stupid taxes

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tldr: Getting the ball rolling catching up on the last few years' taxes is a MASSIVE stress relief. Posting here is some additional stress relief for the value of venting.



I hate doing taxes. Usually end up filing a few years at a time. The last one I filed was 2019. I tried to get the ball rolling on my slightly more complicated taxes over a year ago by phoning Canada Revenue to get a Business Number issued retroactively so I could complete my 2020 taxes and beyond, and the dude on the phone was not helpful.. asked if I had recently applied for a number - no - he said he couldn't tell me anything about my account over the phone and I'd have to fill out and both mail and fax some 14 page form to request info about my own account and get things sorted out.

Well, that was too daunting to want to tackle so I simply didn't do it. Fast forward another more than a year later to today and I started getting various documents in order and searching online accounts for missing docs and got my ducks in a row for a phone call.. phoned them, waited on hold for like 1 minute, explained the situation, told him 30 or so people in my life died and I simply haven't been doing things like taxes/accounting/invoicing etc but I need to get all this crap cleared up. 44 minutes later and he was able to issue the account number I need over the phone and answered almost all the questions I had.

Now to use my iphone to login to the canada.ca account to print off missing docs that have electronically filed copies available and match everything up year by year, login and file each year electronically.. then do the business tax login and remittances.. then calculate the $ I need to invoice my friend's company for before the end of the year to collect and claim this year for work done there.. and to make a doctors appointment to get disability tax credit forms filled out for ADHD and related daily/work life impairments (like time perception, executive function, memory/focus etc) so that I can file that f****r with the taxman and then retroactively claim 10 years of tax credits.

Step by step, one thing at a time, bit by bit moving things forward. It's not nearly done, but this is a HUGE step in the right direction of getting this massively stupidly stressful weight lifted off my shoulders. The last government tax weenie I talked to made it sound like a big clusterf**k of paperwork and BS to wade through to get to a point where I could have the info/account numbers I need to catch up on my taxes and I pretty much shutdown and just *shrugged* my shoulders and went "Oh well, f**k that. Not getting done for now." and so to get a different tax weenie on the phone who resolved all of that and was able to issue the account number retroactively to 2021 for me w/o having to fill out 14 pages of BS & mail one copy and find a fax machine to mail another and then wait and wait and wait and go through umpteen steps of redundant nonsense to get to the end of the puzzle was verrrrryyyyyy... relieving.

I agree with the Scottish guy I worked with ~6 years back.. how stupid that Canada makes us go through all this nonsense to report employment income when they already Know exactly how much we made at our jobs. Apparently in Scotland all employment income is automatically reported, accounted for, and if there's a tax return $ is sent to peoples accounts, if there's a balance owing they get a bill. No need to file anything except business taxes. We're long overdue for a simplification of tax filing for both personal And business taxes IMO. So many people dread getting into any sort of self employed/business income because it's just such a giant PITA to do accounting/file taxes - especially for very small businesses that can't afford to hire bookkeepers or have an accountant on staff. It's just stupid that bureaucracy gets in the way of peoples' livelihoods and little wonder why so many people just go about their small businesses as unreported cash off the books. They just make it too complicated and costly to play by all the rules all the time.

Anyways, whatever. I'm not nearly done with all this crap - it might take me days yet to do all the math and filings, and then sort out if I have to send separate documents to health services BC/fair pharmacare or any of the other related things that all require taxes to be caught up to date for.. buuuuut, I'm feeling pretty good about this afternoon taking me one GIANT step in the right direction of getting this stupid mess all sorted out and over and done with. I logically know that taxes aren't That Big Of Deal, but I've allowed them to Mentally be The Biggest Deal that's been weighing on my mind and constraining me from moving forward with all sorts of other progress/fun/things I want to do because I keep having these stupid nagging thoughts that I first need to clear my slate of all my overdue taxes and related BS Before I can have a clear present mind to move forward with other things. So, once I'm actually done with everything and everything is actually completely all caught up to date.. holy molly I'm gonna feel like I was just reborn with a clean slate ready to tackle things I want to do!

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I've been using Turbo Tax for years. Just log in, consent to them autofilling your info, answer a few questions about deductibles, and you're done. Auto-filed, with an instant NOA.

I used to labour over them by hand with pencil. This is so much better. I'm not filing as a business but I've had to do several revisions from previous years and I've been audited before too. It's always super easy with Turbo Tax.

*This is not a paid advertisement.

I’ve always done it with the paper forms myself. I’ve never paid a tax preparer company to do it because even though it’s a stressful pita, it’s not that complicated and I know I can do it myself.

Apparently you can file online via cra. I don’t see the point in paying some 3rd party software company for what you can do for free on the government’s website.

I’ll only ever pay someone to do my taxes if somehow I end up in a very high paying career and my taxes become very complicated. Then whatever, pay the accountants/tax people and let them do their thing - at least at that level they’re earning their money vs doing relatively simple paperwork I know I can do myself.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Turbo Tax is free.

I used to do by hand too but now that they'll autofill it, it's so much easier.
Don't forget I have to do four sets of them so it's a PITA otherwise, and all for no gain.
I don't pay taxes or get refunds anyway on CPPD, so it's all a wash (aka waste of time).

Another good thing about doing it online is you'll have records saved automatically.
I've been able to access any year / any kid on my phone when needed, even in public (bank, etc.)

*Come to think of it, I had to call CRA last week too.
My login was revoked because of their hacker scandal thing.
They answered instantly and sent me a new code thing immediately.
I guess it's off-season, but I was surprised how easy it was.

How does turbo tax make money if it’s free to use ? Or does cra own turbo tax and that’s their filing software? I dunno

Ya I was surprised at the no wait time Friday midday or so, too. Figured I’d sit on hold for hours and then maybe talk to someone again who would tell me to fill out tons of forms and fax them off etc, but nope, this time they were actually very helpful.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

There's different levels of service at Turbo.

I choose the free one, but you can opt for a few incremental levels depending how complicated your stuff is, and how much "support" or double-checking you want from their bots.

Aaaah.

When I get to it soon I think I'm gonna just try the CRA website forms, whatever they are, as they can't complain if I use their own forms.. but if their site crashes or glitches or is otherwise a PITA to use then maybe I'll try the free version of turbotax.

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I didn't know CRA had their own service, but with TT you push a button and it logs you into your CRA account anyway.

That's how it generates all your info.

Good luck!

I when I filed for the first time I would get error codes that I could understand!
I was able to make corrections and file my return!
Though I did get flustered and make a mistake that I corrected the next year.

I don't (much) mind giving up money to pay for taxes. It's not fun, but I get that it's the price of living in civilization.

But I hate, hate, hate the process and paperwork.

Got enough duckies in a row to try filling taxes. CRA does not have their own submission software, but they link you to all the free services to try. I used wealthsimple. It was quite simple - all of the data from forms submitted to CRA can auto-populate the tax forms.. took some time to sort a few other details out, which likely make no difference to the bottom line but whatever. Tried submitting and got an error message that says try again in a few minutes.. tried a few times - same thing - says if it repeats to email them so they can get it submitted. Annoying.. because if it worked and submitted and was done I'd move on and do the next couple years' taxes and catch them all up right now. Buuuut, the stupid s**t doesn't work soooo delay of game until it's sorted out on their end I guess. Might have to wait until after the long weekend. :/

edit: Looked up the error message in their help section and it says if you get this message it means CRA's servers are busy and try again in a few hours. So, I guess that's what I'll do.

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Still not working. Pretty sure I'm gonna have to redo it in a different browser. Pretty lame that safari doesn't seem to work and they recommend Chrome.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Update: Got a useless help response email from wealth simple. Uh, yeah.. I'm very sure my internet signal is fine and I clicked submit on your form just fine. Thing doesn't work. Why they don't just say up front "Our s**t doesn't work with Safari, you have to try using Chrome to have a chance of it maybe working," is beyond me. Lame.

Might try to redo one today.

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Logged in.. CRA's servers are down so can't auto-populate forms or submit completed taxes.. can basically only do rough drafts and save them. Lame. Oh well. Slightly further along is better than not at all I suppose.

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

Entered in all the data I can for the last few years' tax returns. CRA's servers are down so can't import tax slip data nor complete GST remittances. BUT, for 2020/2021/2022 they're all about as complete as they can be until the servers are back up - maybe tmw ? Getting closer to completing them all.. then just the GST returns. And then I'm ahead of the game with Most of the documents and receipts I need for 2023 already printed. I still have some invoicing to do for year end, but w/e I'll get it done and get paid.

As long as this software works to actually submit stuff I'll be a pretty happy camper. They've actually made the whole process quite streamlined and since I only had a handful or so of different clients across a few industries this year, I don't have all that much in the way of revenues/expenses to track & calculate so it's all relatively straight forward.

Getting this GST number issued & back dated to 2021 finally has been a huge step forward and stress relief.

It's a SUPER WIERD mental block not having this crap completed. I is capital R word Riiiidiculous, I Know, but for some inexplicable reason I let crap like this constrain me from accomplishing COUNTLESS other things - whether tasks I need to complete or fun things I'd like to do.. I get thinking about some Thing I need/want to do, but then remember this nagging BS in the back of my mind that I haven't gotten to finishing yet and then instead of doing either thing I waste time procrastinating doing the tax things and allow myself to get super distracted, spin my wheels, and do nothing instead of something/anything. I know I'm not going to be magically focused and disciplined the moment my taxes are finally completed, buuuuuut, I also know that it's going to be such a MASSIVE stress relief and I'll feel like I have a truly clean slate instead of dwelling on this waste of time crap for countless hours out of a year -> or at least enough moments that it feels like hours. So stupid that this is such a BFD but it is and it's going to be verrrrrry head clearing when it's all over and done with.

_________________
No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

It must be nice to live in a country where you can fail to file a tax return for four years and the taxing authorities aren't all over you and your bank accounts and your real property like white on rice.