I believe that it was while I was up overnight working on a few things here at my computer that I had it dawn upon me that it was likely around this time last year that I was filling out the annual tax returns for my wife and I. So I checked, and sure enough, it was March 8 (2020) that I dropped them off at the nearest Tax Services Office.
I don't believe that convenience is possible any longer, however. The office nearest me is barely over a mile away, so it truly was convenient. But now, these places are almost empty of personnel due to the COVID-19 casedemic / scamdemic / plandemic.
Heck, even last year, the option to drop off one's tax return was removed during the Spring when all of the drop-off boxes were hauled away. I had been fortunate to have dropped off ours when I did. My younger brother and youngest stepson were not as fortunate.
Yet the damned envelopes that come with these tax returns require the purchase and application of postage by the taxpayer ─ where is the equity in that? We by law have to file, but the stinking government makes us pay postage for that obligation?
Well, I may have been able to fill out our tax returns and deliver them by March 8 last year, but there is apparently one further tax-purposes receipt that I am lacking ─ the one from Postmedia for my weekend subscriptions to both the Vancouver Sun and The Province.
There is now something called a Digital News Subscription Tax Credit, a benefit granted to subscribers of qualifying media, and those two newspapers qualify.
However, I am somewhat confused, for this is what the Vancouver Sun says on their website ─ and note that I subscribe to a physical newspaper solely for the benefit of my younger brother who routinely spends each Saturday and Sunday morning reading the applicable newspaper while enjoying his morning coffees (he is computer ignorant and cannot use one to access an online or digital newspaper subscription):
The Canadian government introduced the Digital News Subscription Tax Credit that Vancouver Sun subscribers can claim on their personal income tax and benefit return from the years 2020 to 2024.
Only digital subscriptions are eligible for the tax credit, however, if you have a print newspaper subscription, you can also claim the credit using the qualifying standalone digital subscription rate of $14.00 + 5% per month.
DIGITAL-ONLY SUBSCRIBERS (No Newspaper Delivery)
You can claim the total amount paid for your Vancouver Sun digital subscription during the year 2020.
PRINT NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIBERS
Your subscription includes digital access, and you can claim the cost of a Vancouver Sun standalone digital subscription for each month you received the newspaper.
Maximum qualifying amount per monthly subscription payment: $14.00 + 5% per month
ALL TAX CREDIT RECEIPTS WILL BE EMAILED TO YOU BETWEEN MARCH 8 – 19, 2021.
As you can read where print newspaper subscribers are concerned: "Your subscription includes digital access, and you can claim the cost of a Vancouver Sun standalone digital subscription for each month you received the newspaper."
It sounds straightforward, right? Now take a look at this specific Q & A:
Q: Does my print subscription qualify for a tax credit?
A: The tax credit only applies to a digital subscription. However, you are eligible to claim the standalone maximum qualifying amount of a digital subscription valued at $14.00 + 5% tax per month.
So what the heck does that mean? My monthly Saturdays-only subscription rate for the Vancouver Sun is presently $21.61, while my Sundays-only monthly subscription rate for The Province is $18.90.
In other words, even by just receiving one of each newspaper a week, my subscription rate for either of them definitely exceeds "$14.00 + 5% tax per month". Do they mean, then, that if I had been paying a full monthly subscription rate for daily delivery of either newspaper ─ which must be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $100 or even more a month ─ I would only be allowed to claim "$14.00 + 5% tax per month" as my tax credit?
And if so, then does it mean that since I only subscribe for one of each of the newspapers a week, my claim is going to be fractionally reduced by some proration calculation of that "maximum qualifying amount" for each of the two subscriptions?
If that's how it works, then including that 5% tax, I might be lucky to be able to claim $2.50 per newspaper a month.
But I reckon it's better than absolutely nothing. I'll just have to see what my receipt says, and then go ahead and fill out our tax returns ─ it's the only way I will be able to tell if it has any true worth as a credit. All I can do is hope that my subscription account is not neglected to the point that I get overlooked and do not get sent a subscription receipt.
Unfortunately, I will be considerably later filing our tax returns than I am happy about. And due to my very poor eyes, it takes me a couple of days to get them done because I first fill out the draft copies, and then I carefully fill out the final copies while remaking all of the calculations.
I may finally look into filing electronically if it is possible to do it for free. Nevertheless, I would prefer filing by paper because as soon as a person files electronically, that ends the annual mail-out of a paper tax return to that taxpayer. And I have every one of my tax returns all the way back to (I think) 1973.
As I have already mentioned, I was once again up most of the overnight. My brother had shown up last evening at 8:17 p.m. from wherever he had been drinking, forcing me to cancel out of the T.V. show I was watching and retreat upstairs here to my computer to avoid having him obligate me into operating our Android TV Box for the evening (it's not just computers he's unable to operate).
I probably remained up for an hour or more before seeking my latter evening napping session to restore myself for the hours overnight, and to give my brother time to finally go to bed so I would have the peace and privacy I require.
When he did oblige just ahead of midnight, I rose and dressed, and then came here to get to work. Both of my stepsons were still up at the time.
I now cannot remember when it was that I returned to bed, but perhaps it was around 4:30 a.m.
Although later I was quite awake by 8 a.m. or so, I remained in bed occasionally dozing for at least another hour before rising and again coming to my computer and then finally going downstairs just ahead of 10 a.m. My brother had been up that while watching T.V., and it was my intention to join him and put our Android TV Box into action ─ with a difference. This time, I planned for us to watch nothing but videos that I had previously downloaded into a USB flash drive, for I want to start freeing up the two main ones that I use and which are now both full.
We were to only watch a couple of videos related to the COVID-19 casedemic / scamdemic / plandemic, and another video demonstrating deep tissue physiotherapy by a U.K. outfit calling itself Next Stage Injury Therapy (that's its YouTube account).
This is the third of the physiotherapy videos my brother and I have watched, and I plan to keep recording some for us. I just wish I could afford to have myself assessed by someone like that tattooed guy ─ he sure does know his stuff! I would seek his treatment if he felt that I could benefit.
Anyway, the final video we watched was the first in a series called Engineering an Empire. I had mistakenly recorded the third episode that featured ancient Greece, and we had watched that, so now I am making amends and trying to find the proper sequence of videos.
If you refer to that Wikipedia article, you will see that the episodes are approximately 44 minutes in duration, so that was what I was expecting. Well, it was not ─ it ran for around 1½ hours, and that exhausted our 'togetherness' T.V. viewing for today. It was around 12:45 p.m., and my brother was set for his return to his bedroom to rest up before he headed away this afternoon to resume his daily drinking somewhere.
I later had a nap, but not until he had left, by which time my eldest stepson was finally up from bed. I think his younger brother had to go to work this morning, for he was not here when I rose.
The day has been partially sunny, and quite mild. I had a partial backyard toolshed exercise session and then a breakfast before that nap I spoke of, but I still have some further indoor exercise I want to get out of the way. And then I guess I will bite the bullet and make a phone call to a relative nuisance who is my sole means of learning anything about a very old friend of mine who has been in a full-time care facility over on Vancouver Island.
I have not seen Bill in over two decades, but his ladyfriend Sandy W. does occasionally get the staff to allow her to have videochats with him ─ Sandy lives in Vancouver.
Bill has always been something of a hypochondriac, although he usually did have a considerable number of genuine afflictions over the years. So how it is that he remains alive with his 74th birthday imminent in earliest April just defies my understanding.
As for Sandy, she has always been single and doesn't even have a pet. And although she has a T.V., she doesn't have a computer. She pretty much lives for her cellphone. Consequently, with all of the time on her hands that she has, she becomes most bothersome always seeking to get in touch with me.
This is the same woman I have previously mentioned who told me that one fellow she knows has twice slapped a restraining order on her because she will just not let up and will keep hounding someone for contact.
I do not dare respond to her texts, let alone a phone call. I just don't have the time ─ unlike her. Yes, it's unfortunate that this is her state, but I cannot live her life for her, nor sacrifice mine to keep her entertained.
But I haven't spoken with the woman in maybe two months, so I feel obligated to forsake any early T.V. and give her that callback.
Thus, I take my leave for today from my blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment