journal features

unexpected windfall for cycle commuters

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2011.11.17

I cycle to work, where I have a consulting contract with a client; it turns out that this allows me to discount my cycling costs.

At least eighty percent (and probably more like ninety-five percent) of my cycle-riding is for my commute to work. The Canadian government has an allowance for anyone operating their own business to claim a tax credit for expenses pertaining to their automobile in use for that business. And according to my accountant, bicycle expenses apply just as do motor vehicle expenses. I've been tracking my bike expenses pretty closely, and while I'm well into the black as far as expenses go due to my savings on TTC fares, it now turns out that I can claim the expenses and get a portion of that money back.

Clever government, promoting cycle use.

In a related note, it seems that I've ridden my bike at least three thousand kilometers this year, just in the back-and-forth to work.

rand()m quote

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

—John Gardner