Canada Revenue Agency and a foggy day

April 30th 2021 taxes are due. I've vented and ranted about Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), and our year long quest to resolve our issues. [💰Canada Revenue Agency😓]

Finally, I had a message that they would accept our medical receipts for 2020, if I uploaded them. This is good news, although we sent them via Canada Post, tracked and securely delivered to a Newfoundland office a year ago. 

I showed JB how to lay out the receipts for me, in order to scan them all. There were 14, but the most important ones were the cataract surgery I had. My $300/month healthcare plan doesn't cover this, nor does it cover my anxiety meds. 

You should have seen us! He was down the hallway in the office, and I'd yell down saying, 'next' and he'd replace it. He'd yell back, 'OK' and I'd scan them remotely on my laptop app. 

My troubles are nothing compared to many. But they do wear heavily on my psyche. I look at the damage in Ukraine, and simply cannot imagine. Man's inhumanity towards man. 

Satellite images of Mariupol show the devastation from Russian shelling in a residential district of the besieged Ukrainian city. The first picture from Maxar Technologies is from June 21, 2021, and the second is from March 29.

Live updates on the war: https://t.co/fMGSPuW6vI pic.twitter.com/G0iPVLcHQT

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 30, 2022

We found a local CA to do our taxes. I tried TurboTax for the 10th time this year, and we apparently owed $44,000+, so I am relieved. His office is in a retrofitted school, which didn't give me too many heebee jeebies! 

💰   💰   💰   💰   💰   💰   

OK, fun sign of spring this morning: 🐣PHOEBE was calling for love! He appeared for the first time on April 8th last year. (Archive photo above!) They usually nest in the shed or under the back deck.

☔  March Precipitation Summary  🌂   ⛅  

We've snow on the way today, Friday, and the big rain storm yesterday only gave us 3 mm rain. I'm OK with that. We've had a lot of cloudy days. Not at all what they had predicted.

If you examine my seed tray, you'll see three rows of ungerminated seeds. I checked the seed packet, and found out why my forget-me-nots haven't germinated. They prefer 15 C. temperatures, and I set the night time temps here to 16 C.! 

The cats weren't too pleased with yesterday's graupel, but they did have to inspect it.

 

There was a break in the clouds in the afternoon, the temperature went up to 16 C., when the sun shone. (It came and went!)

The temperature inversion caused evaporation. It was quite interesting.

 

foggy world from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Nocturnal visitors

 I've been watching the Flight Radar some. The horrors are atrocious online, tales of Russian soldiers looting without mercy, and I'm still looking for helpers. I find some comfort in seeing the various countries patrolling near and around Ukraine over NATO countries. 

✈ Air Traffic 🚁

USA's FORTE10 spent all day there. They must be refueling in the air. Italy and the RAF are there, as well. Someone is coordinating it, as the different countries spell one another off. I find comfort in it, as the NATO countries are there doing watching and ready. The map darkens once night falls. It's interesting.

They spend a lot of time here, watching east, I am sure. It's just west of Ukraine:

 Usually our wild visitors drop off in spring, as food is more readily available, and they don't have to search high and low for food. The raccoons are awake, they sort of doze in the depths of winter.

Jean came up with a clever name for our newest visitor: 'Pepper'! He appears to be a black cat. Cinnamon and Nutmeg were joined by Oregano, another tabby who may or may not be feral or wild. I don't think barn cats visit us, but who lets their cat out to roam at 2 a.m. at subzero temperatures? 

Here is video #2 of Pepper. Pepper cat from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Cinnamon cat looked out where Pepper had gone. I let him out at his usual 6:30 time. I know people complain about cats outdoors, but ours primarily keep our rodent population down.

Contrary to weather predictions, we didn't get the tons of rain and/or snow. We had some graupel before dark. The sound was quite striking. Graupel is something between hail and ice pellets. Graupel March 30  

 

The storm looked a lot worse than that which they predicted. There was some rain, some freezing rain, but not too much. We've an appointment with a tax accountant this morning. I give up! I've done TurboTax since 2011. It's been stressing me out too much over the past year. 

Air Traffic, CRA & Cinnamon walkies

✈ Air Traffic 🚁

I've been watching air traffic around Ukraine 😭. It is good to see the other countries flying nearby just in case. It is simply awful, and I cannot believe the madness. 

Look for the helpers. There are planes from the US, Canada, NATO (NATO11 – flying in from Turkey), and Brittain (RAF: KAYAK31), there for support. The US had a Sikorsky Blackhark helicopter in Poland, as well as a series of helicopters: DUKE 50, 51, a Cessna (DUKE73), which I noticed while President Biden was there. There was a big plane (FORTE 11) circling the Black Sea. I am learning more geography than I have learned in a long time. 

There are several planes coming in from Cyprus, where there might be ships. Vessel Finder tracks those. 

LAGR 221

KAYAK 31

NATO 11

CFC 4226

✈  ✈  ✈  ✈  ✈  ✈  ✈  ✈  ✈  ✈  ✈  ✈

Thank you, all for your positive, supportive comments.  I had a couple of anxiety attacks this week.  I've been wrestling with taxes, again. And I can't figure out how to plug in to TurboTax my change from a LIRA to a RIF. At 65 you have to switch them over. So far, the program tells me we owe $44,000+ in taxes. I signed up for the extra money for extra support (you don't pay them till you finish, though), and they were useless. The woman I spoke to sent an email with directions, but they do not work. "I'm not a tax expert," she told me. 

I think I am still missing a tax receipt. I contacted my guy, and he sent a couple I was missing. They don't have to send them until the end of March, legally. Taxes should be done by the end of April. I'm not ready to give up, but I am close. The frustration is terrible, and triggers me after I've wrestled with Canada Revenue for this past year. [💰Canada Revenue Agency😓] I took my meds, and we relaxed watching tennis and curling. I want to conquer this tax year, but the jury is out.

OK, done venting. Thanks for listening! They truly are small problems, compared to all going on in the world. I take my meds and hope for the better days to come.

Cloudia, you are right: "You and I are both very lucky people to be in beautiful restorative places and to be able to distance as we need to. " 

Karen, I loved your story about your German friend and his nature church! 

💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸

Cinnamon Walkies

Look at the frogpond! It is half thawed and soon our little creatures will wake up.

There is about 20 cm of water on top of the ice. More rain yesterday, only a couple of mm. Currently it is snowing, just for fun. Another cold front, but this, too, shall pass.

Mar. 22 vs. March 25!

You can hear the crows bickering, and I kept filming because of the other birds. Then, I showed the meadow, which is full of water and snow. The hill where I stood is all lovely and leafy. Things are melting.

At the end, Cinnamon stayed down on the dock, having himself a drink of water.

 

Cinnamon walkies from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Above the pond, the crows were keeping busy: 

Above the pond from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌🦌

We had three deer in the yard. I post the second photo, because you can see how much smaller the juvenile is. The other juvies seem larger. The deer on the left is King Henry, who shall be growing new antlers soon. They must be family. They are happy the snow is gone.

The skull shaver and the closet

Skull Shaver

This was JB's birthday present. 

Apparently it is as labour intensive as using a razor. You still have to use shaving cream. It is a work in progress. The funny thing is I didn't realize he didn't shave every day!

Also, he's had neck issues for the better part of this year, and he isn't comfortable shaving the back of his neck. It was a good idea at the time!

Go In the Closet!

I've been puttering around the house. I decided that the girls didn't need me to make any more skirts and dresses. Their tastes are different. I'd had clean the closet on the To Do list for a couple of weeks.

 I used to make the girls skirts and dresses. They mostly wear leggings and jeans now! I threw away the shoe boxes with all those patterns. Well, I put it them into the kindling box. They were stored in the guest room closet and it just managed to become cluttered. I loathe throwing things away!

It felt good to clean stuff out. The miracle of the clean closet means I can put the vacuum in there! I have to write about this, or I will be fuming if I don't remember I did this and cannot find said vacuum. Do you know what I mean?

The bonus to being able to close the door means that I found the yarn and knitting needles I bought, hanging on the back of the door. I intended to reteach myself knitting. That hasn't happened and I had a good excuse. I am so impressed with the crafty people who knit, crochet, and quilt. I am not sure I have it in me, though. 

I have a needle point I've worked on, sitting with clients. It was meant to be for the kids 10th wedding anniversary. (They are up to 16 years, now.) Whoopsie. I haven't had a client since COVID, and then she passed away during that time. 

The Bears

There was water pooling under them, which can't be good. I put one of the cardboard corner braces, found in the box in which they arrived, under the plastic. 

We continue to put up more lights, what-the-heck! Today I shall try glue one of the train wheels axles. Maybe we can get it going. 

This is an old video from 2010. I loved Oliver so much! JB's cat, Sady, was amazing, too.

We are drawn to lights and colour, during these dreary days. As I write this it is raining.

I went to bed to read, whilst the cats made themselves busy.

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)😓

I had another CRA phone call, the real deal when they quote their first name and employee number. They demanded I tell them the plan for repaying the $10,000 they say we owe. 

I spent 15 minutes explaining the situation. 

1. We didn't get their 'letters' on the website. 
2. I borrowed from the Line of Credit and paid the amount owing from my 2019 error. It will take 5 - 10 days for them to receive our payment, including $194.37 in interest for 2019 mistake.
3. I have printed a letter outlining what has happened, that I've paid the 2019 overdue amount, and uploaded it to JB's tax return. 
4. I have copied my medical receipts from 2020, they are mostly mine, and snail mailed them to CRA in Newfoundland (NL). Also, it will take until Dec. 1st to get our paperwork. Maybe longer as roads are washed out in NL.

He said he'd put a note on the file. I guess no one read the two page letter I uploaded to explain all this. Now we wait. 

💰Canada Revenue Agency😓

 Let me vent! This is quite a story.

After recreating new CRA accounts for both of us, our passwords came in the mail. The agent was horrified when I told her that I did his taxes, and demanded we get this permission signed and uploaded right away. Despite this, CRA kept emailing JB saying he had to respond to them. JB had signed a paper saying that I could do his taxes. 

After checking our mail, finally a new one-time passcode. It just isn't simple. Logging on, they had to send me a text code, and THEN I could log in with the new passcode. I found the 'letters' CRA claimed we hadn't responded to, unopened on his account.

I spent a half hour yesterday reading and printing mysterious messages from Canada Revenue Agency on our online MyAccount. Apparently we will owe 6-digits for 2020 taxes, since we did not respond to messages on MyAccount that we didn't know we had. I had suspected that they'd want the hard copy receipts, but since most of them were mine from laser eye surgery, I expected them to tell me. 

When you do up you taxes on TurboTax, the program automatically divided receipts between both of our tax accounts. It's only fair, since we share finances. That's why it's JB's account that required medical receipts.

What a complicated system. I don't know how some seniors get this done if they don't have someone to help them.

I spent another two hours gathering and reprinting medical receipts for 2020, crafting a letter, and totalling medical receipts. I uploaded the letter to his account, and we will snail mail the receipts to CRA. 

Sadly, the address of our tax office is in St. John's, Newfoundland. They've just had a major storm, as well as New brunswick.

Terrible washouts out east

UPDATE: CRA phoned Thurs., Nov. 25th. 

I had another CRA phone call, the real deal when they quote their first name and employee number. They demanded I tell them the plan for repaying the $10,000 they say we owe. 

I spent 15 minutes explaining the situation. 

1. We didn't get their 'letters' on the website. 
2. I borrowed from the Line of Credit and paid the amount owing from my 2019 error. It will take 5 - 10 days for them to receive our payment. $194.37 in interest for 2019's mistake.
3. I have printed a letter outlining what has happened, that I've paid the 2019 overdue amount,  and uploaded it to JB's tax return. 
4. I have copied my medical receipts from 2020, they are mostly mine, and snail mailed them to CRA in Newfoundland. Also, it will take until Dec. 1st to get our paperwork. 

UPDATE: Nov. 28

I accidentally paid the 2019 amount we need to pay back from my line of credit to Joe's VISA not his CRA account. I phoned right away, and asked them to cancel that. Today, Sunday, the amount has gone into JB's VISA. I paid the right amount to his CRA account.

So, if they cancel the VISA amount, I'll have to repay the actual November VISA amount prior to the due date, or we will be charged interest on that!

UPDATE: Nov. 29

Our package of receipts for our 2021 taxes made it to the Newfoundland office, despite NL flooding. Whew!

UPDATE: Dec. 3 – Still waiting for RBC to reverse the mistaken payment I made. 

UPDATE: By now, I figured I had no choice, and I could claim medical receipts from 2020 in 2021. I paid off the final $3000, to make it a grand total of $10,000+. 

UPDATE: March 26th

I had a couple of anxiety attacks this week. I've been wrestling with taxes, again. And I can't figure out how to plug in to TurboTax my change from a LIRA to a RIF. At 65 you have to switch them over. So far, the program tells me we owe $44,000+ in taxes. I signed up for the extra money for extra support (you don't pay them till you finish, though), and they were useless. The woman I spoke to sent an email with directions, but they do not work. "I'm not a tax expert," she told me. 

 I think I am still missing a tax receipt. I contacted our financial planner, and he sent a couple I was missing. They don't have to send them until the end of March, legally. Taxes should be done by the end of April. I'm not ready to give up, but I am close. The frustration is terrible, and triggers me after I've wrestled with Canada Revenue for this past year. I took my meds, and we relaxed watching tennis and curling. I want to conquer this tax year, but the jury is out.

UPDATE : March 27th

I began using TurboTax on Saturday to figure out our 2021 taxes. Problem was, converting my LIRA to a RIF. I worked through it, and TurboTax said we owed $44,000+ in taxes. Crikey. Sunday I gave up.

UPDATE: March 28th

Finally, I had a message that they would accept our medical receipts for 2020, if I uploaded them. This is good news, although we sent them via Canada Post, tracked and securely delivered to a Newfoundland office a year ago. 

I showed JB how to lay out the receipts for me, in order to scan them all. There were 14, but the most important ones were the cataract surgery I had. My $300/month healthcare plan doesn't cover this, nor does it cover my anxiety meds. 

You should have seen us! He was down the hallway in the office, and I'd yell down saying, 'next' and he'd replace it. He'd yell back, 'OK' and I'd scan them remotely on my laptop app.