Canadians can file online tax returns again after emergency outage

Re: Ah Good...

No idea why the downvotes

I think that people may have gotten the impression that I'm against all taxation. Maybe the following will clarify my position.

I walk into local businesses and, other than banks and a few other places, the chairs have tape holding the stuffing in, the carpets are ratty, the equipment is crappy.

But go into a government office and words like "opulent" and "palatial" come to mind. The town I live in recently spent $40M on a recreation center...the town's population is about 14 thousand. But it's okay, the people running the show gave themselves a well-deserved pat on the back because the blight will only burn $1M per year instead of the $1.5 they expected. Good job guys, keep up the good work.

Town Hall is built on some of the most expensive land in town and is probably 50% wasted space. But that's okay, being able to look three stories straight up to plate glass skylights in a cavernous hallway the three times a year I have to go in there is worth it.

They also built some "affordable housing", consisting of condos that cost $1M per unit just to build. I guess the definition of "affordable" that I have in my head is completely inaccurate. Too bad that most people trying to survive around here couldn't afford the "affordable" housing if you doubled their incomes, particularly with the crushing tax burdens.

The above is just municipal. Whole other universes of waste open up when you move up into the provincial and federal realms.

Ontario's fourth biggest line item on their provincial budget is interest payments on debt and that line item is growing at a rate of about 7% per annum. Putting that in perspective, the top two line items are growing at a rate of 2% (health) and 0.3% (education). I guess that the 42%ish tax rate (all taxes) wasn't enough to keep our heads above water.

Oh well, it's spring tax time. Tis the season to bleed. And you'd better pretend that you like it.