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	Starting and operating your own home based business is the ultimate tax shelter. Although this article has been written from a Canadian income tax perspective, the principles should be practical in other tax jurisdictions. 1. Non-Deductible Personal Living Expenses All of us have expenses that we incur in everyday living. Either you rent an apartment or house or you own your residence. Utilities, insurance, rent, mortgage interest, property taxes, and maintenance and repairs are typical costs of operating your home. Likely, you have a vehicle which also consumes large amounts of cash. Add to this, dining out, entertainment, gifts, alcoholic beverages, office supplies, telephone and many other expenditures, and you have a significant cash outflow. In most cases, as an employee, retired person, investor, student, or homemaker, few of these expenses are tax-deductible to you. This means that you must earn a considerable income, pay your income taxes first, and then use what is left to pay all your expenses. Some employees may be able to write-off some of their employment related expenses, if such are required by their contract of employment. However, even in this situation, the tax deductions are very limited. 2. Your Own Home Based Business Means Tax Deductions Now consider the situation where you decide to start your own home based business. Suddenly, many of your everyday expenses are now being used for business purposes and are now tax-deductible. If you use one quarter of your home exclusively for business use, you will be able to deduct (or write-off) one quarter of all related occupancy costs. These expenses may include maintenance and repairs (that are not capital in nature), rent, mortgage interest, house or apartment insurance, power, heat, water, and property taxes. As well, your vehicle expenses used for business purposes are another tax write-off. If you use your car ninety percent for business purposes, you can deduct ninety percent of your vehicle insurance, gas and oil, maintenance and repairs, car washes, license and registration, auto club, loan interest (within certain limits), and other costs from your income. You may also write-off one hundred percent of your business related parking. Capital Cost Allownance (C.C.A.) on your vehicle is also allowed for income tax purposes; depreciation is the accounting term for this tax deduction. The Canadian government also allows as a deduction, fifty percent of your business related entertainment expenses. Also tax-deductible are business related telephone expenses, Internet access, office supplies, travel, books, memberships, and a host of other expenditures. 3. Income Splitting with Your Home Based Business If you have a high paying job, you will pay higher taxes because the rates of tax increase as your income does. With your own business, you can pay reasonable wages to your spouse and children. In this way, you can legally divert income taxed at your higher rate to your family members that are in a lower tax bracket. This tax saving technique is called income splitting. It is another good reason why your own home based business is the ultimate tax shelter. 4. Even a Part-Time Home Based Business Works Even if you have a full-time job, running a part-time business can be advantageous. Of course, you must actually run a real, moneymaking business. Any attempts to write unprofitable hobbies off will ultimately fail with the taxation authorities. If you earned eight thousand dollars during the year from your part-time business and were able to deduct eight thousand dollars in car expenses, home office expenses, entertainment costs, office supplies, and other business related expenditures, you would have a net business income of nil. You would pay no tax on this additional income. Don`t miss this important point! Although these tax deductions are actual, legitimate business expenses, these are expenditures you would probably have made anyway, whether you had a business or not. Thus, by rearranging your affairs to start and operate a home based business, you have been able to convert non-deductible personal expenditures into legally deductible business expenses. You have successfully sheltered your income from tax and have split your income with family members in lower tax brackets. Yes, indeed, your home based business has become your ultimate tax shelter.

College and other schooling beyond that offered by public school systems can be quite expensive. In many cases, parents and students will need some form of assistance to help them make ends meet and pay tuition and other costs… preferably without creating more bills that need to be paid while attempting to finish school. Some students will receive scholarships that will cover all or part of their cost, but the students that don't receive these scholarships still deserve a chance to go to the school of their choice.

Luckily, a variety of different student loans and grants exist that are designed specifically to pay for schooling and the costs associated with it.

The Difference Between Loans and Grants

Of course, student loans and grants aren't exactly the same thing. A student loan is a specific type of loan that's designed for those seeking to further their education but are unable to afford to pay for it on their own. A grant, however, is a specific sum that is given to the individual in much the same manner but doesn't require repayment. Obviously, grants require more consideration and aren't given as often as loans, and are often based upon financial need.

Student loans are granted by a variety of lending institutions and may or may not be backed by government funding, whereas most grants are issued by government branches though there are some grants that are offered either by school departments or private businesses or organizations.

Advantages of Student Loans

In addition to simply providing the money that students need to complete their education, student loans have some specific advantages that make them useful in paying for tuition and other educational expenses. In most cases, loans don't have to be repaid until the student graduates… meaning that as the student takes out more loans as they work toward graduation, they won't have to be repaying the previous loans as well.

Once the student is no longer enrolled, then all of their loans become due and they can begin making payments on them at that point. This allows for students to borrow the money that they need, repaying all of it at a later date instead of having to start repayment right away.

Once repayment begins, many student loans also have lower interest rates or special rates that are designed specifically for students.

Finding and Applying for Student Loans

Finding student loans to apply for is generally a straightforward process, as many lenders offer some form of student loan. You should take the time to investigate lenders in your area and see what sort of student-specific loans they offer, comparing interest rates and other terms to make sure that they're the type of loan that you're wanting to apply for. Loan application is pretty much like that of any other loan, but repayment will usually not start until after graduation.

Finding and Applying for Grants

Grants can be harder to find, and harder to get… but considering that they don't have to be repaid, they're well worth the effort. One of the best ways to find grants is to start by asking the school's financial aid office; they usually have listings of all of the grants that they accept, and can help you to find the ones that you might be able to get.

The application process tends to require letters of recommendation and essays on chosen topics, though it depends upon the specific grant and who is issuing it as to what is required for it.

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