There have been many times where I’ve sat down with a client that has a little bit of change in their income for that year, and the question always comes up, "At what point am I considered a business?" 

The answer to that question is this: The moment you make a dollar, you are considered a business, as long as it’s not part of employment, meaning you’ll get a T4.

The common misconception that people usually have is that they’re not classified as a business if they don't have a business license, or if they didn’t make a lot of money. The amount of money that some people think they can make in a business prior to them having to claim it is all over the place. For some it's $1,000, some it's $30,000. The $30,000 comes from GST registration rules. 

The moment you make a dollar, you have to claim it. The Federal Government does not care about your municipal business license. They care that you're following the law, but for tax purposes they don’t care about your business license.

Regardless of whether you have a license, you are still considered a business if you are making money on the side. So this includes all side hustles: selling Tupperware, Sensei, breeding animals, whatever the case may be. If you are making money on the side, that is taxable income.

I hope that people are claiming the income that they're supposed to be claiming, and that people are being reasonable about it. It's the only way the tax system works, and allows our country to operate the way it is intended.