"Robin Hood in Reverse"

[msj]

My question is how much of that 47% are able to get all of the refund they are entitled to under the current tax system?

If they skip out on some of the deductions, the govt is laughing.

You forget that it costs the government money to check on people's returns.

Every May through about August we get letters and faxes from the government requesting to see various documents.

We then send these into the CRA so they can look at them.

Sometimes they deny things for the stupidest reasons and then I write a letter of objection and finally, as in months and months later, win the objection.

We pay all of these people to screen hundreds of thousands of returns each year - literally checking a receipt from soccer camp to ensure that it is for 5 days or for skating lesson to make sure they last 8 weeks or checking the dates on those home renovation receipts last year, etc....

The more complicated the system gets, the more mistakes even CRA makes, which means I get to do more work, bill a client more money, and look like some kind of "hero" when I win.

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Edited to add:

And speak of the devil, I go look at my RSS reader and see this:

Harper to promise new physical fitness tax credit for adults

Not to be confused with all these new tax credits introduced in the budget that, thankfully, was not passed.

This is exactly why I can no longer tolerate the CPC's.

It's death from a thousand tax credits.

Edited April 3, 2011 by msj