Thursday, March 23, 2017

Oh Boy, Revenue Canada Messed Up

Now here is a story you gonna love, but it’s a bit scary as well.

In June 2015 we filed our tax returns through our long-time accountant. When we got his summary he had calculated small tax refunds for each of us, which we anticipated to receive shortly after. However, until yesterday we never received any tax assessment nor any cheques from Revenue Canada.
But yesterday, I finally received a letter hich was the most astounding letter I have ever received.
It was Bea who discovered it: The letter was directed to “The Estate of the late Peter Harwerth”.
1-20170325_105738-001
Yup, I was deceased and this letter would most likely be the last one which would ever carry my name.  So sad.

Once we had opened the letter it did not contain my last cheque, but a tax re-assessment and a tax bill of over $500.
The letter also made clear that I previously had received my tax refund of roughly the double amount. Of course, that was not the case.

The situation warranted a call to Revenue Canada. Under that call I was able to convince the person I spoke to, that I was far from being dead. I was promised that the “mistake” as it was called, would be corrected.
Re. the missing cheques, an immediate investigation showed that both cheques had indeed been cashed only days after they had been issued.  And because Canada Post is never capable of processing any letters from Ontario to our place within 2-3 days we understood that somebody had stolen mail from Revenue Canada, taken out the cheques and cashed them.

What’s happening now is that we will be isued new cheques and Revenue Canada will launch an investigation of who stole the mail, forged our signatures and cashed the checks. And maybe, if they are lucky, they will be able to follow a paper trail to where the money went.
This still leaves me wondering how and why Revenue Canada made me a deceased person. What has happened????

4 comments:

  1. Well Peter on the bright side....you're still with us and if you pay them the $500 you will never have to pay taxes again! But on the other hand...sorry you've had to deal with these problems and we hope they catch the thieves.

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    Replies
    1. But...I guess they won't pay out my pension after my passing. Or what?

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  2. Wasn't it Barbara that was declared dead by the Social Security here? Hope your death is resolved faster than hers.

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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