Apr 23 2005

No taxation without self deprecation…

Published by Mugwug at 04:11:16 under General

A sense of Deja vu crept over me this morning as I sat here at work filling in tax forms covering the past three years. I had the strangest feeling that I had been through this before. Yes, it seemed comfortably familiar.

You see I routinely fail to file my taxes.

Typically the whole thing unfolds a little like this. Tax time rolls around and I dutifully collect my slips, sheets, forms and guides and when I have them all together I begin totalling the columns on my collection of T4s (I’ve mentioned I usually have at least two jobs, right?). I usually get as far as totalling my “taxes paid” when a strange burning anger begins boiling deep down in the pit of my stomach.

A quick check of the columns confirms that the government has already taken a good chunk of my hard earned money. A small vein starts to pulse in my forehead as I once again consider the wasteful spending practices of my betters in government.

The tally completed I begin filling in the arcane tax forms, multiplying this by that, subtracting some from here, adding a little there, referring to the guide, completing an appendix or two. Strangely my anger has not disappeared. A few more minutes and with a relieved sigh I throw the material in an envelope and stick it on the shelf by my desk….

Fuck’em…

5 Responses to “No taxation without self deprecation…”

  1. # Gregon 24 Apr 2005 at 03:32:50

    Fuck’em…

    I have. Well, one.

    Sorry, couldn’t resist that one.

    GRIN

    You just gotta come over to the dark side man. You still get oppressed, but you also get to oppress other people. You’re cynical enough for government work already.

  2. # Mugwugon 24 Apr 2005 at 04:09:30

    Hehe, Greg ya know the moment I finished typing that I had a sneaking suspicion I’d hear from either you or Byron….

    As for working the dark side, well working would be an excellent start. Guess we’ll have to see how things shape up….

  3. # Gregon 24 Apr 2005 at 12:46:48

    Nobody for works “for” the government. We get work done in spite of, or to spite, the government.

    There is no rational reason for most of what happens in government. As such, as soon as you make an effort to “do” anything, the government group unconcious adjusts to thwart your efforts on principle. Oddly, as a servant of the Crown, you also automatically adjust to thwart others when their grand plans and schemes, which are often little disguised plots to make you do all of their “work” while they do less.

  4. # Mattion 25 Apr 2005 at 05:20:15

    Hey, man, “death and taxes” - you can’t avoid ‘em. One’s gotta be philosophical. Seems to me that, in balance, it’s less aggro just to file the stinkin’ return and claim the refund.

    Doing the arithmetic? That’s what those tax programs are for! Pay your $10 and let automation do most of it for you! Web applications generally go back three years, e.g. … http://www.cutetax.ca/

    And, if you were a real mensch, you’d offer to do your sweetie’s return(s) while you were at it ;-)

  5. # Mugwugon 25 Apr 2005 at 09:48:46

    Refund? Um no… I owe them, they only ever send you a letter when their computers have determined you owe.

    As it is I think I owe about $1500 for the two years in question, this year I came out even more or less (would have been better if the company had actually taken the extra taxes off, but I guess they ignored that part of the T1).

    Ah…good times….