Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Taxes!

I think I am done! Six hours of going through mail, sorting and entering. I have taxes deducted from my main pension cheque but not from my two Government cheques. Norma has no taxes deducted from any of her cheques. This means we always have to write a cheque at tax time, it is only the amount that is in question. We had a lot of medical expenses last year with Norma's dental specialist in Victoria. The government is quite generous in allowing travel and meal allowances for these trips. $51 per day for meals and $.52 per kilometer for driving your own car. With five return trips to Victoria in the year this adds up.

I finally got everything entered and discovered we owed $1,100 between us. Not bad, could be worse. I then did the tax program's built-in review and it suggested splitting our income. Why not? After doing this change, we owed only $450 between us! Very manageable!

I will leave it in the computer for a day or two and then send it in. This is a big worry off my mind!

8 comments:

  1. Just curious... do you have to pay estimated taxes throughout the year? We have kind of the same situation (taxes from some stuff... not from others) and it seems every other year we have to pay Uncle Sam quarterly because, of course, he wants his first.

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  2. No we do not. When my wife was self employed for a few years they wanted us to pay quarterly on our (their) estimated taxes but her income was so unpredictable, we refused and they accepted that, or rather they never pursued it. They have not bothered us since. I hope they are not reading this...

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  3. And to think you could transferred them $500 a month ago and still been in Mexico!

    Oh well, now you know for next year.

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  4. Welcome home Norma and Croft.
    Will stop in to see in the near future.
    Take care Norma
    Gabriella

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  5. Cute that filing individually saved you so much. It's nice that the program suggested it!

    Glad you made it home safely. Now try to relax for a few days before starting your next project.

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  6. Don, what Canada calls "splitting income" is similar to what the USA calls "filing jointly" It allows us to add up all our income and then move some from the higher earner to the lower earner, allowing a lower average tax rate.

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  7. Hey Croft, we've been income splitting for 2 or 3 years (since the lousy government cam out with it), our accountant says "you two are the perfect example"!!!! I just can't make too much money and living in Whistler that's not hard, so much for the Uni education, but it's great to get a 4 figure return. Can't say enough about having an accountant versus me. Kelly

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  8. Always feels good to get that out of the way - even when a payout is required (I guess).

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