Thursday, December 6, 2007

Well, I just finished composing a cover letter to Canada Revenue Agency, outlining the changes that need to be done to our tax returns, and suggesting a rather simple requirement that would prevent problems like this from happening in the future. I concluded with the following request, which Amy (whose uncle works for CRA, not that that is sufficient to make her an authority) assured me wouldn't get me in trouble:

And finally, if you casually review my records, you will find that I am in regular correspondence with the Canada Revenue Agency – perhaps even disproportionately so for a graduate student with enough familiarity with statistics to know that this is so, and the honesty to report an incorrectly reported public transportation tax credit. I would like to unsubscribe from the CRA Biannual Reassessment Plan, because I no longer have the time and, frankly, my heart isn’t in it anymore. Besides, as I have been living within my means on a student’s income for the past several years, I am not even certain I qualify.

I still have to get Rebecca's signature on the T1 adjustment forms before I can mail everything, so if you disagree with Amy's assessment, please contact me ASAP.

2 comments:

effamy said...

I've had to deal with three requests for further information or documentation over the last few years for reassessment purposes (maybe it's a grad student thing?). i tend to not go the route you are going, which is smarmy. i prefer to overload them with documents, politeness that borders on obsequious, and long winded letters detailing my life in ways that go beyond what they ask for (Twice I also got other people to write letters attesting to all the things I said). it can be time consuming but it tends to divert my anger (my taxes are pretty straightforward, no savings, not a ton of income, why bother me?) into something more like amusement. i'll be anxious to hear how your approach works. mine just means that have to pay a lt of postage to send all my stuff back to me with a rubber stamp.

Chris said...

I find composing replies like the one I wrote somewhat entertaining. Plus, it makes good blog fodder. So I guess we each have our own ways of making light of this rather annoying task.