Barring a reprieve from the CRA, tax day for 2021 is today. Time to get your taxes done!
I have written many articles about taxes, I will include a few at the end of this article.
Reasons folks tell me they haven’t done their taxes:
I Don’t Owe Anything
Are you sure about that one? Unless you do your taxes, you can’t be sure you owe nothing. If you are owe nothing, why not do your taxes? Get it done. If you are owed money, you enjoy loaning the government money? That is what you are doing if you are owed a refund, and you don’t file your taxes. Who can afford not getting all their money they earned? I suppose Elon Musk maybe?
I Can’t Be Bothered
Usually followed by, “the CRA will come get me if I owe money”. You do realize if you owe money, and haven’t filed they start charging interest on the money owed? This is not the IRS, but the CRA can garnish your wages, if you ignore them long enough.
I Had No Income
Well, that is a great reason to file your taxes. How else will you get HST rebates and many other things? Find someone to help you file, if you can’t do it yourself. Many support programs rely on you showing you have no income, and your taxes is where that can be done. For young folks this is important as well, for things like OSAP, if they are going to claim they are self-supporting. For RDSPs this is important for disabled young folks so they can receive the Canada disability savings grant at a higher level and Canada disability savings bond. The Bond is $1000 if you put no money into your RDSP account for the year (i.e. free money).
I Can’t Get Into My CRA
Yes, that was a big problem for about 800,000 of us, but that is not an excuse (evidently). You needed to spend a while on the phone with the CRA to clear that up. They also (evidently) fixed the problem for a lot of folks too?
I am Dead
Yes, this is a reason, for you. OK a bit morbid, and maybe not that funny given the COVID times that we are living in. Someone needs to submit your taxes in this instance (your executor, most likely) to make sure the CRA knows this as well.
Other Fun Tax Articles
Some other articles I have written over the ages about Income Tax in Canada
- First thing is about the Disability Tax Credit and if you are disabled you should absolutely apply for the DTC. You can apply later and have it applied to when your disability started. Go do it, please.
- Best Excuses for NOT Doing Taxes on Time, OK you caught me I cribbed some topics from this one. Mostly a humorous article, but there really are not many good reasons for not doing your taxes.
- Get Your Taxes Done Dammit ! I am a bit of a nag. Sometimes a topic needs to be mentioned a few times?
- Tax Myth and Lies in Canada remember we live in Canada. The CRA is not the IRS.
- New Year Tax Checklist a long list of things to do in the new year to prepare for your taxes.
