Hi there! Welcome to my part of the web! If you’ve come across this blog, it’s most likely because you have piles of receipts and you’re getting a bit panicky about an upcoming deadline or just trying to get a better grip on your finances. Well, my name is Max. I’m an online content producer, a regular citizen from the city of Toronto, and the one who got the headaches every spring while tax season came up. And before I’ll say anything else, I need to clarify this point first: I am NOT a CPA, I’m NOT a chartered accountant, I am NOT a financial planner, and I absolutely don’t work for the government! If you want to get professional advice, then you’d better shut this tab down and call a professional!
But if you are an ordinary Canadian citizen who wants to know how to handle your personal papers, you have found the right place. I created this blog, TaxCases.ca, as a personal diary of my journey in gaining knowledge. Through experience, I have learned that to be knowledgeable about income tax Canada does not necessarily mean to have a bachelor’s degree in finance. It is all about having patience, being organized, and learning from real-world situations. This blog was designed in such a way that we could discuss all these issues without using complicated language.
To this day, I recall how frightening it was when I sat down to file taxes Canada on my own for the first time. I was sitting at my dining room table, staring down three different T4s from my multiple part-time gigs, some transit slips, and fifteen different tabs on my computer all open to various guides I was consulting. I was afraid of pressing the wrong button and getting audited or something like that. Every website I had seen back then explained the process using confusing legal terminology or wanted me to purchase some software. There was nothing in between—it was either one way or the other.
And that was when I came to the conclusion that I should start writing about my personal scenarios. To me, a personal scenario is not some complicated trial process. It’s a particular situation we may encounter in our lives one day or another. Such as “The Scenario of Lost Receipts”, “The Scenario of the Rookie Freelancer” and “The Scenario of Deducting Moving Costs”. Having categorized my taxes into practical scenarios helped me to get over my fear of preparing my Canada tax return. And it is exactly what I am going to share with you on this website.
One of the very first things I had to overcome when embarking on the DIY path for my taxes was setting up my CRA My Account account. If you have not done this yet, I would strongly advise that you do this immediately, as it is something that should be your number one priority. While there are certainly some old school methods in use, such as the CRA login which involved waiting for a security code to come in the mail, once that code finally came through everything got much easier.
I am able to view my previous notices of assessment, find my RRSP deduction amounts, and know exactly what type of tax slips my employers have filed for me using this online portal. Every time I log in to the CRA website, it is similar to checking my personal financial dashboard. In my writings, I share my personal experience with using this online portal, how I maintain all the security questions to prevent being locked out, and how I use the technology that has been made available by the government.
Filing your Canadian tax return does not need to be an anxiety-inducing task that spoils your entire weekend. As a result of experience, I have created a process that makes my tax filings quite calming for me. I call it the “scenario based approach.” Rather than treating my tax filing as one big monster, I split my tax return into various scenarios. The first scenario is that of my employment – was I employed with a traditional T4 form? The second is the scenario of my investments – do I have any T5 forms issued for my interest-earning accounts? Finally, I file my deduction scenarios – did I make charitable donations or home office deductions?
This allows me to do one small task at a time over the course of several nights instead of stressing about it all at once on the night of April 30th. In this homepage, and throughout my blog, you will see my personal diaries as to how I deal with these individual cases, which programs I have personally used that are free, and how I organize my documents online throughout the year so that I am not stressed out during springtime. It is my goal to give you an insight into how a real person deals with this stuff.
No need to sugar coat this fact: the most thrilling thing about this whole process is the chance of getting tax refunds Canada. Nothing beats that feeling of seeing that direct deposit into your account after weeks of waiting. But one of the most crucial lessons I have learned on this DIY adventure is that having a large refund does not really mean that I am receiving “free money” from the government. I am just being refunded my own money which I overpaid all year round. While I do make sure that I maximize all the possible deductions to make sure that I am not missing out on any cash, at the same time, I know the value of getting that zero-dollar refund.
With that being said, however, if I know I will be getting a refund back, I love utilizing the website to see where it is at. I have written about my own experiences regarding following up on the refund, and even changing my tax form at work in order to retain some extra cash in each of my bi-weekly pay stubs. Feel free to take a look into my personal stories and learn from my notes on tax forms. Welcome to TaxCases.ca!