This is the time of year when people start doing their taxes. Like the time leading up to Christmas, we hear about those strange go-getters who are already finished and we shake our heads in wonder.
For those, like me, who make a show of doing their taxes without really doing them yet, I like to call that the Income Tax Act.
Meanwhile, the Canada Revenue Agency has a nifty website that helps you figure out everything you need to know for filing and planning for taxes. Everything, that is, except a sort of crucial piece of legislation that is actually called “The Income Tax Act”. How are savvy accountants supposed to find loopholes in the legal language without easy access to the words themselves? Amusingly, if you do a search for Income Tax Act on the CRA site, the only link to the Act takes you to the Justice Department.
There, a devious little message says that “The Income Tax Act is currently not included on this website.”
It is a cunning use of smoke and mirrors. In my dreams, I pound on the table and shout: “What have they got to hide, people? Surely we cannot sit idly by while political cronies line their wallets and the military-industrial complex robs us blind!” In reality, I just start rifling through my office to gather up all the paperwork I’ll need to file my taxes by the deadline.