Vent or rant.
It feels like 'everything' in the tax system here is more complicated than it needs to be.
Examples:
Lending Loop. They put SOME of the interest on loans on a T5 slip, but not all of it. Why?! (I have an idea why, but it is a case of probably simpler for them but more complex for their customers).
Brokerages don't have to track ACB. I get it - you might have accounts with different brokerages - but put a simple disclaimer and calculate the correct number for the stuff they DO have for you? Or even better, send that info to the CRA and have THEM store the ACB across any and all brokerage accounts!
Parental EI - there is a new pilot that uses a different calculation to work out how much you are allowed to earn a week before it gets deducted from your EI. But it isn't done automatically/to your advantage - you have to call in. Basically once your mat leave is over, "Hi, I'd like some more money please!" "Ok, let me check... all right, here's another thousand dollars". Apparently we're late calling in (should be within 30 days of claim end). So now.. they'll do a 'ruling' to see if we can be granted a 'late asking' exception; and if they say yes, then another month before we get the money. Ok.
Informal trust accounts - the T3 slips come in the trustee's name, with the trustee's SIN. Um. So I'm going to have to argue with the CRA (or just get reassessed) every year? Why not just have a simple system where the child's name and SIN is there on the slip?
T1135! You already have to report foreign income, but you have to - EVERY YEAR - declare the value of foreign property you own, if the total is over $100k. Bank accounts, stocks, the lot. I already pay tax on this stuff - what does it matter if I have $50 in a bank account? The penalties for not filling this damn thing in are ridiculous. Over $250k it gets worse in terms of the info you have to provide. This is nothing to do with taxation - it is just an asset declaration, really.
Why are there so many exclusions and work-arounds? So many - as they call them - boutique credits and deductions?
My return - the PDF I saved from the tax software - was ~40 pages.
Why is so much of the onus on the taxpayer to verify everything, when the financial institutions and companies generally should do it?
Here's what happens in the UK, where the only tax returns I filed were actually after I'd ceased to be resident: Normal employees file nothing. You get a form at the end of the tax year telling you a breakdown and what your tax code will be the next year. Your tax code tells your employer how much tax free allowance you have. If you have underpaid tax by a small amount in one year, they will just adjust your tax code for the following year. Banks - savings accounts - just deduct income tax at source. And because there are basically two tax brackets, you either get one percentage or the other deducted.
I will admit that my situation here is very different than it was in the UK. But, were I still in the UK I'd be moving all my money into an ISA (like a TFSA), using the capital gains and dividend allowances (ie, don't even need to tell the government if you get small amounts - "small"), and generally NOT spending any time on my tax return. I doubt I'd have to file one.
I also understand that there are 10 provinces and 3 territories all with different rates, compounded by the federal stuff (and of course... Quebec). But that is the excuse.
Do one of two things: Make the federal government collect all tax - so there is no provincial return - and just split back out whatever goes to the province. Or vice versa - get the province to collect all tax and send whatever to the feds. But in doing this, drastically simplify the process for taxpayers. I never want to see a T5. I want an approximate amount of tax withheld, and just to be dealt with by a 'tax code' or refund at the end of the tax year. There should be two or three tax brackets in each province, from there you should be able to approximate tax based on the previous year's circumstance (and obviously have a mechanism to say, hey, that capital gain was a one off, or whatever - just getting a new job should trigger this calculation because the employer will tell the government your new amount of pay). I should be telling the government one thing: Foreign income, net of foreign tax paid. Everything else they should get the info directly and deal with it directly; not they send me (and the CRA) a slip, then I have to tell the CRA about the slip and all the other slips.
The provinces/territories and feds should have synchronised tax brackets. The rate can be different between provinces, but the brackets themselves should be the same (to allow all the simple stuff).
In short: Simplify everything. Making 20+ million people have to learn (or, more likely, misfile or pay someone too much to do this stuff for them) this system is crazy.
The CRA (call centre people) don't know. They even say not to take advice given by call centre agents as gospel. On asking companies about why forms are done in such a way or why interest is not on a slip, I get told - talk to a tax professional.
For god's sake! I shouldn't need to.
I want to smash my head into my keyboard, honestly. Some of this is my own doing - I seem to have done every thing that causes complications
Thankfully my return should be much simpler next year.