INCOME TAX

      Our income tax dead line in Canada is April 30. So income tax is on my mind. I wonder how many countries in the world have an income tax system.  I wonder what are the tax  filing deadlines in other countries?

     I did my own income tax until 2018 when I decided that for my skills it took too much time. I knew what was going on but it was hard work. I now have someone do my tax. However, now I don't really know what is going on. You can't have it both ways.

      I filed  my first tax return in 1958. It was one page both sides. I put in my income . Everybody was given a thousand dollar deduction. So fill it out and pay the tax man. Simple. I wish the tax system could have remained simple. So various governments tinkered with the system trying to raise more tax income and then make things more palatable by giving some benefits. So they take with one hand and give with the other. They also think we don't know what they're doing.

     I taught for two years in a small isolated Inuit settlement. Usually 6 to 10 of the men got work at a nearby mine for a few months. These people did not read or write. However, the mining company had to send these men T-4 slips. When the men got these slips they would come to me and ask for money. I had to explain to them that we had to fill out a form and send it to the government and then they would get money. They had no other income except from the mine. So I ended up filling out a few tax returns. The were happy to get the income tax return. 

     So my return is done and filed. How about you? Have you found out how much money the tax man wants? 

INCOME TAX

         It's income tax time and I can hear everybody cheering with great joy!

         In the good old days income tax was simple to file. All we did was add up our income. Everybody got the first $1000.00  tax free before calculating the tax. We did not get a bazillion slips reporting our income . We added up our income, took off the $1000.00 and calculated the tax manually. Finished! Done! 

     The first time I filed an income tax form was 1957. I worked on the railroad for 10 weeks and made 400.00. I didn't have to pay income tax. I just had to make sure that I filed a return. 

       Now every dollar we receive in income must be reported to the government and of course to the tax payer. We have some rinky dink things like age amount, care of children blah , blah blah. We get a wopping 10% of this for a tax reduction. Then they make us jump through many hopes taking things off an putting things on. And don't forget the instalment payments you made. I used to do my own income tax return. It just got too complicated and laborious. I finally went to a professional to fill out and file my return. 

      Well, yesterday was the appointed day for me to receive my assessment notice. The assessment notice from the tax dept. tells me if what I filed was correct. When I filled out my own tax it was either exactly correct or off by a few bucks. I knew this year that I was getting some money returned. When I got my assessment notice I saw that I was receiving much more money back than had been calculated.

     I  could not think of why this change had been made. Finally, I phoned the guy who filled out my tax return. It was easy. I pay instalments . That is I pay a certain amount each quarter so that I'm not hit with a big bill in April. The bank had put my instalment payment as paying my income tax. The income tax dept was just giving my money back . So my bank was in big trouble. My money had gone to paying my tax instead of the instalment. 

    Usually the income tax dept. can mess things up. This time it was the bank.

    There was no joy in getting extra money back because it wasn't mine. If I kept it I would have had to pay interest on it. 

     So income tax reporting isn't simple anymore

UNBELIEVABLE

     This is unbelievable. I'm going to write about taxes again! I know I said in my last post that it was the end of posts on tax. The tax  topic just keeps giving and giving. This also fits in with a few other posts I've done, like telemarketers.

    Yesterday morning a call came and since I have call identification , I decided not to answer. Most telemarketers and scams don't leave a message. This one left a message and it was chilling.

    The message went something like this. You are named in a criminal proceeding for paying insufficient income tax and for tax fraud. Call back immediately and we can help you. Well it's a rather upsetting message. Fear and worry set in immediately. And then the voice of reason cuts in and you realize that this is a scam. However , you are shook up by such a call.

     Even though I had heard about this scam before, I was stressed. What cold evil hearted person would conduct such a scam. I wouldn't be taken in but how many other people may fall for it. What about seniors.? What about the many people we have who have limited English?

     So yes, my post is about tax but more on creepy criminal phone calls.

    We called the police to report the call thinking that they may be interested in case there was an ongoing investigation. Well they knew about it, but there was no investigation because unless there's money that actually changes hands there's no offense being committed. They are just a nuisance.

    So hopefully this will be the last tax post and that the goons don't phone you.

ONCE MORE ON TAXES

    Recently I have done two posts on income tax. One post was a on a tactic used by people to evade tax by putting money in another country. The last post was on the pathetic performance of the call center used by the tax department.
    So after my challenge  of  dealing with capital gains I've been thinking about what causes tax systems to become so complicated.
    Too many times whiners get to the politicians and request changes to the tax system that would benefit them. Politicians see this a  way of getting votes when they need them. Politicians also think that if they meddle with the tax system, they can "improve" the economy.
    Then the government always has ideas to give us a good deal. In Canada they set up something called the Registered Retirement Savings Plan. The idea was to let people start a savings deposit and not have to pay income tax on it until they take the funds out. You would not be able to take any funds  out until you reach retirement unless you wanted to pay tax on it. The idea was that when you retire your tax rate would be lower and in this way save money. So try keeping track of this account. There was a maximum you could deposit. There's a minimum you could take out at the end.
   The government has all kinds of economists and accountants who design tax systems that at the same time benefit people and bring in needed revenue for the country.
    I could bore you with other examples.
   So why not tax everybody on a standard rate. There would be different rates for income level but that's all.  No exemptions. No write offs. No sneaking money off to a foreign country.
   I'm willing to bet a nickel that if everybody was taxed the same and did not have loop holes that the tax rate would be lower. Wouldn't that make everybody happy! Or is this just too simple to fly?


    Well it was a good dream anyway.


   

DEMON INCOME TAX

      I've always filled out my own income tax returns. My income tax situation is very simple and straightforward. Yes, there are very poorly expressed sections that cause me problems. One is what they call split income pension. It's straightforward. I transfer some of my pension income to my wife. Now when the tax guys get in on writing the form it suddenly gets complicated. 
they don't use the best of terms. Pension transferee??? Who's that?  They do make a mess of the form. I fool them. I get it.

     This year they went one too far so I have to rant.

     I always have paid my income tax with a check. After I finished my tax form I noticed that I'm not allowed to pay by check anymore. They offer 4 options. I don't do online banking. Skip that one. I'm not setting up a debit account. I don't want somebody having access to my account. The only option left was to get a remittance voucher.

     Now you have to order a remittance voucher online or by phone. The Micro manager tried the phone and it didn't make sense. 

     If I set up an account I could order the vouchers online. So I set up an account and ordered. It would take two weeks.

   Now there was no notice about this change. I finished my return Mar. 27 so if the mail works I get the voucher before April 30 which is the deadline. Some people may finish their return April 25. How are they ever going to get a voucher?

    So I am very angry with the tax department for not advertising that checks could not be used this year.

    The micro manager called some officials and gave them the gears but they would not budge on the way things were set up.

     There's a saying don't argue with the taxman. It was impossible in this case.

#*~`^\< Income Tax

   I'm a stubborn old coot and I insist on always doing my income tax on my own.

    My income tax is not complicated so it's doable. There are a couple of curves . I can split some things to gain some advantages. This is where the bus went in the ditch. If you split things you have to file a special form with all the details of the split. I have never found a more convoluted form than this one. There are five steps and they are weird.

   Now the routine around our place is that I fill out the tax forms and my manager checks them. Now I'm not perfect so I make the odd mistake. So when my manager got to the form to split things she thought it was wrong and began to change things. She got really frustrated and called me. Since I was looking at a form she was filling out I was  confused for a while. Then for the next 4 steps we stumbled and yes words flew and got louder. After two hours of reading and rereading, we found that my first attempt was the right one. Worse than that we then discovered that there was no need to split that part of income. Luckily it didn't matter if we did split or not split. That meant that we didn't have to do the whole process over again.

    So we sat down and wrote a letter to ourselves that next year it wouldn't be necessary to do the splitting. So next year we will find the letter in the file and it will tell us what to do.

   So once again the income tax is done without too much damage to the premises, bodies or minds.