T1 General Software for All Canadian Residents
Free! No Limitations!
But No Netfile and No Quebec TP-1-V
Taxman 2018
Version 2.3 is Ready!
Version 2.3 corrects a problem with Nova Scotia's Schedule 2 (see below at Bugs and Version History for more).
Glad you found me! To make even more money my ISP got rid of the server that served my website and sent me packing. Setting up a new website was easy, but getting Google's search engine to find me again is impossible. I've registered with Google, my site has been inspected, and it's been two months and I'm still lost in the void of the dark web. Google may rule over the internet, but not very effectively.
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How many others are out there floating through the ether with no one to link to? Such a great allegory for death. And I'll lose thousands of people if Google doesn't get its act together real soon. Do you think God is trying to send me a message that it's time to pack it all in? And if you add in that I turned 65 last year — there's a lot of ducks lining up in a row.
CRA has been really late this year. They only started releasing the important forms on December 11 and it took until January 29 before the last of them appeared. For all the years I've been doing this program CRA has started releasing their forms by mid November at the latest. What could have happened this year? It couldn't be because pot got legalized in October, could it?
Legalization was a bit of a let down. I was hoping for a lot of car accidents and drug-crazed youths running wild through the streets. Or at least social workers ripping children from their pot-smoking parents arms. Sadly there was no anarchy at all. Which is not to say that boo-boo bush is not having an effect. How many government workers in critical jobs are having brownies for lunch and giggling their way through the afternoon? To guarantee the integrity of our tax system, we're going to have to start taking blood samples from all CRA staff. Or a least make them walk a straight line before they start work. Wacky tobaccy may increase the GDP, but productivity could plummet. Let's put them under the microscope, just like they do to us. Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we partake of the evil weed.
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Before mailing in that tax return, just to be safe, come back and download the latest upgrade.
If you already have the full Taxman program installed on your computer (it doesn't matter which year just so long as it works), then you only need:
 Taxman2018 Upgrade Version 2.3 (18setup5.exe, 1.9 MB)
Last revised Jan 25, 2020 — see Bugs and Version History for more.
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'.
Download Upgrade Version 2.3
from Google Drive!
After downloading, just double-click 18setup4.exe to install. A shortcut to run the program will appear on your Start Menu and your Desktop. Your data files are 18tables.mdb and taxbiz.mdb — back'em up! During an install your data files, if they already exist, are never replaced, but an uninstall will delete them forevermore. If you used Taxman in the past, go to 'Tools\Data Transfer' on the menu and press 'Get Basics from past year' to update 18tables.mdb with the unlikely to change stuff in 17tables.mdb. After Get Basics runs you'll be asked if you want to update taxbiz.mdb, say No because the structure of taxbiz.mdb is unchanged so the best bet is to hide the new taxbiz.mdb and then point the program to the old taxbiz.mdb (look up 'Data Transfer' in the Help index for more).
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Otherwise you must get the full program, the El Gordo version:
Taxman2018 Full Version 2.0 (18txmf2.exe, 7.4 MB)
Revised Mar 17, 2019
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'.
Download Full Version 2.0
from Google Drive!
After downloading, double-click 18txmf2.exe to install. The first time you install Taxman, if asked, do not replace any newer files that you already have on your computer. Only replace files if Taxman fails to work. Save the file 18txmf2.exe, it may not always be on the internet.
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 New for 2018
The Conservatives filled the tax return with silly little credits which made us chase our tails for a few dollars. They are slowly dying off. This year we no longer have to fuss over bus passes or the first-time donation super credit (which is the one thing I always forgot to ask people about).
Federal Schedules 4 and 12 have been demoted and are now on a worksheet and do not get mailed in. That's because there are no data-entry points on these schedules and CRA never looks at them. BC and NB still have their provincial Schedule 12s and they still get mailed in. But, demoted or not, these federal forms are handy tools to fill in the return with, so Taxman has kept them around. They've just been renamed to Investments and Fed Home Access, and moved to under Worksheet on the menu.
The provinces of NB, ON, MB, and SK all have a new Schedule 14, Climate Action Incentive. It's a refundable credit, which means they'll send you the money, and only one spouse can claim it. I've abbreviated the rules on my version of Schedule 14, so you must read CRA's rules which are over a page long. You also must figure out if you reside outside of a census metropolitan area.
BC now follows the fed's caregiver rules (dependant doesn't have to live with you, but must be infirm). A new Line 5817 replaces Lines 5820 and 5840. Also, BC has dumped the children's fitness and arts amounts, along with the education coaching amount.
Just to confuse things, for incomes under $75,000 NS has added a supplement to the basic deduction, along with the old age, spouse and eligible dependant deductions. The program will do the math for you, Inch'Allah.
SK and ON have joined NB and now only allow claims of unused tuition still unclaimed from the past.
MB has changed or killed more credits than I wished list. Don't worry, they still have plenty left.
Finally, veterans' benefits, if you're 65 or over, can be split with a spouse. It took me a week to factor in yet another variable to T1032 and my pension-splitting code. My mind almost melted down, but all you have to do is enter on the Worksheet what's in box 128 of a T4A. T1032 will be informed and will add it to all the equations.
 Bugs and Version History
- Nova Scotia adds a supplement to the personal and age amounts, which Taxman factored in on Schedule 1 but not on the provincial Schedule 2. Version 2.3 corrects this error. If you've already mailed in your return, before installing Version 2.3, print a copy of the incorrect Schedule 2 so you'll be able to see which numbers have changed. You'll need to fill in a T1-ADJ (which you get to from the button at the top of Persons) with all the boldfaced numbers that have changed on the provincial Schedule 2.
- Version 2.2 has a dozen little changes after the annual program overhaul.
- Sometimes exiting a blank Schedule 7 would wipe out Line 208 without warning you. Version 2.1 fixes that and also changes the thickness of some lines on Schedule 14.
- Version 2.0 now handles accelerated investment incentive properties (whatever they are?), along with a few other improvements.
- Version 1.1 has the 2018 cents/km for travel costs and double-clicking the top of Schedule 3 now brings in the spouse's data. CCA on the employment expense forms (T777) now handles AIIP. The structure of 18tables.mdb, your main data file, has changed. So if you're upgrading over Version 1.0, you have to hide the old 18tables.mdb (rename it), then install Version 1.1 and then use 'Tools/Data Transfer/Get All from same year' to fill up the new 18tables.mdb with the data you have already entered into the program.
- Data transfer doesn't work for some: they get Error 3163 ("field is too small"). For possible cures go to: 2011 Bugs
Whatever you may think of Trump: a man who raises the wages of Mexican auto workers and brings the troops home and cheats on his income tax ... can't be all bad.
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