Here Is My Next Set Of Stories

I just felt like writing a bunch of stories over the last little while. 

I have to admit that the cold weather has been quite tiring on me. Oh sure, I still exercise in the house quite a bit, but I did feel much more worn out compared with when it is warm outside. Who knows, perhaps that is because of my age more than anything else.

I do not really have all that much to talk about these days so let me get right into writing about some articles that I have seen recently. Hopefully, as the warmth starts to come back, I will be able to write a lot better than I can now.

SUBMITTING MY INCOME TAX FORMS

The Federal Government is so clever. They hang onto any advanced of my tax money for so extra long. As you know, the deadline for submitting one’s income tax report is April 30. As the Government states:

“Filing due dates for the 2018 tax return

Generally, your return for 2018 has to be filed on or before April 30, 2019.”

I really cannot submit my income tax form or help prepare those of the rest of my family members until at least early March or perhaps even later. This is quite annoying when I suspect that we may have overpaid our taxes and want a refund as quickly as we can get it. How can we submit the tax return when we do not receive all of the required forms from the various companies in which we have put some money to earn some income who have to send us out their forms which we have to provide to the Government as part of our tax return. This, after all, shows our investment income. Their deadline is generally at the end of February which is when we receive a lot of our reports which we can then insert into our tax forms in order to complete it.

I really do pity the accounting people who have to produce so many tax returns that are becoming more and more complicated every year starting so close to the end of the timeframe which they have until the end of the time period allowed to send in tax forms. I can just imagine how hard it is for them to work on such complicated documents for so many people in such a period of time. How many of their customers actually come in quite close to the end of the form documentation timeframe at the end of April and expect the proper response period so that there are no penalties for lateness?

I must admit that life is a bit easier for me than it was before. I always used to complete tax forms previously myself. However, after returning from my hospital stay, I now use outside accountants to prepare the documentation. I have to say that I am not all that happy with it because I do have to pay them a fee, although it is quite a reasonable one for the work that they have to do, but I know that I have received significant tax discounts about which I had no information whatsoever previously because they are so good at their work.

If you have some good dollars that come in every year, I would suggest that you go and see someone who might well be able to help you reduce the amount of money that you have to pay to the Government every year by helping you complete the forms. It is better that you keep the cash rather than send it in just because you do not have the experience in how to deal with this system which has become even more complicated.

IT IS ALSO A SAMSUNG PROBLEM

I saw this story that I do not know very much about:

“CS Wind stops producing wind turbines in Windsor” (Trevor Wilhelm, Windsor Star, March 14, 2019) 

It is quite a tragic story:

“the shutdown was a lack of work after the province cancelled hundreds of renewable energy contracts...

The Conservative government announced it was cancelling or winding down 758 “unnecessary and wasteful” renewable energy contracts in the summer of 2018, claiming it would reduce hydro rates.”

However, the story was important for me because of another aspect of it:

“CS Wind was one of four companies that set up shop in Ontario to build wind towers for industrial giant Samsung. In 2010, the province struck a controversial multi-billion green energy deal with Samsung that included more than $100 million in incentives and an agreement to buy energy at above-market rates.”

I have to admit that I do not know very much about the Samsung deal although I was aware that something was signed involving that Company a number of years ago. I saw this about it:

“South Korean industrial giant Samsung Group signed a deal today with the Ontario government that will see 2,500 megawatts of solar and wind developments and construction of four manufacturing plants between 2013 and 2015. This $7 billion investment from Samsung is expected to create 16,000 jobs — a combination of permanent manufacturing jobs and temporary construction and development jobs.” (Clean|Break, Tyler, January, 21, 2010) 

It would be interesting to know what the position of this deal with Samsung is today. What is the impact of CS Wind and other companies closing down? Does that mean that the transaction worth billions is not working out properly anymore? Who suffers financially if that happens? Has anyone seen anything about this in the last little while? Will we be advised by the Ontario Government about what is going on soon?

Given the amount of money involved and the financial difficulties we are seeing, I would expect one of the parties at least to make some demands immediately to let us know more about what is going on

One small difficulty though. Which party would it be? Would it be the Liberal Opposition Party today which was the Government Party that was involved in setting up this deal in 2010? What would their status be today? Alternatively, would it be the Conservative Party instead who is the Government Party today when this mess is taking place but who was not the Government party back then?

It will be interesting to find out how well this transaction worth so much money has done for this Province.

MONEY TAKEN INDIRECTLY

No, it was not stolen directly from you and me, dear reader. However, the end effect will treat us in the same way. In other words, we will probably wind up having have less money today than we did before because someone will take it from us in an indirect fashion.

Sigh, I saw this story which is troubling financially because I expect I know what is going to happen based on this CBC News report on March 14, 2019. Here is the increase in theft crime compared with last year: 

“2,133 break and enters/attempts — increase of 35 per cent

887 motor vehicle thefts/attempts — increase of 26 per cent

86 thefts over $5,000 — increase of 23 per cent

4,327 thefts under $5,000 — increase of 36 per cent”

Yes, I expect that rates are going to go up and probably pretty high as well given the high percentage increases:

“if [Insurance companies are] losing money in a certain area, the rates for that area will go up, based on each peril, or based on what type of claim it is."

Sometimes certain areas have so much crime that the rates for the areas would go up, "almost to the point where they wouldn't be allowed to have insurance," he said.”

I wonder in the end what our situation will be. I think that you will find out relatively soon from your insurance broker when you are being asked to renew your policy.