Dr. Paul Duarte
This book is about how the income tax system came to be, what you can do to keep what is rightfully yours and how to do your own tax preparation if one chooses to do so.
The book is divided in three main sections.
The first is about the legalities of the system and how it was perpetuated into the present day system we live by today.
The second is about the best and easiest solution to keep your money in your pocket and what you need to do, and the third is how to do it.
I am a scholar, who has dedicated my life to helping people, especially as a mediator for people who find themselves in conflict with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
I have been a tax consultant for over 14 years, within that time; I have helped a multitude of people with their tax issues.
I have been involved in the financial industry for just as long, I have been a certified life insurance agent with Primerica Life, where my financial life began.
A large part of my knowledge and experiences has been through real life situations in dealing with CRA and the constant referring to the Income Tax Act.
Some of that know how, comes from trial and error of what works and what doesn’t, and the remainder from constant and continuous hard work and study.
I have spent twelve years, advising, counseling and teaching people on the best way to get the most out of a tax return.
Some listen, some don’t but the one thing most have in common is that, plainly they want nothing to do with the taxman, unless absolutely necessary.
I am happy to say, that most of our clients are still with us today and if you are one of them reading this book, we love you and want to thank you for your business, friendship and support.
Some of our clients have gone through hell and high water with CRA, but most have had it quite easy without incident and we thank God for that.
But either way, the experiences we shared together, have built strong friendships and relationships.
So for all, and people like yourself, we have created this small easy to read book, to help you along the way.
We have tried to stick to a very basic grammatical and easy to understand vocabulary, regardless of one’s academic standing, because I believe that if a book is too complex or too hard to read, most people lose interest and out the window it goes, especially on the subject of taxes.
My goal is to reach as many people as I possibly can, and regardless of their love or hate for the taxman, have a practical piece of literature that can be used as a guide and perhaps as a awakening to some ideas that they may or may not have thought off or heard off before.
But how do I go about writing a book on taxes, without sounding repetitious or write something someone else has written before.
We read so many articles that instruct people how to maximize their returns, but surprisingly enough, not many in a book form.
The general idea is pretty much the same and they all say pretty much the same things in pretty much the same way.
If I stepped on some ones toes in the course of this book, I apologize, it is not intentional, and I will always try to give credit where credit is due. Our common goal though, or at least I would like to think, is to help one another and not profit from them. I am sure.
Many think of tax matters as boring and something to be avoided. Well, for the most part, that is probably true.
If anyone has ever tried to read the Income Tax Act, it truly is one of the biggest fifteen hundred pages or so, snoozer one could ever read. I myself must have fallen asleep at least once for every page.
Although most of us just use the Act as a reference manual anyway, it is good to be well informed.
The tax system is a very complex world indeed and it is becoming even more complex year by year as new laws and regulations are passed all the time, with each new election.
Sometimes conflicting the old ones creating loop holes in the system, such as the ones involving charities, in which CRA is working relentlessly to close all the time and rightfully so.
The act of goodwill should never be exploited. Sometimes such matters take years, to discover, investigate and correct.
To topple that, there are so many individuals out there trying to scam the “system”, so much so, that CRA has become hardened and at times difficult to work with, sometimes forcing them to impose ridiculous penalties and inquiries, especially when they lack information, or suspect people of hiding something from them.
There is a tax court in existence where problems can be disputed, but a more immediate and accessible institute had to be created and that is a tax ombudsman (A private ruling body designed to mediate conflicts between the general public and CRA) to deal with issues that arise with almost everyone at one time or another.
This regulatory body from my understanding is supposed to be due for implementation sometime in 2008.
Really we can’t blame CRA though. It is we, the public who by trying to avoid paying taxes all together or in trying to outsmart the system that brought it upon ourselves.
You know the old saying; one rotten apple will spoil the bushel and CRA can’t always tell the rotten apples from the rest of the bushel.
It is like that with everything in life!
There will always be some who think they can outsmart or beat the system and the rest will pay for it when they get caught.
This book does not try to outsmart anyone or the institution, at least not intentionally. There are some provocative situations and some ideas which some would question. But everything in this book is well researched and taken right out of CRA documentation or the Income Tax Act.
The idea behind it is to apply rules and regulations that have been already in place, and try to utilize them to maximize our returns, so that we keep what is ours and pay CRA what is rightfully theirs.
Like the good book say’s “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.”
We believe in a fair market system, in a system where we the people have the voice and the choice in what is best for our country. We believe in democracy and not the other way around.
Politicians and Government officials are public servants of the people, elected into office by the people for the people.
But we also believe that when certain laws and statutes are passed without majority approval of most Canadians, we belief that it is our God given right to make you aware of their existence and how they came about and if needed to change for the needs of many and not the minorities of this country, as it so often happens.
We are not opposed to paying our fair share of taxes.
What we do oppose, is greed, injustice, and foul play.
True we cannot fix the ills of the world, but we can make others aware of them and perhaps by working together we can make it a little better place than we found it, for the generations that follow.
