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Jacklad
Mar 31st, 2006, 11:59 PM
Just checked the "My Account" site for this year's tax assessments for both my husband and myself.. The good news is that both returns have been received, assessed, and the refunds should show up by April 6th.

The better news is that my return is accurate to the penny (as customary). However, my husband's is not. Looking at the online return, they have somehow come up with an extra $2921.02 in income on line 101.

Now, we didn't Netfile this year, as my husband had a very strange T4 situation - he had six of them. Five of them were from the Department of National Defence, and included tax free income earned on deployment. The other was from his civilian employer. Long story short, it was ugly enough that I suspected it would generate a query, so we mailed instead.

So, my first thought was that somehow I had included a T4 in the envelope that I had neglected to enter into Quicktax (although that would be very odd for me). A look through our copies showed that was not the case. So then I began checking - I added the amounts manually, using a calculator and using Excel. All agreed with the amount in QuickTax and on the forms we submitted.

Then I checked other amounts - all were the same as we had submitted (tax deducted, CF amount, pension adjustment, rental income, EI, CPP, etc.) - so the only amount that differed was the earned income. All the differences between the return they are showing and the one we submitted are based solely on that difference, with no indication of where the difference originated. Now, it seems unlikely that a T4 would exist that only showed earned income with no deductions at all - let alone one that we had never received but Revenue Canada did.

Any ideas? I've never seen this sort of situation before (credit where credit is due - you may not like them, but Revenue Canada is generally accurate). Where could this amount have come from? Is there anything included on line 101 that doesn't come from a T4?

Jackie

kaycee8877
Apr 1st, 2006, 06:38 PM
i wouldnt worry .. wait till you get your notice of assesment and it will tell you where the difference originated from, my guess would be a t-4 that you never had was added on, and if thats the case the notice of assessment will tell you where it came from. The tax on an extra 2 grand and the interest is minimal so just wait and see. if when you get the assessment it doesnt explain the diff or if it doesnt make sense (ie it could be a keypunching or scanning error), then just call them up.

Jacklad
Apr 1st, 2006, 07:14 PM
i wouldnt worry .. wait till you get your notice of assesment and it will tell you where the difference originated from, my guess would be a t-4 that you never had was added on, and if thats the case the notice of assessment will tell you where it came from. The tax on an extra 2 grand and the interest is minimal so just wait and see. if when you get the assessment it doesnt explain the diff or if it doesnt make sense (ie it could be a keypunching or scanning error), then just call them up.

I thought it might be an unreceived T4 - but then it would have to be a T4 that only had income, no deductions (since all the other amounts agreed with our submitted numbers). Not at all likely - none of the T4s I've dealt with were "pure" income (wouldn't that be nice, though!).

And the difference in the size of the refund is $1500 - it's not the tax on the 3 grand itself, but the carry down effect of a higher income. Not a huge amount, but enough to get that new laptop I've been eying. :(

It's just not making sense - and I don't expect the paper version of the assessment will be any more forthcoming.

Jackie

kaycee8877
Apr 1st, 2006, 08:07 PM
ive actually seen a few small t4s that have no deductions, but the main point was that on the notice of assessment it will almost always it will tell you exactly what the difference is (ie "we have increased line 101 due to a T4 slip from ABC Co in the amount of .....") and if youre going to get that within a week or two just wait ... but i guess your anxious to get an answerso why not call them 1-800-959-8281 and ask the rep what makes up that line number .. which slips add up to it (although i dont know if for confidentiality reasons your hubby would have to make the call)

theyre phone lines are open 7 days a week now too, so try tomorrow morning

they usually dont make errors but i have seen a few keypunching errors slip through that ive had to correct

grant
Apr 3rd, 2006, 02:11 PM
Yes just hang tight until you get your notice of assessment.

It's a long shot, but taxable income can be increased by making RRSP withdrawls, or by failing to repay into your RRSP under the HBP.

Laptops will only get cheaper with time so it's worth waiting :D

krash322
Apr 3rd, 2006, 02:36 PM
Well, it's required by law to send out the T4s, it's highly unlikely that you did not receive something that CRA did. It may just be a typo by CRA that elevated your taxable income level. I wouldnt worry, it'll get fixed.

Jacklad
Apr 3rd, 2006, 06:17 PM
Well, it's required by law to send out the T4s, it's highly unlikely that you did not receive something that CRA did. It may just be a typo by CRA that elevated your taxable income level. I wouldnt worry, it'll get fixed.

Well, we talked with Revenue Canada today - total waste of time. The rep couldn't tell us where they got that number, could only access three of the six T4s from her terminal, and basically was zero help. (Oh, and this was after she claimed that none of the T4 amounts matched and then discovered she was looking at the 04 return - good help must be hard to find these days.)

So I mailed a copy of the T1 general, photocopies of the six T4s and a printout of the Assessment to Revenue Canada this afternoon - hopefully it will reach someone who can actually access the account properly.

What has me concerned is that we have just come through a period with the credit bureaus where a gentleman in Hamilton was crosslinked to my husband's credit report on an inaccurate SIN. We finally got it partly corrected, but my husband's address with the bureau is now showing as the Hamilton guy's... so we're more than a little concerned about unexplained income. If someone out there is working under my husband's SIN, we'd really like to know about it sooner rather than later, identity theft being the pain in the butt it is.

Well, identity theft and Revenue Canada, it seems.

Jackie

krash322
Apr 4th, 2006, 12:30 AM
Yeah I deal with CRA alot and they are a pain sometimes. It wouldnt surprise me that they are disorganized with your receipts. The worse is dealing with the Quebec government. It makes dealing with CRA feel like a walk in the park. :cheesygri