CRA will wish to find out about Taylor Swift ticket revenue

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Taylor Swift wrapped up her 149-show, 20-month Eras Tour with a sold-out live performance in entrance of 60,000 followers in Vancouver on Sunday night time. And, whereas an estimated 10 million fortunate followers globally received to attend certainly one of her exhibits, numerous others benefited from reselling their coveted tickets, for income within the hundreds of {dollars}.

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For instance, a relative advised me that he received a pre-sale code to purchase tickets, with the intention of taking his fiancée, however when he discovered how a lot he may get for his three floor-level seats to one of many six Toronto exhibits, he determined to promote the tickets on-line. He cleared over $10,000 in revenue – sufficient to pay for the band at his wedding ceremony reception subsequent summer time. Equally, a Toronto good friend was capable of safe tickets within the pre-sale to attend one of many Vancouver exhibits together with his two grownup daughters, however after researching the price of flights and discovering exorbitant lodge charges for the weekend, determined to resell the tickets on-line, pocketing hundreds in revenue.

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Once I nonchalantly reminded every of them to not overlook to report their ticket resale income on their 2024 tax returns, they every appeared considerably shocked. Which begs the query: Is the revenue from the sale of live performance tickets actually taxable, and, if that’s the case, how ought to it’s reported in your Canadian tax return?

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I’d recommend that, for most individuals, apart from skilled ticket-resellers who make it their enterprise to purchase and promote tickets at a revenue, live performance tickets are capital property, that means that the revenue from a resale of tickets could be handled as a capital acquire. That’s, the proceeds obtained from the sale, much less the price of the tickets (your adjusted price base or ACB) could be a capital acquire.

For people with lower than $250,000 of annual capital good points in a 12 months, the acquire could be 50 per cent taxable, that means that even somebody within the prime tax bracket of 53 per cent in Ontario or British Columbia would pay a most prime charge of about 26 per cent capital good points tax on their Swift ticket income. (Below proposed laws, which was to be efficient June 25, 2024, in case your good points are over $250,000 yearly, the inclusion charge on capital good points was elevated to 66.67 per cent, that means that the highest capital good points tax charge could be nearer to 35 per cent.)

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However, there are literally some particular guidelines for the sale of what’s often known as “personal-use property” (PUP). PUP refers to gadgets that you just personal primarily in your or your loved ones’s private use or enjoyment, corresponding to private and home items, for instance, furnishings, vehicles, boats, a cottage, and different related belongings. One may make the case that live performance tickets are PUP, since they’re for the purchaser’s private use.

Below the PUP guidelines, if the quantity you paid (your ACB) is lower than $1,000, it’s deemed to be $1,000 for tax functions. Equally, if the money you obtain if you promote PUP is lower than $1,000, your proceeds from the sale for tax functions are additionally handled as being $1,000. The sensible results of these guidelines is that if each the ACB and the money you obtain in your PUP are each underneath $1,000, you don’t must report any acquire or loss in your tax return. Be aware that underneath the Earnings Tax Act, you can’t have a capital loss from the sale of most PUP.

Let’s say Katy purchased two Swift tickets in the course of the fan pre-sale for $250 every or $500 for the pair. She was capable of resell them on StubHub for $5,500 whole, yielding a $5,000 revenue. For tax functions, the ACB of her tickets could be deemed to be $1,000. Katy will notice a capital acquire for tax functions of $4,500. Whereas it might be tempting to say that every ticket is its personal PUP and thus ought to have its personal ACB of $1,000, particular guidelines apply the place the PUP you personal is taken into account to be a part of a set, and also you get rid of the set to 1 individual. If these guidelines apply, Katy’s ACB of the 2 tickets collectively are deemed to be $1,000.

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A bunch of things is handled as a set the place the gadgets would ordinarily be disposed of collectively, and are usually regarded as belonging collectively. Typically their worth as a set is larger than the full worth of the person items. The set is deemed to be one single PUP, and the $1,000 minimal price and proceeds will probably be shared by all the properties within the set. This rule is in place to stop somebody from promoting components of a set in a sequence of transactions to the identical purchaser, after which utilizing the $1,000 minimal price for every transaction to cut back the general acquire for tax functions.

Now, let’s say you got your Swift tickets with no intention of ever going to the live performance. In case your function from day one was to revenue from the ticket resale, then your acquire is prone to be thought-about totally taxable self-employment enterprise earnings. Whereas it might be onerous for the Canada Income Company (CRA) to find out your unique intent retroactively, the company could look to see how quickly you listed the tickets for resale after buy (an hour later? a day? per week?).

It’s possible you’ll be tempted to easily not report your Swift ticket resale in your return, maybe since you consider that your Swift revenue is akin to a tax-free windfall, like a lottery win. For those who’re incorrect, the penalty for unreported earnings could be 10 per cent of the earnings you didn’t report if that is the second time you didn’t report earnings within the present and prior three tax years. And, that’s along with the tax on the acquire, and non-deductible arrears curiosity.

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Questioning how the CRA would possibly catch you? In recent times, the CRA has been identified to invoke the “unnamed individuals” rule within the Tax Act, which might require a third-party corresponding to a ticket-resale or cost facilitation enterprise to offer data or any paperwork regarding unnamed individuals to the CRA. To take action, nevertheless, the CRA should first acquire permission from a choose.

Whereas some readers could accuse me of being casually merciless within the identify of being sincere, in the event you fail to report your Taylor Swift income in your 2024 tax return subsequent spring, and also you get reassessed for unreported earnings, you might be in for a merciless summer time.

Jamie Golombek, FCPA, FCA, CFP, CLU, TEP, is the managing director, Tax & Property Planning with CIBC Personal Wealth in Toronto. Jamie.Golombek@cibc.com.

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