Canadian Tax returns for 2010

After having to get the UK tax returns done by Jan 31st, 2011, Dave having to endure weeks of never ending nagging from me, we find ourselves having to go through the same exercise here. We had until the end of April though. We both had to file in a tax return, irrespective of my unemployed status.

We decided to declare everything, well, we had to, global earnings from Jan 2010- Dec 2010. We were told that we would not be liable for any tax for the earnings that were earned whilst we were still not resident here.  The tax specialist at one of the departmental stores...( temporary offices are set up in various dept stores to help people complete their tax returns for a fee) tapped in all the numbers and told us we owed $11,200...... arghhhhhh. I kinda lost my cool and said, we were told we had to declare the earnings, but would not be taxed it as we were not in Canada at the time of earning the said sum.... ok ok said the lady helping us, after making a call to ask for some advice, she proceeded to remove all foreign earnings. She then said,  now, we owe YOU money.... hmmmmmm, I said, feeling confused and slightly guilty..... how much, I asked? She said, oh $Xk. What? Shock evident in my facial expression. You sure, I said?  Yes, she said, pointing to a printout and breakdown of the calculations, yes, that is correct, see you get this and this as personal allowance, then this for the children, this for your wife's allowance as she didn't earn anything, then this for sports fees for your son, this for your pension contributions, this and this and this, and your total is this, you paid this much already in taxes, so you are now owed this! Wow, I said. She said, this is Canada..... ahhhh, I said, I now understand why so many people want to come and live here. First you get taxed, then they give it all back!

We will also receive a child care tax credit for the kids from July of this year til June next year, based on our earnings last year, it's quite a decent amount, it may mean I may be able to stay at home a while longer..  We are going to put the money away for the kids tertiary education I think, and not spend any of it, just in case they got it wrong and demand it back!

I am sure the tax return for the current year will be very different, as we would have figures for the whole year as opposed to the last quarter of the year, which is what we have just filed for 2010. Oh well, this must be the silver lining on the cloud.....

Better add a little p.s..... incase anyone thinks we have money, LOL, we don't! The refund barely covers the real cost of our move over.... so, we are back to square 1, but only just.