The Federal government killed a tree to send us a notice about the You Want Fries With That tax account this week.
Because of the nature of the business, we have had to file GST and PST reports, and send in the appropriate taxes to either the federal or provincial governments. It’s part of the process, one that isn’t much fun but it’s also pretty simple math.
Apparently they were unsatisfied with my last GST report and sent a two page report to detail the “reassessment” of our GST calculations and remittance. The headline of the notice is enough to make you quake in your boots a little. It’s never good when the government decides it knows better than you, how to calculate a tax owing.
The reassessment changed my calculation by THREE CENTS. Three pennies. We ended up with a three cent credit but because anything below a dollar owed is waived the total balance ends up the same: 0.00. In other words, we’re paid up, everything’s just as it was and there’s nothing to see here but it cost an envelope and two pieces of paper, not to mention the time to print it, etc, to tell us that.
Argh! Government waste anyone?