Seeking Tax Advice

[40 yr. old SWM]

Ok.
Since I can't seem to get banned here, Which is a nice problem to have I suppose...I may as well make use of this place.

Here's mein question.
Believe it or not, I actually haven't done my Income Tax in TEN TEARS.
No joke. 10 years.
I don't make very much money, $15.00 p/h currently & I just made it to this level
a few months ago.
I haven't received a GST cheque in years, so I know they're withholding that from me.
I want to FINALLY get all my back taxes settled up, as I think they actually owe me. If not, pretty close to breaking even.
My question then, is this:

Is it a simple matter of walking into the Revenue Canada office & sitting down with someone & straightening out this mess?  I don't have most of my T-4's, but a friend told me that Revenue Canada will have all my T-4's there.
-OR-
Do I HAVE to pay some Tax Lawyer to do it for me?
I really don't want to go this route, as I fear getting monetarily raped.

Can anybody steer me in the right direction?
 - Thanking you in advance.

[NSgirl]

phone H & R block and ask them.They do peoples taxes and should know the answer.
Or just phone revenue cananda and ask how you go about it,I am sure you are not the first person to not do their taxes!  Hopefully you don't owe them anything or they WILL ding you all the interest. if they owe you on the other hand you will of lost all the interst on the money you could have made, they do not pay you any interest on your money.

[40 yr. old SWM]

Thanx.
I'll try both.
- Cheers!

[Nat]

I had a similar problem with a GST account that my partner hadn't done the returns on.  I simply walked in an got all the help I needed at the CRA office.  If you had the T4s I'd simply do the tax returns or if you have the T4's for some years do those then phone in about the missing T4s for the other years.  They are much more helpful if you go to them rather then if they decide to chase you for failing to file.  Anyways heres the site for all the returns for the last 10 years:  http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/formspubs/t1gnrl/llyrs-eng.html

[thursday]

lets hope you dont owe anything. they are bastards about that sort of stuff.

if they owe you, no problems.

[Nat]

It's still better to go to them if you owe then to have them come to you.
If they come to you they can be nasty.

[Mandy]

Don't go to HnR block. That is the most over paid company for what they do. You're better off with liberty tax or just do it yourself. You can request ROE's from all your previous employers and they should also have your T4 in your employment file. It will be easier getting it from each place rather than revenue canada. Also you get a fine for each year you don't file.

Yeah Nat is right on all that though. Good luck.

[DDD]

Don't go to HnR block. That is the most over paid company for what they do. You're better off with liberty tax or just do it yourself. You can request ROE's from all your previous employers and they should also have your T4 in your employment file. It will be easier getting it from each place rather than revenue canada. Also you get a fine for each year you don't file.

Yeah Nat is right on all that though. Good luck.

Employers only have to keep stuff for 7 years and 2 years on time cards

[Nat]

There won't be any fines if you don't owe they money for the year.

[DDD]

There won't be any fines if you don't owe they money for the year.

yea if you don't owe not a real big deal then BUT if you do 

[Mandy]

No they have to keep it for ten years. If they get audited they get audited for 7 years. If there is a discrepency Revenue Canada can go back another three for 10 years max. I went through an audit last year.

[40 yr. old SWM]

Thank you everybody.
I just got off the phone mit Rev. Can & HOLY CRAP! they want you to jump through all kinds of hoops, while doing Handstands on water while eating a bag of chips!
It sounds like it's gonna take forever just to even get a copy of mein t-4's. And that's not even STARTING to tackle the issue of actually DOING the taxes.
At this point, I'd much rather have Liberty, or H&R do it for me, but I know THAT'S gonna cost me an arm & a leg.
Guess it's my fault for letting it get this bad.
Welcome to the Grownup world kiddo. It's called RESPONSIBILITY.

[Mandy]

LOL ok if you go to all your old employers they should still have it all. And Liberty tax is cheaper if you're going to go that route. I still think you should do it on your own. It doesn't sound like it's that complicated. Just a basic tax return for every year. I'm willing to offer you some help (free) if you can't do it on your own.

[DDD]

No they have to keep it for ten years. If they get audited they get audited for 7 years. If there is a discrepency Revenue Canada can go back another three for 10 years max. I went through an audit last year.

we have been told only 7 and thats all we keep...........

[Mandy]

Well you'd be in trouble if you were audited and they found any little amount owing. They only went back three years on us. But he said if we didn't have up to ten years back then they estimate what they think you might have owed.

[DDD]

Well you'd be in trouble if you were audited and they found any little amount owing. They only went back three years on us. But he said if we didn't have up to ten years back then they estimate what they think you might have owed.

We have been through all most every aduit you could think of in the last 7 years and they have never found any thing or said other than time cards that we where not keeping everything that we needed to

[Mandy]

They never found anything but if they found an amount owed then you'd be fined IF they wanted to go back the full 10 yers.

[Nat]

I shred anything over 7 years old if it has already been audited they won't audit it again.

[DDD]

I shred anything over 7 years old if it has already been audited they won't audit it again.

Thats what I understand