott: Well, 15 years ago, I started as a courier on a bike in Toronto and the first year I filed my income tax, after I started, I felt that the extra food that I suddenly had started to need to get through the day, to sustain this body weight, should be look at as fuel.
It was over and above what the ordinary Canadian or even myself, when I used to have desk jobs needed to get through the day. So I was paying extra money out to do a job and I felt that it should be an allowable employment expense.
Jones: Now you finally got to court, just recently and the judge said "No, can't allow it. Food and clothing is just a personal expense that we all have to pay. It doesn't qualify."
Scott: Well I can deduct some of my clothing. My running shoes I deduct. But food they maintain, everybody needs it. I understand that, because we all do . Judge Christie overturned my appeal by citing a 1927 precedent of some logging company out in B.C. So in seventy years the world has changed a bit but the government is still exactly entrenched in the same spot.
Jones: But the tax law does say that if you derive a personal benefit from something then you can't deduct it. And I guess food is a personal benefit. It helps maintain your health.
Scott: The unfortunate thing is by taking that attitude, the government is tacitly encouraging the use of automobiles in urban centres to do this delivery work.
Jones: How?
Scott: Well, if I was doing this job in a car and I had done my 127,000 miles of deliveries in a car. I would have been able to write off my oil, the depreciation on the vehicle and my gas to the extent that if I had an air conditioner in the car, I'd be writing that off. Or, if I had a mule and I was taking the mule around behind me. And I had the packages on the mule. I could feed the mule but I can't feed myself, to do this extra amount of work.
Jones: Now everybody is intrigued by the case but they don't think that there is much to it except you do have the support of three city councillors who are saying what?
Scott: Well basically they understand the benefit that the 500 people that are out there either on bikes and on foot give to this city. It is estimated that over a million, two (1.2 million) deliveries are done a year on bikes and then there's have as many again done on foot. Now if you tried to do that in this city with cars you'd need about 2500 cars they estimate. And that would be 2500 more cars in the core, all day long, running. The traffic congestion, the noise pollution and certainly the emissions damage would be astronomical compare to what we have got.
Jones: And somebody has pointed out, businessmen get to deduct their lunches as a tax deduction and that's a personal benefit.
Scott: Well they've made all sorts of rules to benefit people within this sort of paper world, the people whose jobs and lives are really defined by this society. Couriers are on the outside. We are the. We are the economic bottom feeders. But we are an intrinsic part of business as usual in Toronto and therefore in this country.
Jones: Wayne, I understand a new lawyer has contacted you and said there might be something he can do.
Scott: There might be a way to appeal thins thing. A couple of lawyers have. I'm going to take the best offer. They've all said pro bono that they'll do this thing. Failing that what we'll do is we'll launch a class action suit for every courier without an internally combustible engine right across the country. And we'll see how they can deal with that.
Jones: Wayne, thanks for coming in this morning.
Scott: You're very welcome. Thanks for your interest. That's what is going to drive this thing is the media and public awareness of this thing.
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