I am not happy.  I received an ‘amended’ T4 from work the other day for 2004.  When I punch the updates in, I discovered my return should have been $550 less than it was.  Thus, I need to have a re-assessment done. 

I found out that the paperwork isn’t so bad since you can apply for an ‘ePass’ at ccra.ca that allows you to view lots of your government goings-on including previous years income tax assessments.  A click brings you to a re-assesment area where you can punch in the corrections and they will calculate the new balances online and then mail you an official document. 

Of course, any overdue tax payment is subject to interest and penalties.  As of April 30th, I’ll be a year overdue on the payment.  This equates to about $40.  You can be sure that the company will be footing that bill considering it was their blunder and tardiness.   I wonder if I wait long enough to inflate the penalties…..I’d better not go there.

I initially considered not paying it at all and feigning ignorance.  But further research highlighted to me that the government doesn’t allow ignorance as an excuse.  They’ll ding you anyway.  So, I have to assume eventually the error would have been noticed and to avoid the possibility of an unwanted audit, it’s in my best interest to cough up the coin.

Why is it I live in Canada again?