It's true; there are only two guarantees in life: Death and Taxes. And since clearly I'm not yet dead, as I write this, it can only mean I've just done my taxes.
Thanks to Heartbleed, the Canadian Revenue Agency extended the deadline for individual tax returns for 2013 from April 30th, to May 5th for electronic returns. I'm not sure why exactly though. Sure, Canadians were unable to submit online tax returns for 5 days while they corrected holes where Heartbleed could reach, but really... all they were doing was pandering to procrastinators.
And while I *am* a bit of a procrastinator, it is never more prevalent then at Tax Time. It's not because I dread the posibility of having to pay MORE - truth be told this is only the 2nd time in the past 15 years that I'll be receiving a refund - it's because no matter how well designed a tax return program might be, it's still talking legalese mumbo-jumbo. Beside every single field they have a little, info button, and inside that pop up a little help button, but at the end of the day mumbo-jumbo.
My tax returns are generally very straight forward: one T4, one Releve 1, a stack of prescription receipts, my RRSPs, a couple of charity donations receipts and my Metro pass; and yet... it's a 90 minute - minimum - headache. And most of that time is reading and trying to do on the spot translation. THIS is why I procrastinate.
Some people say, well, since you hate it so much, why don't you pay someone to do it for you? Well because that's what I did until 3 years ago. And in that time, I've only paid once. In 12 years of paying people, I've not only lost money on them, I've had to pay more taxes. Coincidence? I don't know, but until I win the lotto and have property and investments up th wa-hoo I'll do 'em myself. I just don't have to like doing them.
So maybe, there are three guarantees in *my* life... Death, Taxes and me Bitching about Taxes.
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