Meet Tom (not his real name or picture).
Tom spent all his life working in corporate T&T. He is now a Supervisor in his department. More importantly, he has reached the time in his career when retirement is approaching…actually, it’s next year.
As with most people around this stage the topic of pension and overall finances are forefront in their minds. One thing that comes with pensions is taxes and more specifically, ‘Do I owe the state any money?’.
See Tom, like most employees was never in the habit of filing a TD-1 Declaration or his annual Tax Returns. He also wasn’t in the habit of double-checking his taxes annually to determine if the amount of taxes he was paying was accurate.
He decided to reach out to Simple Tax for a consultation and to get his Tax Returns filed for the past six years (the Inland Revenue Division in T&T would not process returns that are over six years old because it is considered Statue Barred).
Turns out that during those six years Tom had numerous tax credits and deductions which entitled him to refunds amounting to over $20,000; which he has since received. This made Tom very happy.
However, the sad thing was, based on Tom’s financial documents for years further than six years ago he was entitled to much more money. He was losing money because he never applied for his deductions or refunds.
The point of this account is, do not wait until retirement is looming to get your taxes assessed. However, if that time is upon you…then do not wait any longer.
Use this Tax Calculator to assist with your self-assessment or you can Sign Up with Simple Tax and get a free consultation.