Random Thoughts Sechs: Eeeeehhhh...

[Arwon]

Filling my income tax return took literally 2 minutes this year, the auto-fill function is getting better and better

 

[Manfred Belheim]

That's 2 more minutes than I've ever spent on it in my entire life

 

[Valka D'Ur]

CRA keeps sending me letters telling me I can do it over the phone (since my basic information never changes from year to year and the rest is thankfully uncomplicated). But CRA's online security is crap, and I'm not about to trust this to a phone call (since they think filing any way other than snailmail means they don't have to use snailmail to communicate with you; they'd probably try to text me my assessment or some other stupid thing when I have a landline that isn't internet-connected at all).

 

[Snerk]

I still don't know what filling out tax returns involves as a general concept. I don't see why any state would want to involve the tax payers in any hands on stuff when deducting tax from them.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I still don't know what filling out tax returns involves as a general concept. I don't see why any state would want to involve the tax payers in any hands on stuff when deducting tax from them.

In Canada, even if you don't make enough to pay anything, it's still a smart idea to file a return. We have GST here (Goods & Services Tax) and people below certain income levels qualify for quarterly credits, depending on marital status and how many children they have.

And before the UCP/provincial Reformacons got into power in Alberta, it also meant carbon tax rebates (which the current government canceled).

 

[Arwon]

I still don't know what filling out tax returns involves as a general concept. I don't see why any state would want to involve the tax payers in any hands on stuff when deducting tax from them.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here.

Here's how it works for me: I log in to the government's terrible "my gov" website after recovering my password because I haven't used it for a year. I check the auto filled data sources from the Tax Office (usually income and pay withheld are already in there along with private health insurance details, interest earned and my bank details). I add in any extra income, I enter my taxable income reductions deductions for charity donations, union fees and work expenses, then submit.

A couple weeks later if there's a refund of excess tax withheld (there always has been for me, it's quite large this year), it appears in the nominated bank account.

 

[Snerk]

Here's how it works for me: I log in to the government's terrible "my gov" website after recovering my password because I haven't used it for a year. I check the auto filled data sources from the Tax Office (usually income and pay withheld are already in there along with private health insurance details, interest earned and my bank details). I add in any extra income, I enter my taxable income reductions deductions for charity donations, union fees and work expenses, then submit.

A couple weeks later if there's a refund of excess tax withheld (there always has been for me, it's quite large this year), it appears in the nominated bank account.

Pretty much the same for me.

My previous post was indeed a bit rash but it seems to me that some countries makes this a lot more tedious than it needs to be.

 

[Arwon]

My guess: The United States has lunatic tax laws and I believe it's basically illegal for the government tax agency there to make them easy or automatic to fill out because then accountants would lose work. The US is very influential media wise, so OMG TAXES SO COMPLEX gets into the culture.

 

[Lexicus]

The United States has lunatic tax laws and O believe it's basically illegal for the government tax agency there to make them easy or automatic to fill out

Yep thanks to the "tax preparation industry" which has blocked every attempt by the IRS to do this.

 

[rah]

Actually Trump's reforms made it easier for many people since it reduced the number of people that itemize. This was the first year we didn't have to itemize since when I was in my 20's. (this however, does not change my opinion about the value of the results)

 

[Takhisis]

Yep thanks to the "tax preparation industry" which has blocked every attempt by the IRS to do this.

Good sir, would you kindly allow me to derive the following generic statement from yours?
‘thanks to the “insert industry” which has blocked every attempt by the “insert government entity” to do this’
^This is triggered by a documentary on the lack of prison reform in the US, but I feel that it can be applied more widely.

 

[Snerk]

So I'm going to try to kick nicotine again.

 

[Ajidica]

Good sir, would you kindly allow me to derive the following generic statement from yours?
‘thanks to the “insert industry” which has blocked every attempt by the “insert government entity” to do this’
^This is triggered by a documentary on the lack of prison reform in the US, but I feel that it can be applied more widely.

Don't forget the corollary:
'The government did [insert bad thing] due to the lobbying efforts of [insert industry].'

 

[rah]

So I'm going to try to kick nicotine again.

If you can get chantix go for it. I tried many times over 40 years and that was the only thing that worked (and the true desire to want to quit). Insurance covered the full cost.
And the side effects were only the weird dreams. Worth it to quit. I haven't had a cigarette in over 10 years and I was a two pack a day smoker.

 

[EgonSpengler]

So I'm going to try to kick nicotine again.

I did a taper. Took me about a year.

 

[cardgame]

If you can get chantix go for it. I tried many times over 40 years and that was the only thing that worked (and the true desire to want to quit). Insurance covered the full cost.
And the side effects were only the weird dreams. Worth it to quit. I haven't had a cigarette in over 10 years and I was a two pack a day smoker.

Isn't that also the drug that legitimately caused some people to commit suicide? Al Jazeera article

 

[rah]

Yeah, some people got depressed, but you take enough people that quit even not using chantix and a good number will get depressed.
So whether it was the drug or not really can't be determined. Since it probably saved my life, it was worth the risk.

 

[cardgame]

I didn't put a thorough effort into that article, as I don't smoke or personally know any smokers on Chantix, but it seems like they controlled it against similar drugs (or all RX drugs in general) and Chantix stood as a very high outlier, 4x the norm. Oh, and one of my stepdad's friends committed suicide while on Chantix.

 

[Takhisis]

So I'm going to try to kick nicotine again.

Ganbaru, Suneruku-san!

Don't forget the corollary:
'The government did [insert bad thing] due to the lobbying efforts of [insert industry].'

I was about to say that evangelicals are not an industry and then I realised what I was about to type.

 

[Snerk]

If you can get chantix go for it. I tried many times over 40 years and that was the only thing that worked (and the true desire to want to quit). Insurance covered the full cost.
And the side effects were only the weird dreams. Worth it to quit. I haven't had a cigarette in over 10 years and I was a two pack a day smoker.

Thanks. Not a cigarette smoker though, at least not for many years now. Snus and vape is my poison. Although lately I've (mostly) been doing well in replacing even those with other nicotine products from the pharmacy. They're less satisfactory but they do scratch the itch. Now I'd like to give that the axe as well. But it's hard.