Thieves!

[Garth Vader]

If you make RRSP contributions that can make a big difference too.

[Mercator]

They did it on purpose, obviously, so they could rake in some extra interest.

[Provost Harrison]

I think they owe me some money too

[Ben Kenobi]

Yeah, that was the first reaction to my deductions, since I've always asked to not have them paid.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
Isn't that more a problem with your accounts department rather than the government?

No, the government has a standarx "if you make this much then you pay this much" chart but their chart doesn't take into account the deductions which most Americans use to lower their tax bills. Thus the government ends up collecting lots of extra money which it uses as interest free loans for a year before giving it back to you. By fiddling with the numbers you declare on your W-9 form you can lower the amount of taxes you prepay so you end up recieve less back or ideally nothing back. You can put any number on the W-9 form since it only is used by your employer but you'd better put the right number on your IRS forms when you file in April or else you'll be in hot water when you get caught.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Re: Thieves!

Originally posted by Asher
The government stole $2,603.27 of my money last year, and I'm just now getting it back.

Here's a weird question -- when somebody is on a salary, how come they just can't deduct the proper amount of taxes per paycheque, rather than taking too much?

I don't know what interest rates are like in Canada, but in the US they're <2% on savings accounts. So if you had done all the calculations deducted the money paycheck-by-paycheck, you would have an extra ~$25-50 in your pocket.

Me? I'd gladly pay the government the extra fee to save me the hassle of doing the calculations. But then, I was born and bred in Blue states.

[Hot Mustard]

Happens every year - get used to it.

Tuition amounts causing disparity will slowly morph into RRSP contributions, Business use-of-home expenses, Dividend tax credits...

With a little bit of (mostly) one time effort, it is easy to create a spreadsheet system that predicts and calculates your end-of-year tax difference.

Set it up each year with the next year's rates, limits and personal amounts, and then feed it the figures from each pay stub and watch it figure out where you'll be.

[Spaced Cowboy]

FYI - In the US, if you get more than $5k back, you are in a world of ****....Uncle Sam does not take too kindly to that type of operation, else everyone would go for the pay at the end of the year thing. There is some kind of fine involved.