Tales of Me and the Taxman

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Don't ask me what I want it for
If you don't want to pay some more
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
- Taxman by The Beatles (1966)

Would I call myself a "money moron" as my financial idol Gail Vaz-Oxlade would put it? Normally, no. But when it came to filing my taxes this year, I most definitely found myself on the receiving end of some pretty vicious insults from my biggest critic (that's myself, btw.) When you're new to the grown-up world,  I'm sure it's pretty common (acceptable even) to not be aware of the full array of claims you may be eligible for. But it's not acceptable to not be aware of the duties/requirements expected of you as a taxpayer.

Ignorance is not bliss, people!

Hopefully my experiences this year can help some of you out, or perhaps just getting this out in the open will permanently knock some financial sense into me. Here's hoping!

As a young person recently out of school and entering the workplace, I've gotten used to receiving a nice chunk of change back from the government after I filed my annual tax return. Low-income jobs, tuition/books fees and my timid foray into the world of RRSPs has always added up to a hefty return, and I've gotten used to this. Nay, have started to expect as my due! Why would I expect anything less when I went online to Turbo Tax and started to fill in all the lines and boxes with my financial information? So when I clicked 'calculate return', I immediately thought it was an error when I saw a negative red number! 'What did I forget to enter?' I thought frantically as I pushed through my stack of papers. 'How can I possibly owe almost $900? Turbo tax must be doing something wrong!'

'Oh yes,' I thought, when I noticed my error, 'I forgot to enter taxes paid from my second job at the grocery store. Silly Lisa, you must pay more attention.' But the horror only multiplied when I found my T4 and saw that I hadn't paid taxes there... at all. You see, I made the cardinal error of not amending my federal/provincial tax when I got an additional job.

You should be aware that when you get employment, you need to fill out a TD1 form (at least you do in Canada.) Your employer uses it to determine the amount of your federal tax deductions - all Canadians can claim the Basic Personal Amount (a figure hovering around the $11 000 mark). Aka you will not get taxed on salary made up to this amount. When I was at school, I would never make even close to this amount at my job so filling it out was quite easy.

It wasn't until I got my first "real" job that my salary rose to above this mark, and it was the first time that I carried more than one job at a time. But this being my first time for these things should not be an excuse. I simply didn't think to amend the TD1 at my secondary job to show that I had more than one employer at a time - you NEED to do this so that your secondary income gets properly taxed and so that you don't find yourself owing the government a huge chunk of your hard-earned change in April. (Note: if you're a freelancer, you also need to be aware of that tax situation as well.)

So here I am, having to give money this year instead of getting something back. And yes, I kick myself every time I think about it because I have no one to blame but myself. I definitely high-tailed it to my manager at the grocery store to amend my TD1 as soon as I realized my error. I head into the fabulous summer season (as well as birthday and wedding season) broke... but smarter. So I guess it's not the absolute worst place to be in.

Bottom line: don't be like me, don't be a money moron.

Apathy and the Job Hunt

Sometimes it's hard to balance being a burgeoning young PR professional with trying to fight the part of myself that doesn't feel ready or mature enough to make the BIG employment decisions.

Some of you may know that I am currently looking for another job, some of you may not. The secretiveness of the job search is another balancing act in itself: it is stupid (and a little disrespectful) to tell everyone and their mother that you want to leave your current job... especially as this news can make its way back to your employer. However, keeping your search completely silent can cut down on your networking ability.

Right now my biggest opponent in the balance game is apathy. I know that I want a different job: something more applicable to my field of interest/skill, something that I would be excited about doing every day, something that paid a little more money (though this would just be a bonus.) But when I think about going on LinkedIn, Workopolis, Craigslist etc. one more time, I sometimes feel the passivity roll in, and with it come the bad thoughts. "I'm young... I can wait a few more months at this job." "The job market is still pretty thin so I shouldn't put myself out there just yet."

When these thoughts hit you, you need to just say "STOP!" (I'm working on it, I swear.) There may be a million reasons not to look for your dream job right now, but there are a million and one reasons to get off your ass and get out there.

Bad thought: I'm young... I can wait a few more months at this job.
Better thought: I'm young.. I deserve more than this job and have the energy to go out and get one! Plus, there is the adage that the job search will take approximately one month per $10 000 you expect in salary (roughly) so you don't really want to wait.

Bad thought: The job market is still pretty thin so I shouldn't put myself out there just yet.
Better thought: The job market (especially in Public Relations) is seeing a lot of growth. Even in a slower economy, there are people who get hired and that could be you!

Bad thought: I know how to do this job and I'm comfortable in it.
Better thought: Being comfortable often begets complacency (*see this whole blog post) and my skills are suffering because of it. If I'm not doing work that enhances my skills and makes it easier to advance, then I should be moving on.

If you're like me and are experiencing employment lethargy, check out this great article from Forbes on 5 Reasons People Stay Stuck At Their Job. Don't be a Debbie Downer, Molly Malingerer or Abraham Apathetic, get out there and get the job you deserve. I promise I won't be far behind.