Re: Payment of Refs

Sorry Dice, but income earned by staff working for a non-profit organization is fully taxable by those individuals. It is only the Organization itself that is not taxed. Maybe the government has categorized referees as paid volunteers, making their earnings tax free but I find it ridiculous the notion that if they had to pay tax on their earnings their pay rate should go up. That's the cart leading the horse to me.

As a comparable, if a contractor quotes you a price to do some work at $xx but says, if you pay cash, I will give you a 10% discount (or whatever), the respnsiility still lies with the contractor to report that money as earings on their tax return. Accepting cash does not exemp the contractor from declaring income. Traceability is gone, but the moral responsibility still lies with the contractor and I would be willing to bet the contractor will write off expenses incurred while completing the undeclaired job.

For a ref to say that they will need to be paid more if there is traceability tells me that they are skirting the taxation system. That being said, once again, if CRA has designated the refs as tax free volunteer then I am ok with that. however, if the CRA were to audit refs and determine, like say waitresss, that they failed to report income earned from refereeing and were subject to fines and repayment of taxes, they won't get any sympathy from this hockey fan.

Just my opinion.