Get $500 Tax Credit for each of your child’s physical activity (Canada).

“You may be able to claim up to $500 per child for the fees paid in 2010 that relate to the cost of registering your or your spouse's or common-law partner's child in a prescribed program of physical activity” http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/fitness/

Prescribed Program

 To qualify for this amount, a program must:

• be ongoing (either a minimum of eight weeks duration or, in the case of children's camps, five consecutive days);
• be supervised;
• be suitable for children; and
• require a significant amount of physical activity that contributes to cardiorespiratory endurance, plus one or more of:

                            muscular strength,

                            muscular endurance,

                            flexibility, and / or

                            balance.

Physical activity includes strenuous games like hockey or soccer, activities such as golf lessons, horse-back riding, sailing and bowling as well as others that require a similar level of physical activity. 

The Public Health Agency of Canada's Physical Activity Guides for children and youth list some of the activities that contribute to cardio-respiratory endurance.

The following activities do not qualify: 

• activities where riding in, or on, a motorized vehicle is an essential part of the activity;
• self-directed (unsupervised) activities;
• activities that are part of a regular school program; or
•  sports-academics programs. 

Note
Fees charged for extra-curricular programs that take place in school are eligible.

Fees paid by parents for accommodation, travel, food, or beverages (e.g. room and board at a fitness camp) do not qualify.

All of the above is copied from Government website. For more info click on the link below:  http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/ddctns/lns360-390/365/prgrm-eng.html

What about gym fees for your child? According to the Government requirements you can claim any physical activity that is:

•  ongoing (either a minimum of eight weeks duration or, in the case of children's camps, five consecutive days);
• supervised;
•  suitable for children; and
• require a significant amount of physical activity that contributes to cardiorespiratory endurance, plus one or more of:  

                           muscular strength,

                           muscular endurance,

                           flexibility, and / or

                           balance.

If your child goes to the gym and attends supervised classes that are suitable for children, you may be eligible to deduct his/her whole-year-round membership. Most gyms give discounts for students and those who are under 18. Those fees usually vary from $19 to $39 per month. Here is your family fitness plan paid by the Government of Canada.

What about personal training fees?

 I don’t see why not they can be deducted. Personal training is:

·         supervised

·         suitable for children, and

·         can be with significant amount of physical activity that contributes to cardiorespiratory endurance.

Personal Training also can be developing the following:

                 muscular strength,

                 muscular endurance,

                 flexibility, and / or 

                           balance.

Your child deserves a better health and now it can be at no cost to you!

Consult your accountant about your eligibility. 

Don't Let Anyone Fool You. Part 1 (Flyers).

$6 Per Month? No Annual Contract? Hm?! Sounds too good to be true? Well, it is.

The idea of these misleading advertisements is to make you pick up the flyer in your hands and call to find out more details.

Do you think when you call they will give you those details? Here is what's going to happen in most gyms when you call:

• Receptionist will transfer you to a sales person or she will take your phone number for "someone" to call you back. As soon as you give out your phone number be prepared for annoying follow up phone calls every so often.
• Sales people in most gyms are not allowed to give out prices over the phone, so you'll be invited to visit the gym.
• If you decide to visit the gym, be prepared for a thorough brainwash and pressure to join NOW!   

The idea of $6 per month with no annual contract is to make the process of joining NOW easier. Let's look at the small print of the same flyer to figure out what will happen sometime later if you do decide to join NOW. Click on the picture below to enlarge, after you're done reading hit the Back button in your browser:

Aha! So it appears to be $6 per month is only for the first two months. What happens after? Starting from the 3rd month you will be enrolled for the regular price which may vary from $50 - $90 or more per month.
No annual contract trick is used to get you to the door, grab your banking information with the hope that you'll forget to cancel your membership after initial two months.  As soon as first two months passed you may be immediately obligated to a 12 months contract.

Always read small print of all flyers and your membership agreement before you put your signature down.

Why do people quit?

More than 20 years ago I started to wonder: “Why do people quit gyms?”

Not a small fraction, but more than half of those who join gyms quit right after 6 - 8 weeks, and the rest exercise irregularly. More than 90% of these people have still answered that the exercise was important to them.

“Because of my work schedule.”

 “Because of my family life.”

 “Because of my children.”

 “I am too busy.”

 “I am too young.”

“I am too old.”

“I don’t have the time.”

And there were some other answers.

Why is there the contradiction - “Exercise is important to me but I still quit it?”

Later, as I learned more and more about us, as humans, I discovered that most of the answers that I’ve heard from people were not their real reasons for quitting. The actual problem lay much deeper, and those real reasons were hidden inside of people’s minds. In order to discover them, we need to understand who we are and how we think. Reading more and more about human psychology made me realize that majority of people quit for the same reasons, and these reasons have nothing to do with everyday’s life. 

In general, when people pursue their goals, very often they quit because they get influenced by various things. These things corrupt people’s minds, allowing them to procrastinate or look for excuses. Once they've failed, they start looking for easier and easier solutions or fall for quick-fix, short-term programs. These programs are usually based on producing only results and not on developing people’s willpower or self-discipline, individually, to continue. Consequently, at the end of every quick fix, people go back to their previous state of thinking and rely on success only with influence from the outer source and not from within themselves.