funding, canada, game-studio, grantsI live in Canada and I am planning to create my own startup in the next years (a small indie game studio). I think I’ve heard somewhere that the government helps startups by giving them money so they don’t go bankrupt from the start, but I am not sure this is true or not.
If it is true, what would I need to do to get help from the government.
P.S. If it can help, I am living in the province of Quebec.
There are a lot of grants and other sources of governmental financial help for startups. Most of them you do have to individually apply for them. I'm not familiar with Quebec specific ones - being at the opposite end of the country myself and having really sucky French - however for I am fairly familiar with Canadian government tax benefits. Most benefits you have to manually apply for however there are some that are very easy to get:
HCSB (Hiring Credit for Small Businesses): Gives a credit up to $1000 on the employer portion of any increase in ei premiums from last year. Currently unconfirmed for 2014 but has been active for the last 3 years. Application is simple... you don't have to do anything beyond your normal filing of T4 slips and summary which you have to do anyways.
For partnerships and proprietorships on your personal income tax (form T2125) you can claim significant "use of home" expences - comensurate to whatever you figure is how much of the house you use mainly for business purposes - a common amount to claim is 10%. This reduces your net income. On that you can claim mortgage, hydro, heating, insurance, and maintenance among others but reducing your taxable income by 10% of your mortgage and heating etc. sure can help when you are starting out.
Employees can also claim some of those costs under more stringent rules and with a signed form from their employer.
Take a look at this page. There are tons of grants you have your business apply for in Canada. They all have different requirements, so see which ones fit your business best.
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