Taxes done

This weekend I sat down and did my taxes. 2008 was a crazy year for work, I was afraid to find out how much taxes I owed. It’s not too bad, but not so great either. Yes, I owe the government money. I am doing everything I can to minimize the damage though. Here are a few things I remembered last minute.

Gifts and Donations credit: I donated money over the course of the year, which meant I've completely forgotten what I donated by now. Luckily, I saw this coming. So every time I made a donation I requested a tax receipt to be e-mailed to me and then saved it all in an electronic folder. I just had to print it all out and fill out the right donation tax credit schedule.

Education credit: I took a business course last year, which I should be able to claim credit for. Most schools now allow students to access and print their receipts online instead of sending a hard copy. Not having a hard copy, I almost forgot about it.

Foreign tax credit: When I received dividends from US stocks I own, withholding taxes were automatically deducted. I believe we can claim a credit for what we’ve already paid. However, because it’s a separate form (it’s not part of the tax package and needs be printed from the CRA website) I almost missed this one as well.