Newsgroups: can.general
Path: utzoo!lsuc!dave
From: dave@lsuc.uucp (David Sherman)
Subject: Re: income tax: what's this nonsense?
Date: Thu, 30-Mar-89 22:04:55 EST
Summary: Canada has a self-assessment system
Message-ID: <1989Mar30.220458.2560@lsuc.uucp>
Distribution: can
References: <144@mindlink.UUCP> <1989Mar29.002321.5939@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto

kocic@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Miroslav Kocic) writes:
>The man raises a valid point.  RevCan gets all documentation from other sources
>anyway -- ie. employers, financial institutions -- so filing a personal return
>seems to be a duplication of effort, and a wasteful one considering that most
>personal return filers aren't taxation experts.  Why not just have the 
>government do all calculations, mail you a bill/refund, and let you file an
>appeal if you disagree with their figures?

As other posters have pointed out, that's approximately what happens
in some countries, such as the U.K.  In Canada, we have a self-assessment
system.  That is, each taxpayer computes their own income and tax payable.

Revenue Canada does not get documentation from other sources for
the purpose of computing your tax payable.  It gets that documentation
for verification and audit purposes only.  Your statements on your
income tax return are the starting point.  And, as has been pointed
out, many tax items don't show up neatly on information slips.  Some
of them can't.  Capital gains calculations, for example, can't possibly
be calculated by a broker unless you deal with only one broker.

David Sherman
-- 
Moderator, mail.yiddish
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