Monday, August 31, 2009

That explains it!

In March I was gathering up all my paper work for my accountant so she could prepare my annual tax return. As I was doing that I came across a Federal receipt that I didn’t recognize. It turned out that I should have been claiming capital gains/losses on some investment funds that I’ve had since 2002. I had completely overlooked those papers but luckily I save everything so I had all the information I needed to file “T1 Adjustment Request for 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 tax years”. The forms were complicated so I had my accountant prepare them along with my tax return.

Here is what ensued:
April 27 – mail T1 Adjustment Requests
June 12 – received a letter from the CRA “You don’t qualify under ‘Voluntary Disclosure’” (which is how I filed just in case they got unhappy about the fact that I’m seven years let telling them about this)
June 22 – Another letter from CRA “We got your information. We’ll let you know when we look at it.” (uh, thanks)
August 17 – Phone call, I need more info (easy peasy, a bit of BS and a fax and we’re good)
August 25 – Third letter “I’ve reviewed it, I’ll let you know the outcome in a separate mailing. Oh, but don’t worry about 2005. There’s no change there...but keep everything in case we decide to audit you.”
August 31 – Received FOUR separate envelopes. Bottom line? You owe us $26.53

Yep, that’s your tax dollars at work folks! No wonder they don't get anything done. If I had to send a letter everytime I moved a file on my desk I'd take forever too! At least the damage wasn't too bad.

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