Conversations with entrepreneur regarding remitting EI, Income Tax, and CPP to the CRA. _____________________ CRA: You need to remit Marchs payment right now Amy: Alright. The CRA owes my business a tax credit thats more than one hundred times this amount. Can we just take it out of that? CRA: No. Amy: ...okay. Well, I think I might owe you more than just March. What about April? I was just talking to someone about it yesterday and the amount should be on record. CRA: This office only handles collections. We cant access that information Amy: Can you transfer me? CRA: No. Amy: Excuse me then. [I hang up, dial someone else (sometimes over ten times because their phone system bounces calls)] Amy: ...so she asked me to give her the numbers and I left them on voicemail...? CRA#2: We dont have them. For April, you need to tell us what exactly this is getting remitted for. Amy: Do you have an app to help me with this? CRA#2: We have an online payroll calculator. Amy: Yes. But it doesnt save data, and you cant even copy/paste data from it back into it, because it outputs numbers in a format that it wont accept. And then I need to re-enter *that* into a spreadsheet that I built. And I need to do this for every paycheque I write. CRA#2: ... Amy: Anyways. Employee #1s CPP remittance is- CRA#2: -No. You need to send it to us. Amy: Okay. Whats your email? CRA#2: We dont use email. You need to send in the data. Amy: Alright. Do you have an app for that? CRA#2: No. You have to send in the form. Amy: Okay. Where can I get it? CRA#2: You have to request it. Amy: Okay. Id like to request twelve, so Im good for the year. CRA#2: No. You have to do it every month when you send in your cheque. Amy: Noted. But I need to pay collections now.... Excuse me. [I hand up, then call the other office up and repeat the process.] CRA: We are obliged to warn you that if you do not remit this payment promptly, we can go after your business bank account, Amy: Really? Thats great. Do you want to just take the money out of my account right now? CRA: We cant do that if its voluntarily. [---this is my favorite part, BTW---] Amy: Okay, do you take Visa? CRA: No. Amy: Even if I pay the extra three percent or whatever. Its still more cost effective than doing it all by hand - for both of us- CRA: We dont take Visa. Amy: Okay. What if I pay through online banking at my credit union, like I do with my phone, internet, co-op, charities, and so on, and you can get it in about five minutes? CRA: We only do it through these four [large, too-rich-for-words] banks. Can you open an account there? Amy: I have an ethical problem with government-backed ogliopolies of the super-rich. How about EFT? CRA: Whats that? Amy: Nevermind. Paypal? CRA: No. You have to mail us a cheque. Amy: But you want it right away.... okay. I guess thats my only option ______________________________ When entrepreneurs look at this, we scratch our heads. We ask why is the government collecting taxes? Now, I dont mean this in the sense of why should we pay taxes? because any sensible entrepreneur understands that getting big things done right costs money. What I mean is that we ask, Why is the government collecting taxes when its so incredibly bad at it? As entrepreneurs, we are paying a business that could never survive in our world. In our world, if you make it hard for people to pay you, you go out of business. And if your business is inefficient, you should get ready for customers to go elsewhere. We wonder why we dont start up our own tax collection agency and hire some people who dont live in a world where the most recent communication technology is a fax machine. (This is not hyerbole - the government runs on faxes) Am I suggesting privatizing the CRA? Yes. Yes I am - on the proviso that we turn control over to multiple rival tax agencies that will compete to make it as easy as possible to pay your taxes. And why not? As a small business owner, competition is the world that I live in. I see how it works for things like groceries, appliances, dentistry and bicycles. Why not taxes? I vote for progressive parties. And yet I can why the centre and right get votes from businesspeople. Most federal and provincial reporting standards are based on the assumption that you can hire a full time accountant with high-end software. For small, entrepreneurs, dealing with government is a nightmare. Admittedly the centre and right dont actually deliver on their promises, but that gives them a nice well of discontent to placate next election. That above conversation? I have some version of it with the following *entirely separate bodies* - EI, Income Tax, CPP (see below on how this works) - Corporate report - Worksafe (now four times a year) - GST (thankfully annually - but I know people who have to file every month) - PST - Corporate income tax - Personal small-business income tax - Municipal None of these people talk to each-other. And all this takes up a chunk of our monthly hours. Id like to put it away so I can get back to my job - you know, that thing that makes money so I can pay taxes so the government can pay for things. This is a really bad system that wastes the very money it collects, and could be replaced with a single desktop app.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 06:16:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015