Taxman 2010

There's been some minor changes with Version 1.2 — see below at Bugs and Version History for all the changes.
For the 2010 tax year one of the big changes is the Ontario Credits form, which has ballooned to 4 pages (I cram it into 3). Both the governments of Alberta and Ontario claim to be pro-business, yet they see tax credits for their citizens at the opposite ends of the spectrum. Alberta doesn't even have a credits form and Ontario has turned its form into a Grade 12 math exam. It's not hard to understand why Quebecers think separation is the only solution.
The other greatly-changed form is the GST Rebate (GST370) which has been expanded to handle the myriad of GST/HST rates possible for 2010. This is a one-year-only form and I haven't made it completely effortless. If your GST rate changed halfway through the year, you have to manually split up your expenses into the right columns with the right percents. Next year this form will be completely revised and year after that it will be revised again when BC kicks the HST out of town. The first ones to suffer will be the accountants, but how can you reason with an angry mob?

Taxman 2010 only comes as an Upgrade so you must already have the full Taxman installed on your computer (any year's full version makes all upgrades work).

  Taxman2010 Upgrade Version 1.2 (10setup2.exe, 1.6 MB)
Revised July 23, 2011 — any little thing that popped up over the tax season has now been fixed

Clicking the link below takes you to Google Drive where you have to press the 'Download' button. You then go to a page telling you the file can't be scanned for viruses — press 'Download anyway'. Then a pop-up appears and you hit 'Save File'.

         Fabulous New Features

• Automation for the Nation!
  In past years one had to manually transfer any unused foreign tax to Line 232, but never more. Now you just have to pound a button until all the foreign tax is used up. Accountants will have a hard time justifying their salaries with a program like this.
  Every year I have a half a dozen customers who don't need to use all of a deduction to drop their taxes to zero. The question then becomes: what is the exact figure that makes the federal or provincial tax equal to zero? Once upon a time a little arithmetic could solve the problem, but today too many numbers are begatted from other numbers. Yet fear ye not if our brains can't keep up with the new math — Taxman to the Rescue! Who needs algebra when you can just open up the aptly named What makes taxes=0 form and get that computer to earn it's keep.



• Supersized Print Menu!
  Now you can print all the forms from the final Print Menu. This should be a massive timesaver because the computer will be doing the collating for you. I probably should have done this years ago but I was scared of the hill I'd have to climb. And as events would show, I had every reason to worry. Regardless, the work is in the bank, let's reap the reward!
  When Print Menu opens, the forms that are checked off to be printed are only suggestions, not the law. Don't send the government blank, meaningless forms.
  If you've multiple businesses, rentals or farms, then you must print them from their own menu because Print Menu only prints the forms that are currently open and showing.



• Plus More!
  There's always a bevy of embellishments, adding grease to the gears.
  Notable mentions:
  A new Forget checkbox on Persons that lets you remove that person from any future data transfers. This only works for Send Basics this year, next year it's universal.
  Groovy sounds! I believe I've figured out Canada's copyright rules, and so now I can give you the complete gaming experience. With the help of Prokofiev's music, let me take you deep into the dark forest of your tax return. From which, with care, you will triumphantly return — dragging the wolf behind you.

New Tax Changes
If you're a single parent receiving UCCB, you can now pass that UCCB on to a dependant and hopefully avoid paying taxes on it. If you claimed an eligible dependant at Line 305, then all the UCCB must be added to their income, which may affect your claim at Line 305. If for some strange reason no claim is made at Line 305, then you can add all the UCCB to the income of any child for whom the UCCB was received; and you declare this by entering all the UCCB at Line 185 and leaving Line 117 blank. There are probably three single parents in the country who are not claiming at Line 305 — Line 185 is all for them.

                  Bugs and Version History

• Version 1.2 lets you edit on Schedule 4 the drop-down list created from the different investment names you've entered. Just double-click any control which contains the drop-down list. Version 1.2 also sets Schedule 6 to print with the default printer, and Rent 1 has been shortened to make it more likely to print on one page. Finally, a "no record" error with Pension Splitter has been corrected.
• Version 1.1 is CRA approved. A privacy act statement had to be added to the forms and the wording of some labels had to be changed from Version 1.0. In all other respects both versions will generate identical returns. I also got rid of a false warning of carry-forwards from last year that don't exist.
• As mentioned last year, some people get Error 3163 when they use Get Basics, see the 2011 Bugs for a work-around.
• Just by accident this summer I discovered that the Sendkeys command messes with the NUMLOCK on your keyboard, and Vista refuses the command altogether giving a "Permission denied" error instead. Surely this is something Microsoft should have widely proclaimed and quickly fixed, and not something I had to unearth! I wonder what other surprises Microsoft is keeping from me? Undeterred, Taxman 2010 gets rid of Sendkeys and hopefully the last of the hidden landmines.

Alfred E. Neuman: "Today, it takes more brains and effort to make out the income-tax form than it does to make the income."   What, you worry?   Not with Taxman here!   When faced with untold pain and suffering, only a madman would refuse free help.

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