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File thirteen
There’s a pile of bank statements, receipts, T-somethings and charitable donation slips resting, quietly, on our dining room table. Our bookkeeper has taken some kind of leave of absence and we are faced with the possibility of doing our own taxes. Doing the taxes shouldn’t be a burden, right? It should make us feel like we’re part of the process of keeping this country running. Apparently, because it’s our civic duty, we should relish the thought of telling the CRA what they already know about us, except on 75 pages that need to be mailed by a certain date. Yet, as the certain date looms, actually shuffling through the pile and putting the right numbers on the right lines feels quiet intimidating for us. LOML does his part in this process. Throughout the year he neatly files all of the things, which are (or could be) tax related, in the blue file tub. In a weird way, the BFT keeps us humble. It’s always visible and serves as a reminder that there is no free lunch with the Canada Revenue Agency. Even if we could write a lunch off as a tax deduction, we still paid up front and will have to convince someone it’s an expense that should be deductible from our bottom line. So, here we are getting ready to pay the piper. After all of the years we’ve filed we have learned one thing, the pile of paper doesn’t sort itself out. The time has come to sharpen my pencil and get cracking on sorting out who gets what and which receipt needs to be copied and “do we really have all of the charitable receipts” and “what about the medical expenses” and “is the cost of parking at the hospital a deductible expense.”
I’ve said it before, I do believe the ideal situation would be to not owe tax dollars and not be in a position to get a rebate on an overpayment. It’s a bit like what our youngest son says about inheritances. “If you’ve still got money left after you die, you didn’t do it right.” There shouldn’t be anything owing or coming back if you’ve lived your tax year correctly. Most obviously, I don’t live in a perfect world. And because I’m a freelancer I know I’ll be in the red with the CRA and have to stand in line, at the bank, to ante up after all is said and committed to those reams of pages. We’ve got nothing to hide from the CRA, but we still get the queasy, gonna toss-my-cookies feeling when we flip the calendar page to April. More than anything our children can do or come up with, filing income taxes inflicts the most stress and encourages the growth of the most white hair. Without the help of our trusty bookkeeper, we must decide if we’re going to buy a tax program or if we’re going to go all “senior citizen” and pick up the blank forms at the Post Office and spend the money saved on a bottle of Scotch. Decisions, decisions.
When I was much younger, I was truly excited to file my very first income tax return. I couldn’t have made much more than 50 bucks a week and I couldn’t wait to get a refund. When my dad told me I was only getting my own money back, money the government had been using for a whole year, my tune changed. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was my own saucepan and my hard earned dollars. Geez. How naive had I been for one whole year?
Personal income taxes. Yep, the deadline for filing your personal income tax is just about here. April 30 at midnight is where the rubber meets the road. A few years ago, I said LOML and I had learned our lesson about DIY filing. Maybe not, ‘cuz this year we’re going to take another run at making fools of ourselves. Did you know there are over one thousand forms that could be utilized when filing your income taxes? Whoddathunkit?
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