Taxes - the introduction

Spring is reluctantly springing.

Biorhythms.

In Canada, spring means two things: allergies and taxes.

And the start of a unique time of year when temperatures are consistently above freezing.

Canadian taxes are usually due by the end of April.  This year, the Heartbleed virus hit the CRA's (Canada Revenue Agency, for the uninitiated) net-file website, so Canadians were given an extra 10 days to file their taxes.

The CRA, I presume, felt that this was sensitive information and did not post it on their website.

Armed without that knowledge, I returned from a sleepless weekend out of town and filed my taxes on what I thought was the last day of tax season.

I filed them thoroughly and accurately, for anyone who is keeping track.

It took me about three hours, consistent with last year's time.  Are you asleep yet?  Stay with me.

When I told one of my coworkers that I was starting a blog on finance, she got very excited.  She said: "Great, you can do topical posts.  March is coming up, so you can do some articles on taxes!"

Taxes!

My coworker is taking a series of university courses to become a chartered accountant.  She knows more about Canadian taxation laws then I ever will.  It was inspiring to see how much faith she had in my ability to write useful and succinct things about a topic as obscure as taxation.

Fortunately, I don't have to.  I get all of my information on Canadian taxation from a single website.  Do you have any kind of a question about Canadian taxes?  The only answers I know are here.

I bet you didn't come here to learn factual information about Canadian taxation.  I've got more to say on the subject, especially when it comes to the taxes of someone who has active finances.

Over the years of trying out different ways of investing and using and earning my money, I have turned my taxes from the standard person's type three numbers and claim some deductions style taxes into a marathon of data entry and a personal competition to see how many different forms I can invoke.

That's what I'll talk about next time.  See, I've run out of time.

Thanks again for all your patience.  See you in two weeks!