Tuesday, March 20, 2018

I FILLED OUT MY INCOME TAX FOR THE LAST TIME

     Yes, old Red, the last of the great do it yourselfers, has filled out income tax forms for the last time! Now before some misread this as I don't have to file income tax! No such luck.

    I have filled out income tax forms since 1959. It was a bit of a surprise for a 19 year old to discover he had to file an income tax form. So for for 59 years I have faithfully and honestly filled out my tax forms. 

    Why am I quitting? I'll blame it on the Micro Manager. Much of our reporting has to go together and the Micro manager is not willing to go through the hassle anymore.

    I find that the forms get more convoluted every year. The government tries to satisfy many groups that lobby for breaks. So there are breaks for music  lessons, bus travel, gym fees...you got it . Everybody gets a break...even seniors.

   And that brings me to my point. Here's a challenge. Here senior couples, where only one gets a pension, can split some pension income so that they both can take advantage of a break and claim the maximum for non refundable tax credits. Okay, I won't complain about a benefit as it saves us $150.00.

    Now here's the problem and I get a headache trying to write about this. The guy withe the pension transfers $2000.00 to the spouse without the pension. Pension guy's income is $2000.00 less. Pensionless guy must add $2000.00 to their income. After that, pension guy must subtract the tax he would have been paying on the $2000.00 he's giving away and pensionless guy must add the tax to their return. It's a simple switch. 

    Now you can guess the tax people could spoil this by inventing a form that is impossibly  complicated. You have to read it a 100 times and each time the Micro Manager and I disagree because it is written in a very awkward way.

   I know , accountants have to do their job and make a form that will do the job.

   So with such convoluted forms , I'm not that unhappy to give up my job filling in my tax return.

    Now I just have to look for an accountant that I like.

    ...and I'll bet there's no prize(break) for filling out tax forms for 59 years.

33 comments:

  1. I still do ours, using TurboTax now for the last few years. Our US form is messy enough. Yours sounds in much need of being reformed.

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    1. We've had too much tinkering by politicians.

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  2. Oh my! I'd give it up too. It's a simple enough concept but I agree CRA forms can be quite awkward. In fact I find a lot of Canadian government forms are very poorly written.

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    1. Awkward is a very good word to describe the forms.

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  3. I did misread your blog title and thought "Darn, over here we have to file until we die!" Ha! Like they say the only sure things are death and taxes! Oh and you did get a prize for filling out your own tax form - you didn't have to pay someone to do it. Good luck finding an accountant!

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    1. Hey , here they still get us after we die. Fat chance those guys would give a prize for any thing.

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  4. We have an accountant, two audits in my lifetime was enough so I refuse to do them. They are done and refunds have been received:)

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    1. Being in business would put you at a much greater risk for audits. I think they've become too cheap to do audits here.

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  5. Good luck. I have to compile all kinds of interest earned forms, charitable deduction items, taxes paid forms, etc. and fill out a 20 page questionaire from my tax man who does the final paperwork and still pay him $500. If I could make this any easier and or cheaper...I guess I need to shop around for a new tax persom.

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    1. I'm wondering how much work I will save myself with an accountant. I think it depends on who you get.

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  6. We take our taxes down to the AARP volunteers at our local Senior Center. It's free and we don't have complicated taxes. It sounds like you are doing the right thing by going to a professional. Good for you doing it all those years. :-)

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    1. I wish things were that simple here. We have OAS ( senior government pension) CPP ( Canadian pension plan which we pay for and it goes on...

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  7. I do online HRblock, it takes me less than an hour most of the time with my extra crap

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    1. I realize that on line forms simplify things for you. they do the math and plug in some of the information automatically.

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  8. I am convinced that there's a conspiracy to force people to surrender their taxes to professional accountants! Those documents get more and more difficult to manage every year. It's to the point now where I file and think, "Well, I've done my best, and that's all I can do!"

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    1. While you're at it , you might also need a good lawyer!

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  9. Anything to do with taxes gives me the same headache you had!! I work in an accounting office but doing accounting, not taxes.

    Our son does his tax return on CRA's website. I'm not sure if it's just for simpler returns or if you could also do a pension split on their program. However, it sounds like the issue of who will do your returns has been settled (i.e. not you), so that's probably of no use anyway!

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    1. I realize that the online programs simplify things by doing your math and auto filling some data.

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  10. We use an accountant it made more sense with the farm.:) B

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    1. Yes the farm income tax can get very crazy. Most of my relatives are farmers.

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  11. I am happy to say that in my life I have never filled in a single tax form. As a teacher working in the state sector, that nonsense was somebody else's responsibility.

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    1. That's wild. ! You mean the education system filed your tax returns!

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    2. What is a tax return? I have no idea. I got my salary and it was taxed at source. End of story.

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  12. I would just give up if I had to do it. It seems to get more complicated every year. Good decision with going to an accountant. Good luck finding one you like.

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    1. It's doable but takes a lot of time and effort.

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  13. I get a headache just thinking about all this! My husband does the income tax for us. Before him, I paid someone to do it.

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    1. You don't know what fun you're missing.

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  14. I no longer have to fill out tax forms here in Scotland. All my income - including investments etc - are taxed at source. All I had to do was declare that (which I did when I retired - finally - in 2005).

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  15. Hi Red, I sure hear you on this one. Well, I've been filing myself as long as I've been filing and I guess that's up around 50 years now. I thought maybe Canada would be better than us. It sounds like we're equally confusing. The saving grace for me has been Turbo Tax. It's a computer thing, of course. It takes you through the tax forms by asking questions, like, what's your name, your address, your social security number, and on and on. It usually takes a few hours to get it all done. Then, you can file online and it's all over. Despite that, I usually put it off as long as possible. Trump said he was going to put it all on a postcard ... Ha ha ... that sure didn't happen! Have a good weekend ahead! John

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  16. I used to do my own ... approaching it like a challenge, like a puzzle. But I don't have the interest or the energy anymore. So I pay someone else to do it. It's less work, no doubt, but you still have to keep all the records, collect all the data and organize everything.

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