The CRA Website

Not only should CRA group together topics of a similar vein so that various taxpayer groups can compare and contrast the rules as set out in my post the other day...

Here's some other thoughts as I get ready to meet CRA this morning.
Use the structure of the Income Tax Act as the basis for setting up the structure of the CRA website.
It wasn't until I sat down after failing the IT 2 course and Ed Kroft told me that to pass the course, I'd better read the Act... that I really got what it was all about. It was the Table of Contents at the beginning that nailed it.  It was the Index at the end where all the concepts were linked to Sections that filled in the gaps. It was reading the actual words of the sections and getting that this piece of work was a giant algebraic formula in prose.

The secret is to go back to the structure of the Act and not to try to create your own structure. Then, it's necessary to reference the real thing as well. It's all well and good to have Interpretations by experts, but there is no substitute for reading the sections. Now that we have the Internet with 2 free sources of the ITA, www.justice.gc.ca and www.canlii.org who both keep it current, there's no excuse to not do so.

And, there's no reason on earth to require that every teacher in the country log into the education portion of the website with repeat use of their personal information in order to view the educational section. Whose dumb idea was that? And only having an out of date Ontario example? Come on.

We need current examples of all the forms, we need to see what a tax return should look like for an extended family, for a self-employed person, for someone with employment expenses, all those audit demand letters on employment expenses, rental expenses, self-employment that you're sending out, do you ever once consider that people have no clue how to complete the forms and that they are doing the best they can with a horrible amount of requirement for detail that they can't imagine will ever be looked at?  They need examples to follow.  Yes, its always possible that they might actually figure out that they haven't been claiming what they should have claimed, or will try to claim more, but maybe they'd actually get that their claims are ridiculous if they saw a sample.

And we need Box 85 on the T4 to be mandatory, it's no different than union dues.

Plus we need clarity about claiming medical expenses in so far as the wording of what qualified medical practitioners wording will be acceptable for most of the 150 medical expenses, and now for the Infirmity designation for the Family CareGiver Amount. How on earth are QPs supposed to know what to write that would be satisfactory? Are they supposed to be able to read the Income Tax Act in order to complete a letter that will satisfy CRA? That's just ridiculous and it needs to stop.  Someone's cruel childhood game translated into adulthood needs to stop.  I'm not going to tell you what to say, you have to guess is about how QPs are being treated.  Then, when they don't say what's necessary they are subjected to multi-page requests for details instead of being asked if they could write what is required. I find the whole thing tiring just contemplating the millions or billions wasted on this process and all for what? A political game of tax credits.