Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
I don't know what the conspiracy here is, but CRA already has all this information. It's entirely ludicrous for ~90% of people to have to fill out papers, and confirm what the CRA already has on file. I have no doubt that Intuit and H&R Block love it, because it's their business. I don't know if that's a conspiracy, but it's just plain bureaucracy that we could do without.
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The "conspiracy" is that the average schmoe filing through H&R Block or a paid program is a corporate ploy with government to screw the people. Which is BS. Paying someone to autofill for you and then complaining about their fee is dumb. It's like asking a plumber to show up and fix something, then complaining about their service call fee and hourly rate because you can do it cheaper via DIY but didn't feel like it.
Canada is going to need tax reform IMO. But it would be a huge and painful overhaul to hit a certain level. Canada's tax system is based on self reporting and it is integrated with a lot of other stuff that gives deductions, credits, grind downs etc., which is a portion of the reason this is as complicated as it is. Many other countries do not have this on personal tax returns. They are a separate thing.
I looked at many different European tax jurisdictions and read their tax returns over the last few years for a previous work project. I was jealous as hell at how the simple tax returns were so easy. Basically, "Click to confirm, receive a refund due to higher withholdings". However, they often don't have things like donation/medical/accounting fee deductions. There's no extra tax credits for working, dependents, low income, home buyers plans, support payments, moving expenses etc.
Canada currently does not collect enough data to do this and has too many other things tacked on to make it work in a simplified manner at this point in time. The CRA apparently has a heck of a time convincing people to set up MyCRA and in some instances auto deposit. I don't like the government forcing things upon citizens, but I think something like this to access easy tax filings for easy returns is an absolute requirement if people want things like this.
The conflict is honestly on par with not wanting to be tracked online and wandering around with a damn cell phone.