Tax Deductions for Dog Walkers and Pet Sitters in Canada

A complete tax guide for self-employed Canadian dog walkers and pet sitters: deductible mileage, platform fees, bonding and insurance, business-use-of-home, GST/HST, and CCA.

If you walk dogs, drop in on cats, board pets overnight, or take bookings through Rover, Wag, PetBacker, or Pawshake, the CRA treats you as running your own business. Almost every dog walker and pet sitter operates as a sole proprietor, which means you report your income and expenses on Form T2125 with your personal T1 return, nobody withholds tax for you, and the mileage, gear, insurance, and platform fees behind your work are all deductible. Pet care runs on small recurring payments, so tracking every deduction is what keeps the tax you owe fair.

You Are Self-Employed

As a sole proprietor, the business and you are the same taxpayer. There is no separate business return. A few things follow from that:

You report income and expenses on the T2125, filed with your personal T1, and your net income flows to line 13500. For the mechanics, see our guide on reporting business income on the T2125.
You report gross income, not the net amount that lands in your bank. If a client pays $40 for a walk and the platform keeps $8, you report the full $40 as income and deduct the $8 fee separately.
You pay both halves of CPP (11.9% combined for 2025) on your net business income, calculated on Schedule 8, plus CPP2 on earnings between $71,300 and $81,200. More on this in CPP contributions when self-employed.
Your filing deadline is June 15, but any balance owing is due April 30 or interest accrues from May 1.
Quarterly instalments are expected once your net tax owing tops $3,000 (in the current year and one of the two prior years). See self-employed tax deadlines for the full calendar.

For a broader walkthrough of what fits on each line, our T2125 deductions guide covers the whole form.

Motor Vehicle Expenses (Line 9281)

Driving between client homes, to a boarding pickup, or to the pet store puts real business kilometres on your vehicle, and the business-use share of those costs is deductible.

Expense	Notes
Fuel, oil, maintenance, repairs	Business-use portion only
Insurance, licence and registration	Business-use portion; supplementary business auto insurance is fully deductible
Loan interest or lease costs	Business-use portion
Parking	Fully deductible when incurred for business

Your business-use percentage is business kilometres divided by total kilometres, and the CRA expects a logbook recording the date, destination, reason, and distance of each business trip. Commuting from home to a single regular workplace is not deductible, but if your home is your principal place of business (most home-based sitters), travel to client locations generally counts as business kilometres. Our vehicle expense tracking guide goes deeper on logbooks.

A car used for the business is not expensed all at once. You claim depreciation through capital cost allowance instead (see the equipment section below).

Supplies (Line 8811)

The consumable gear you go through serving clients is fully deductible:

Supply	Notes
Leashes, collars, harnesses	Business gear used for client pets
Poop bags, treats, toys	Used in serving clients
Cleaning supplies, pet first-aid items	Consumed on the job
Key lockboxes	For client home access
Branded apparel and booties	Business gear

Only items used for clients count. Treats, food, and toys for your own pets are personal, and the CRA expects a reasonable allocation if you cannot separate them.

Insurance and Bonding (Line 8690)

Bonding and liability insurance are not optional extras for many sitters. Platforms and clients often require them, and the premiums are a clean, fully deductible business cost:

Commercial general or liability insurance for the pet-care business
Pet-care professional liability insurance
Bonding premiums

Insurance on your home is claimed under business-use-of-home (line 9945) and insurance on your personal vehicle under motor vehicle (line 9281), not here. For the wider picture, see business insurance deductions.

Advertising and Platform Fees (Line 8521)

Advertising to get bookings is deductible: flyers, business cards, Google, Facebook, and Instagram ads, website hosting and domain, and listing or profile fees. Advertising on foreign media is generally allowed for a service business; the Canadian-media restriction targets newspaper and broadcast ads.

Platform service and commission fees (Rover, Wag, PetBacker) are deductible, but only if you report the gross client payment as income first. Report the full amount the client paid, then deduct the platform's cut. If a platform fee reads more like a processing or management charge, it can instead go on line 8871 (management and administration fees), alongside business bank fees and payment-processor fees from Stripe, Square, or PayPal.

Business Taxes, Licences, and Dues (Line 8760)

Deductible here:

Municipal business licence
Dog-walking or commercial-walker permits (some cities require them for walking several dogs at once)
Pet-first-aid certification course fees where deductible
Subscriptions to scheduling and booking software (for example Time To Pet)

Office Expenses (Line 8810)

Pens, printer paper, invoices, and small office consumables go here. A computer, tablet, phone, or pet camera is not an office expense; it is a capital asset claimed through CCA.

Telephone and Utilities (Line 9220)

The business-use share of a cell phone plan used for client booking, GPS, and check-in photos is deductible, along with business telephone and internet not already captured under business-use-of-home. Only the business portion of a mixed-use phone qualifies.

Business-Use-of-Home Expenses (Line 9945)

If you board or sit pets in your own home, or run scheduling, invoicing, and client communication from home, the business-use share of your home costs is deductible:

Cost	Notes
Rent or mortgage interest	Business-use portion
Property tax, home insurance	Business-use portion
Utilities (heat, electricity, water)	Business-use portion
Maintenance	Business-use portion

Your percentage is business-use area divided by total home area, pro-rated for hours if the space is also personal. Boarding in your own home strengthens the claim, but pro-rate by the area (and hours) the pets actually occupy, not the whole house. The deduction cannot create or increase a business loss; any excess carries forward. It is calculated in Part 7 and entered on line 9945. Our home office deductions guide compares the methods.

Professional Fees (Line 8860)

Accounting and bookkeeping fees, the business portion of tax-preparation fees, and legal fees to set up or run the business are deductible.

Meals and Entertainment (Line 8523)

Business meals are only 50% deductible, and only when genuinely incurred to earn business income, such as a meal while meeting a prospective client. Day-to-day meals while walking dogs are personal and not deductible at all. See business meals and entertainment for the rules.

Travel (Line 9200)

Out-of-town travel to earn business income (transportation and lodging to attend a pet-care conference or a multi-day sitting assignment away from home) is deductible. Meals within that travel stay capped at 50% and go on line 8523.

Repairs and Maintenance (Line 8960)

Repairs to business property and equipment, such as fixing fencing or kennels used for boarding, are deductible here. Repairs to your home are claimed through business-use-of-home instead.

Other Expenses (Line 9270)

Pet-care continuing education, training courses, and other reasonable business costs not captured elsewhere (business pet ID tags, waste-disposal fees) are listed and totalled on line 9270.

Technology and Equipment Through CCA

Bigger purchases are capital assets. You do not expense them in full the year you buy them. You deduct them over time through capital cost allowance (CCA), calculated in Area A of the T2125, with the half-year rule limiting your first-year claim and only the business-use portion claimable.

Asset	CCA class	Rate
Computers, tablets, smartphones, pet/GPS cameras	Class 50	55% declining balance
Crates, kennels, pens, grooming tables, boarding furniture	Class 8	20% declining balance
Passenger vehicle $38,000 or less (2025)	Class 10	30% declining balance
Passenger vehicle over $38,000	Class 10.1 (cost capped at $38,000 + GST/PST)	30% declining balance
Zero-emission passenger vehicle	Class 54 (capped at $61,000)	30% declining balance

Tools and equipment costing under $500 are usually expensed as supplies instead. For the full mechanics, see our capital cost allowance guide, and for devices and software specifically, tech and software costs.

GST/HST

Dog walking, pet sitting, boarding, and grooming are standard taxable supplies. There is no industry exemption for pet services, and there is no special first-dollar registration rule like the one that forces taxi and ride-sharing drivers to register immediately. So you follow the ordinary small-supplier rule:

Registration is voluntary while your worldwide taxable revenue stays at or under $30,000 over the last four consecutive calendar quarters (and not over $30,000 in any single quarter).
You must register once you exceed $30,000 (immediately if you blow past it in one quarter, otherwise once the rolling four-quarter total crosses it), and you must register within 29 days of ceasing to be a small supplier.
Once registered, you charge GST/HST at the client's provincial rate (5% GST, or 13%/15% HST), file GST/HST returns, and can claim input tax credits (ITCs) on the GST/HST you paid on supplies, vehicle costs, platform fees, and equipment.

If a registered platform charges GST/HST on its commission, that tax becomes recoverable as an ITC once you are registered. Voluntary registration below $30,000 can be worth it to recover ITCs, but it then obliges you to charge tax to clients, so weigh the trade-off. Our GST/HST input tax credits guide explains how ITCs work.

Common Mistakes

Reporting only the net platform payout instead of gross. Report the full amount the client paid as income, then deduct the platform fee separately, so income and expenses both show correctly.
Skipping the mileage logbook. Without a log of date, destination, reason, and distance, the CRA can deny the vehicle claim. Estimating a percentage after the fact does not hold up on review.
Deducting 100% of a personal vehicle or cell phone. Only the business-use portion is deductible; mixed-use assets must be pro-rated.
Expensing a computer, camera, car, or kennels in full in year one. These are capital assets claimed over time through CCA (Class 50, Class 10/10.1/54, Class 8), with the half-year rule limiting the first year.
Letting business-use-of-home create a loss. The home deduction is capped at net income before it; the excess carries forward, it cannot push the business into a loss.
Deducting meals at 100%. Business meals are limited to 50%, and everyday meals while working are personal and not deductible at all.
Assuming pet services are GST/HST exempt. They are fully taxable; failing to register after crossing $30,000 leaves you owing the tax out of pocket plus penalties and interest.
Treating food, treats, and toys for your own pets as business supplies. Only items used in serving clients are deductible; allocate honestly.
Forgetting CPP. A sole proprietor pays both employee and employer CPP (11.9% for 2025 on net income up to the YMPE, plus CPP2), which is easy to miss when budgeting.
Missing instalments. Once net tax owing tops $3,000, the CRA expects quarterly instalments; missing them triggers instalment interest.
Mixing up the filing and payment deadlines. The return is due June 15, but any balance owing must be paid by April 30 or interest accrues from May 1.

What Good Records Look Like

For each tax year you should have a record of all income (gross client payments and platform statements, not just net deposits), receipts for supplies, gear, and equipment (the cost drives the CCA class), your insurance and bonding records, a vehicle logbook with the date, destination, reason, and distance of each business trip, the floor area and hours behind any business-use-of-home claim, and invoices for software, advertising, and professional fees. If you are starting out, our guide to setting up a freelance business in Canada covers the foundations. Keep everything for six years from the end of the tax year.

Sources

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