Last years tax return was I thought just about as easy as I thought possible – during my first 6 months back I had no Canadian income to report.

What turned out to be complicated was when it came time to claim our children on the return.

I forget the exact language the CRA used, and I can’t find the screenshot that I took at the time, but in effect they believed that in a 2 parent family the woman is considered the primary caregiver. So I, as a male, had to set out and prove that I was for the year of the return the one taking charge of our children’s care. This assumption didn’t and doesn’t sit well with me. There may well be data to support their conclusion but it stands in contrast to all the grand efforts that Canada makes to become an inclusive society.

So I went through the steps I was instructed to and was still met with a roadblock. I might have been entitled to a remittance of some sort but I figured that further calls to the CRA were not worth my time. So I gave up and left it on my someday todo list. I had gone 20 years without any support from any government, why start now?

I do realize that this attitude towards money is also the reason why I remain poor.

After filing this year I realized that the CRA still didn’t take in account our children in my return so I got on the phone, eventually got through, and after talking to a positive yet weary sounding agent for 45 minutes managed to clear up the confusion. I think.