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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1997-02-05, Page 8Page 8 Times -Advocate, February' 5, 1997 COMMUNITY i Blyth Festival wins three Stage Door Johnnie awards BLYTH - Stage Door on ibe Net has announced the winners of the first annual Stage Door Awards. The Blyth Festival won three of the, 20 awards, called the Stage Door Johnnies, which recognize excellence in live professional theatre on the stages of Southwestern Ontario for the 1995/96 season for winter theatres, and the 1996 season for summer festi- vals like Blyth. While the Shaw and Stratford Festivals presented the highest number of award-winning productions, with nine and five respectively, productions of Blyth received three awards, the Huron Country Playhouse. in Grand Bend garnered two and The Grand in London took one. The Blyth Festival's awards include Best Actress in a Drama for Wanda Graham who portrayed. Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell in `Mahelle Mabel'; Best Supporting Actor in a Drama -for Rustey Davenport. who played.Ja- mie, the mentally challenged grandson in 'Fireworks'; and -Best New Play • for Gordon Portmanwho wrote 'Fireworks'. • . - All live professional stage presentations running, at least two .weeks on any Southwestern Ontario stages outside of Toronto are eligible for the Stage Door Awards. Stage Door on the Net was created two years ago to . Nip publicizesmaller theatres' in the region. Several larger theatres, such. as Stratford and Shaw Festivals, have their own web sites, and Stage. Door provides quick links to their sites for -full and colorful coverage of their seasons' offerings. Most of the smaller theatres. however, such as those in Blyth. Drayton and Fergus,, do not have a presence on the Net, and Stage Door. set out to remedy this. Stage Door is located at www.cyg.net/-stampact/ or can be easily found by entering "Stage Door Theatre Ontario". in 61051 web 'search engines. The introductory page lists all 20 theatre towns -in the region, with a short description of each. Background information and a detailed playbill are: provided for theatres without web sites. To make it easy to find your favorite plays in 'the region, a composite playbill for all productions is included. Another page lists all theatre . • names and contacts, a valuable resource for playwrights and actors wish- ing to submit scripts or audition. The main attractions on Stage Door, how- ever, arc the reviews. There are currently over 40 .full reviews of recent • productions (including some major Toronto shows), and browser com- ments are encouraged and added to each review. ADVERTISING FEATURE • Real Estate can be tricky at tax time by.Brian Costello Not all real estate loans are alike, especially when it comes -to Revenue Canada. So know the rules if you hope to make the interest on those loans tax deductible: Consider the person who owns a principal residence that is fully paid for. Shc.uses it as collateral to buy a second property she'intends to use as a rental unit. Normally, the interest on this loan is • tax deductible. . Or"the individual who owns a duplex. He and_his family live in one half and•rent out the other half. He borrows against the paid- up value of the duplex to buy a new single family:residence for ,his family and claims the interest as a tax deduction because he used ihe.investment property as collateral. It -will be turned. down by Revenue Canada. - . • • At first glance, it would appear that the two transactionsare similar—blit only one is acceptable. To make interest tax deductible, two criteria must be met: • The loan must be necessary. • • The loan must be Used to produce a regular rate of return plus the expectation of future profit, ' • If either of these criteria is missing, the tax deduction on the loan interest will not b• e allowed. In the -first example, the interest should qualify as a tax deduction because the money was borrowed to buy rental real estate that will provide regular income. Also, historically, real estate rises -in value over time. There'will, however, be years when repairs, maintenance, insurance, etc., may well • many taxpayers are.heing,denied these.deduc.ions because there is.no expectation of future profit._ • . . - - Especially so if that.real estate were part of a limited partnership purchased at the height of the real estate boons. Its value may have fallen so far that, as far as Revenue Canada is concerned, it will never earn a profit. s - " That's a crucial point: I'm regularly asked how long Revenue Canada will allow a landlord to declare negative income on a rental property. There is no exact answer. Basically, it's -a question of whether there appears to be chance for future profit, - In fact, many investors with multiple rental properties accumulated them by borrowing against properties with a positive cash flow to acquire one that was losing money. In the second example of the duplex owner, the tax deduction will be denied if it is discovered in an audit because the money was not borrowed to acquire a profitmaking investment or to invest in a"husiness but to buy a principal residence. • ' it isn't the collateral used.that determines tax deductibility. It's how the money is used. - - . Here's what I mean. Theproper strategy -would he to sell the investment, use the proceeds to buy the new principal residence outright and then borrow on the residence to buy a new • • investment: Using this strategy, the interest will betax deductible as this will he clearly an investment loan. _ When real estate is involved, this can be an expensive process. But it also works wonderfully with other -investments like - mutual funds and stocks: They're easier and less costly to sell and buy hack than real estate. - int t Be careful, though.if you sell'one investment and buy it hack later, Revenue Canada may consider this a sham: You're usually better off selling one investment and buying a similar but different one. . "exceed rental incsime. • • • - Normally, you're allowed to carry forward the excess expenses and apply them against your other income. Even if they wipe out all your income; they can becarried back to previous years or forward to save future taxes. 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