The writers’ union has made a prebudget submission to the government with three major recommendations: 1. institute a copyright income deduction for artists earning less than $60,000 in copyright income (a similar measure is already in place in Quebec); 2. remove the tax from subsistence grants such as those handed out by the Canada Council; and 3. institute income averaging, so if you publish a successful book and make a bundle one year, the revenue can be averaged over several years to mitigate the tax burden.

http://metronews.ca/scene/1207664/can-you-afford-to-be-a-full-time-writer/