business & labour
Tax filing deadline Northern News Services
Apparently, we can move awfully fast if we want to. I once heard of a gentleman who moves faster than time itself! His son, who hangs around with my son, bragged his dad can do just that. This is how he explained it: “My Dad can move super fast. He goes to work every day and when he leaves his office at five, he gets home at 4:30!” And then there are those of you who move like molasses when it comes to filing your personal tax return. So please note this: Monday, May 2 is your tax filing deadline if you have not filed your 2010 tax return. The normal deadline is April 30 and since that day falls on the weekend, the deadline is extended to the next working day – Monday, May 2. You may be living precariously if you have not filed your 2010 tax return or plan to miss the deadline. You will be charged late-filing penalties if you owe taxes and you file late. I don’t mean to scare you so here is the good news first. There are no late-filing penalties if you don’t owe taxes because these penalties only apply to taxes owing.
NEWS/NORTH NWT, Monday, April 18, 2011 35
TRENDS AT A GLANCE – past 13 weeks 1.10
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Therefore, there are no late-filing per cent). A five per cent penalty penalties if you expect a refund or is cheap but that’s just the warm have no taxes owing by the deadup. The penalty grows by one per line. cent for each additional month you Nonetheless, even are late. The penalty is if you expect a refund, six per cent if you file in you should file on time June and 12 per cent by to avoid other potenDecember. It tops out at tial tax traps. Here’s 17 per cent – thankfully an example. Do you – even if you late-file own foreign property beyond the 12 months with a cost greater period. than $100,000 (Google And it gets worse. ‘T1135’ or read TaxThe penalty more Break, April 11, 2010)? than doubles if you are If you do, you must a repeat late-filer, which Wong, CGA, CFP is a file an additional Form Andy simply means you have tax consultant at MacKay T1135 or face a costly LLP, Chartered Accountants, paid a late-filing penalty in Yellowknife. He can be late-filing penalty of in any of the previous reached at andywong@yel. $25/day. For example, three tax years (2007mackay.ca. if you late-file your 2009). This super latetax return (that has a penalty is an automatic refund) along with the Form T1135 10 per cent plus two per cent per (if it is required) on, say, June 30, month of taxes owing, to a maxyour Form T1135 late-filing penalty imum of 20 months or 50 per cent will be $1,525 ($25 x 61 days)! of taxes owing. Paying a late-filing Need more convincing to file penalty is not the only hit to your your tax return on time? There is pocket book. You will also be an automatic five per cent penalty charged interest on both the taxes on the taxes owing if you are late. owing and the penalties, and it For example, if you file your return may well be the largest of the three on May 3 and owe $3,000; the late- amounts. filing penalty is $150 ($3,000 x five What if you know you owe
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taxes but cannot file on time? Pay your estimated taxes by the May 2 deadline. Penalties won’t apply even if you file late if you owe nothing by the filing due date. If you think you owe $5,000, pay it by May 2. When you do file later on and your actual taxes owing are only $4,000, the overpayment of $1,000 will be refunded. If you miscalculated and
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owe $5,500, the late-filing penalties only apply to the balance owing of $500. The May 2 personal tax deadline does not apply to everyone. If you or your spouse report selfemployment income from a partnership or proprietorship, the filing deadline is extended to June 15 for both of you.
Visitors' Centre for Gjoa Haven by Kevin Allerston Northern News Services
Uqsuqtuuq/Gjoa Haven
Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo
From left, Bruce Spencer, a training co-ordinator with De Beers Canada, Jim Stauffer, an Aurora College community adult educator in Whati, and Cathie Bolstad, director of external and corporate affairs for De Beers, try out a new online course centred on money management.
Earnings wasted: chief Course, from page 33
10 people work at the Snap Lake, Ekati and Diavik diamond mines. Tlicho chiefs have noted with concern the tendency among some workers across the region to let their substantial earnings go to waste in bingo halls and other gambling venues, said Nitsiza. "Particularly in Whati, we have a lot of people who work in the mine that have been working there for a long time, and they've done well," he said. "Some have a mortgage now in the community and some moved to Yellowknife and bought their own homes and they have vehicles and their spouses work in some cases. Those are the ones that are successful, I may say. "But others, maybe half, have
worked about the same length of time but really have nothing to show for it ... We figure (there's) millions spent in bingo in Yellowknife." Dennis Camsell, a Whati resident who has worked at BHP Billiton's Ekati diamond mine for 13 years, echoed Nitsiza's concerns about gambling and added the same temptations apply when residents travel outside the territory. Recalling a trip he recently took to Alberta with a close friend, Camsell said, "On a Saturday, they went to bingo – twice in one day." The importance of saving money takes on added urgency when considering the limited operating lives of mines, said Cathie Bolstad, director of external and corporate affairs for De Beers Canada. Snap Lake, for instance, opened
in 2008 with an expected mine life of about 20 years. "People really have to stretch those paycheques," said Bolstad. Educational tools like Your Money Matters – as well as a program being considered by the Tlicho Government, in which high school graduates travel door-to-door in communities to talk to householders about the importance of saving – are effective ways of deterring people from needless spending, but they'll take time to register, said Nitsiza. "Education is the way to get there. We'll get there, but it's slow-going," he said. A quarter of NWT mine workers do not have a high school diploma, according to a 2009 NWT Survey of Mining Employees conducted by the NWT Bureau of Statistics.
The Hamlet of Gjoa Haven and the Kitikmeot Inuit Association are announcing that they have awarded Arctic Canada Construction Ltd. to design and build a visitors' centre for the community. The goal of the centre will be to highlight the arts, crafts and culture of the region and promote tourism in the area. "The community is excited. This is something they've wanted for a long time and are looking forward to the benefits it will bring," said Ed Stewart,
economic development officer for the hamlet of Gjoa Haven. "The centre will be 1,500 square-feet of worldclass arts and crafts and examples of our culture." The project is supported through funds provided by the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Conservation Area Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreements, and long term management funding through the Government of Nunavut's Community Economic Development fund, program through the Department of Economic Development and Transportation. The centre is expected to be completed by the summer of 2012.
Growing the Inuvik chamber by Guy Quenneville Northern News Services
Inuvik
The president of the Inuvik Chamber of Commerce has expansion in mind. Lee Smallwood, who took over as president last year from Larry Peckford, said that in addition to ensuring the chamber retains a stable supply of directors, he wants to grow the membership of the chamber, which currently stands at about 45. "We want to increase our members by about 40 per cent over the next year," said Smallwood. The chamber's first annual general meeting is scheduled to take place May 5.
Lee Smallwood