Rectifying tax woes not complicated

Re: Revenue agency mess disrespects taxpayers, Nov. 27 edition

As a former Revenue Canada employee I couldn’t resist the temptation to respond to the Point of View column regarding “Revenue Agency mess disrespects taxpayers”.

The reason so much money is devoted to audit is because that is where many taxpayers, generally business owners and the self-employed, try to avoid paying their fair share of income tax by under-reporting their earnings, particular cash transactions. It is very difficult for a wage earner or investor to cheat on his/her tax return because the employer and financial institutions are required to file information slips under their SIN.

There is a big difference between not reporting all of your income and simply making a mistake on your return. If, after filing your tax return, you find you made an error then you simply file an amended tax return to correct the error.

Tax evasion is a serious crime.

Why?

Because it puts a burden on the honest taxpayer who, as a wage earner or an investor, has no choice but to report all their income because the employer and/or financial institutions are required to report that income on information slips. Later in the year Revenue Canada runs a matching system to compare the Social Insurance Numbers from the information slips with the information reported on tax returns.

The problem is that the filing season is a short term temporary job, consequently to get a foot in the door one must be willing to work part-time and hope that a full-time position is advertised on the board before their temporary contract job is finished.

That is precisely what occurred that enabled me to eventually become a Revenue Canada employee. Since I was paying my fair share of income tax I had no problem in working to make sure that others paid their fair share as well. I spent many years working as a tax collector explaining how to ensure they have sufficient tax deducted at source or making sufficient instalments to resolve any future tax implications then making arrangements to resolve their past debt. Having more than one source of income and not sufficient tax deducted at source is one of the major reasons why people owe taxes. The best way to correct that problem is to have the employer deduct additional tax at source or make sufficient installment payments during the year.