A Prescription For More Tax Deductions

Every year I find all kinds of people who have been routinely missing out on some major medical expenses. I tell them about that and they say they never knew they could claim such things. Well, I've decided to tell all of you, so listen up.

When I mention claiming medical expenses I often hear, "but we don't ever have enough to claim." Of course, you have to have expenses over 3% of your income in expenses to be able to claim.  It's often best to let the lower income earner claim the family medical expenses for that reason. Then if you claim what you paid for health insurance, the rest is often gravy. What?  You didn't know you could claim your health insurance?  Sure you can. The thing is, in most instances, you have to ask your payroll clerk to give you the numbers for the amount you paid, separated from whatever life insurance may be connected to that payroll deduction. Only once has my hubby ever worked for an employer that had that figure right on the T4's where it belongs.  I told him to make sure he thanked the person responsible for that.  The rest of the time I get him to ask for the correct amount for me to fill in.  This year, when I had my son ask for his, he got some kind of argument about how that wasn't deductible. I told him to inform that clerk that obviously she had been missing out on her own deduction every year. Once she decided she didn't want to continue like that, she got them both the numbers to put on the forms.

The other medical deduction people seem unaware of is that they can claim their travel expenses to go to medical appointments that are more than 40km from home.  If I have to travel to one of the cities for a medical appointment, I just go to Mapquest and put in my address and the address of where I have to go, and it gives me a legitimate distance between the two places. I then multiply that by two, as it is, after all, a return trip. The total distance is then multiply it by the rate the government gives us each year. This year, for instance, in Ontario, it's 54 cents per kilometre. If your appointment is more than 80 kilometres you get a bonus. You can also claim a meal if you have to go that far. There is a flat rate of $17 per meal, to a maximum of $51 per day (sales tax included) per person.  Parking fees are also considered an expense (if you have a receipt), as is overnight accommodation if it's actually necessary for the treatment you are traveling for.

So, have you missed out on these deductions in the past?  Don't let it happen again. You have now been informed.

Need Help From Revenue Canada? Forget It!

Have you ever tried to reach Revenue Canada?  They provide a phone number for you to call if you have questions. The problem is they don't provide enough people to answer it, or sufficient lines to handle the incoming calls.

Recently they sent out a mailing saying that an additional amount was owed, but the reason why made no sense at all.  The phone call was made, to 1-800-959-8281 and made and made, more times than I can remember, but the line was always busy. Always.

I know tax season is a busy time of year, but last year I had another question that wasn't so urgent, so I waited until summer to contact them. Then, instead of a busy signal, the line just rang and rang. I tried at different times of day for several days and never did get anyone to answer that darn phone.

It's bad enough to be put on hold for extended periods of time, but it's far worse not to be able to connect at all. There is a definite flaw in this system, and I have not even found a way to let them know about it.

I looked online for an alternative way to reach these people. Believe me, even finding that is not easy. The Canadian Revenue Agency has every roadblock covered, so they can protect themselves from irate people who may try to interrupt their workday with their questions.  The phone number they give is useless.  Actually, the number is listed as being available from mid-Feb to April 30,  But when they send you the tax assessment papers, the same number is listed on those, and "available" is not a word I'd use

 Altenate ways, such as e-mail and call back services, are listed as having not enough interest to warrant their existence. How do they know that when the only people they ever hear from are the ones lucky enough to win the phone number lottery and actually get through to them.  There are a great number of people, like me, who simply cannot make contact with them at all. It's like they are saying, "Just shut up and pay me!"  In the end, that's basically what we did, but only because we know that they will add interest to the unexplained charge, much like adding an insult to injury.

This is not the first year this problem has existed, and I doubt it will be the last. For Revenue Canada, this system is working just fine. The complainers can't get through.

 

It Didn't Feel Like Time Out!

This is week 13 of the de-clutter project, but though I had a project in mind, and really must get at it, this apparently wasn't the week to do such things.

I've been busy doing everyone's income tax. I'm old fashioned enough to still want to mail the darn things in, as I feel I have to print them anyway. I find errors much easier on a printed copy. I just do.  The postage is about to take another leap upwards, so I wanted to get ours done in time to mail this weekend, before the increase. I wanted to get my oldest son's done and printed off for him to sign when I see him this weekend also. That just leaves another two to do.

Meanwhile the booklet for the karate club needed to be retyped.  I had been using the same software for 30 years, and the old files don't open on my new computer.  The old software won't load, and apparently they aren't making it anymore, so I can't even upgrade.  After a lot of trial and error, with a couple of programs,  trying many different fonts and sizes that still seemed to want to make what used to fit on one page spill over onto two, I finally found a way to make it work. I had to get that done this week as several people need various pages from that book by tonight, and I had promised they would have them. 

I had also taken on a one week art course for this week. Not great timing, but it was one I had been looking forward to, and this is when it was being offered. True, I could have done it on my own time, but it's always more fun to do something like this when others are involved in a class, so you can compare your work with what they are doing.

It was Carla Sonheim's Watercolor Transfer Painting class.  I got to paint on a surface I would never have thought of on my own, and then transferred the results onto watercolour paper afterwards.  I could just as easily have transferred it onto t-shirts, and I expect I'll try that one of these days. 

On day one we got to discover what watercolour, does when you apply it to transfer paper.

On day two we added water soluble markers, pastels, charcoal, ballpoint pen or any other media we had handy to the coloured papers we had created. That's more fun than it sounds like.  The dullest, most uninteresting piece from the day before became quite beautiful.

On day three, we learned how to iron them onto another surface, which quickly reminded me that things reverse when you do that.

Day four, we really got to work cutting up the papers into random shapes, and then rearranging them on our surface to create something interesting. You really need to let go of any preconceived notions during all this, and just let things happen.  When I was laying out some pieces thinking of combining some of them to make some silly kind of animal, I ended up with a Dancing Duo. 

Today we'll finish off the course by basically printing plates. That's a multi-layered transfer project that has a look of encaustics when it's done. First I have to figure out what I want to produce and then I have to create the various levels. Later I'll iron one after another onto a piece of watercolour paper and hope things line up. 

So, like Nelly, who is also on this de-cluttering journey,  I guess I've taken the week off from cleaning out cluttered spots. It certainly didn't feel like a week off here though.  I even got a little stressed out for a while yesterday. I'm still not quite over my latest flu, and I did  have to go for some unpleasant, but non-related medical tests earlier this week, so I'm sure that didn't help either. I finally stopped coughing long enough to actually wash the floors, at least. As I said, I do have a new de-clutter spot all picked out, and it's definitely time to get to it. I have another deadline looming, but it's a week and a half off yet, so hopefully I'll clean out that spot in time for next week's check in time.

Meanwhile, the only thing I've de-cluttered this week is the tax file and my cluttered mind.  A bit of fun now is good for all of us.


 

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