I did my income taxes last week.
At first, I was going to use the simplified form. That’s the one that says, “How much money did you make last year?”
And then says, “Send it to us.”
I decided I was willing to do a bit more work if it meant I got to keep some of my money, so I went a little deeper.
I actually had to do it three times. The first time I did it, my figuring showed that I owed about $52 million in taxes, which seemed a little high, especially based on my income last year.
So I backed up and started working through it again. This time I found I was getting a refund of about $6.7 million.
I was happier with this result, but something still seemed a bit off, so I tried again.
This game I got a reasonable figure, so I went with that.
One thing I have found in the past is even if you miss a deduction or two, the people at the Canada Revenue Agency are very good at picking it up.
I don’t think I’ve ever had to pay more than I had calculated, but a lot of times I end up with a somewhat larger refund because of the extra deductions.
I keep my documents from year to year, and when I do my taxes each year, I go back over the previous year and see if any of the deductions I missed before are still applicable to this year’s taxes.
Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t.
For instance, the year I purchased a 1937 Mercedes-Benz, I hadn’t realized I could deduct the depreciation the following year. The year after that, I sold it again, so that deduction was gone. (Note to the CRA: This is an entirely imaginary example. I did not forget to report my Mercedes-Benz on previous tax returns. It never existed.)
My taxes have usually been quite straightforward, but that may change a bit in the coming years.
This year, I hit that magic number for a lot of things financially-oriented.
Yes, I turn 65.
I don’t anticipate making any major changes, but if you notice my weekly column appearing in ALL CAPS, you’ll know my eyes have gone a bit bad.