...who ends up having to actually pay more tax when I do my return? Got a whopping great tax bill last year for 2009 (that remains unpaid) and now that is seemingly going to be added onto with another chunk owing for 2010.
Meanwhile, the world and his wife are happily reaping in their tax refunds, rolling around in extra cash.
Tea and sympathy welcome.

If you didn't pay what you owed last year, why are you surprised it'll be added on to your bill this year?

I always owe tax at return time, sometimes as much as a thousand dollars.

Get an accountant. I pay a bloke $75 to do both of ours. I get it back in spades. Legally.

I pay $80 for me and the Mrs. I generally get a reasonable chunk back, she not so much. This year it will go towards a trip back to Blighty this summer.

No-one likes paying tax, obviously, but your situation would suggest that you are self-employed or similar. If you're salaried then you'll pay tax throughout the year and when you claim for all the odds and sods at the end of the year, you'll probably get a refund.

If you're self-employed, you won't be paying tax on such a regular basis and will probably owe them at the end of the year. Can you pay tax at regular intervals, or put some away, so that it isn't such a shock when tax season arrives?

Last year did it on the pc. Ended up owing almost $1000.
This year, done it with the same software (Turbo Tax) and was initially quids in (I thought) to the tune of $1700. Hooray, I thought. That will clear off last years and leave me a bit extra. Logged off, went away for a few minutes, relaunched the program and it had changed to -$300. This is prior to me submitting it to the tax office so last year hasn't been added on. Even if it was, I'd still be up $700.

Nope - not self employed. Had two part-time jobs earlier in the year then was working full time from April, paying tax on all three.

I've just been laid off as well, so it's not as though I've got the money lying around to pay them.

I'm not having a good year so far...

My husband always ends up with a tax bill (not huge, but big enough) but that's because he's only part-time salaried staff and the rest of his income is from being self employed. We don't ever worry about the income tax proportion of the self employment income until tax return time (i.e. we spend it!) and then it bites us on the arse in April. I know that it would be much less stressful to pay in small instalments over the year but we never learn...

My OH always ends up potentially owing as our UK house makes a taxable profit.

I have to send him out for an RRSP at the last minute to counteract it.

This year I made a mistake in the way his employer dealt with his pension contributions at work (he was new to scheme) and I have underestimated what he needed to purchase- so now he owes, which is annoying.

My profit gets offset by childcare, so I am covered.

Am I right in saying that if you had several jobs in a year, then each employer would deduct taxes at the "full-on" rate until you start to max out on your CPP and EI, etc with that employer? I'm not sure of a better way of explaining what I mean.

So, where many people (on a "good salary") perhaps start to max out on their limits for deductions in the summer or autumn, and may start to see their take-home pay increase a bit, if you had, say, three full time but different jobs in a year, you are unlikely to see an "increase" in your take home - but by which time you might have overpaid a fair bit? Clear as mud? I know what I mean.

I'd get a second opinion on those figures. They shouldn't swing that much without any alteration. Were you on EI at any point? I believe that this is taxable income, so that may be what has stung you. I was on EI for a period last year too, so I shall report back once I have completed my taxes, if CRA is going to knacker me too

Can you please explain how this works? I've seen references to RRSP's and get the gist of them from here: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/t...rrsps-eng.html but I take it that getting one "last minute" refers to last minute of the 2010 tax year, so this is something we should think about for 2011 maybe?

I don't know anything about taxes really and just punch the relevant figures into Quicktax/Turbotax and pay what it says, so how much (very roughly) would you have to pay into an RRSP in a financial year to "counteract" a $1700ish income tax bill??

FWIW, his "2010 RRSP Deduction Limit Statement" said his 2010 limit was ~$21k, so I guess we did miss an opportunity there Not that we had $21k knocking around to invest, either...

Thanks!

I think it depends on his marginal rate, but you can play around with it in turbo tax and see the affect of RRSP. You've missed the boat for 2010 tax return, but you can buy them until end feb and they end up in the previous year's tax return. (so I mean end feb when I say last minute)

I suspect you would have to buy around 5-6K of RRSP.

Its a bit simpler (usually) for us. If we make say a 2K profit then OH has to buy 2K worth RRSP to offset the tax.

You could contribute to it monthly from now to avoid a future tax bill next year, if that's easier.

Sent you karma - thanks for the reply

I've never had a refund either, usually end up owing around $80 or break even. Both my sons also ended up owing this year but less than $100 which annoyed them somewhat as they were expecting money back as everyone kept telling them "get you taxes done you'll get money back".
When i checked my youngest sons T4 it seems that his total tax paid amounted to 7% so he cannot really complain. My eldest had received a grant last 2 years for his apprenticeship but both ended up on this years taxes and his EI payments whilst at college didn't help the issue.