What the ... bureautards?!?!?!? Part 3

And they wonder why people don't like dealing with Government?!?!? Following the rules? Or think that Government agencies are incompetent?!?!?

My issue with the International Tax Services Office (ITSO) of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has been resolved! Mind you they neglected to TELL ME! They sent me 2 letters to let me know it was under review. Notthing to tell me it was resolved.

It took over 4 months for them to "review" the issue. All they had to do was confirm that I entered Canada to stay on May 10th 2010. Something that I HAD informed the "mother office" of back in 2011. But momma don't tell the young'uns nothing it seems.

Now, finally, the issue is resolved. They confirmed I moved home on that date and became a full resident citizen of Canada then. Let the next phase of bull shit begin!

I got a letter from the GST branch of CRA today stating that ... wait for it ... wait for it ... I owe them money. Not only do I owe them money but they are withholding and garnishing what I owe from GST payments and any tax refund I may get. Nice of them to mail me and let me know there was a problem. Wait until GST payment time and deliver a fait accompli. Fucktards.

What is the problem? Well, now that ITSO acknowledges I have been a resident citizen of Canada since May of 2010 they informed the mother office. Who then informed the other babies. It doesn't matter that the mother office was informed of this a couple of years ago nothing is official until ITSO says so. Now they have spoken.

The GST office says wow! We now know, thanks to ITSO and not CRA that Flint moved back to Canada in May of 2010. We have no information on what he earned abroad for the first 3-4 months of 2010. He has to pay us back all of the GST payments he got in 2011! NOW!

As I said, there was no communication until the letter I got today which delivered a fait accompli. Nothing REQUESTING information. Nothing saying without said information this will happen. Just a letter demanding payment or else they will garnish it. With some bureaucratese on the last page of a 3 page demand stating that they need to know my "world income" earned in Canadian funds for the part of 2010 I wasn't living in Canada. (It makes me wonder how many people just see a letter like that and pay the amount without looking into things.)

They could have simply send a letter saying "Hey, we just found out you lived outside of Canada until May 2010. Could you let us know how much you earned in 2010 while living outside Canada?" That would be too easy. Too civil. Instead attack attack attack!!! Bureautards.

So, I called the 1-800 number and talked to a woman about what was going on. She was incredibly helpful and patient. GREAT customer service skills! Once again, as with ITSO, the solution hinges on mailing them a letter. This one stating what I earned abroad in 2010 and if possible 2009. Wouldn't it have been nice if they had just asked for that from the start?

The letter is in the mail. I expect the next problem to be them wanting some form of documentation about this. The school I worked at closed down shortly after I left South Korea. That makes it kind of hard to get documentation. What can I say, dealing with the government has left me jaded. I expect this to be a problem that takes a while, a long while, to resolve and odds are I won't be informed of the outcome directly.

I am now officially sorry that I followed the rules. I did what I was supposed to. Filled out income tax forms for Canada the first 2 years I was away. Followed procedure and let CRA known when I was back. It has led to nothing but headaches dealing with the bureaucracy. As soon as one problem is cleared up with a branch of CRA another pops up. Problems which should either never have happened if the various branches of CRA communicated with each other or could have been resolved years ago if the branches talked to each other.

This is why people think the Government and it's attendant bureaucracy are a bunch of fucktards and don't trust dealing with them.