Chatelaine Earn Spend Save: The savvy guide to a richer, smarter, debt-free life

Chapter 5. GET YOUR TAX ACT TOGETHER

It's nine o'clock on a Monday night and Estelle is finally sneaking out of her twin daughters' room after getting them down for bed. She rubs her own tired eyes, takes a deep breath, and wanders into the kitchen. Her husband James is up to his elbows in dish water, rinsing the dinner plates and loading the dishwasher, so Estelle grabs the broom and gets busy sweeping the crumbs and pieces of fly-away food that litter the floor.

Before finally crawling into bed at midnight, there's laundry to fold, a couple of light bulbs to change, and a project from work to finish for a meeting the next day. And at the very back of Estelle's mind is one more task she better tackle soon: taxes.

"Taxes" has been on Estelle's internal to-do list forever, it seems. It's already mid-July and she knows that she has been paying interest since the April 30 tax deadline came and went over two months ago. Still, she and James never seem to get around to filing.

"We've been so busy this year with the girls and work, that we just keep putting off doing our taxes," says Estelle. "Besides, half of my receipts are in piles all over the house. I don't even know where to start."

It's not until Estelle and James receive a late-filing notice from the Canada Revenue Agency that they're spurred into action. Although they used to file taxes on their own before their busy twins arrived the year before, the couple realizes that unless they make an appointment with a professional, they'll ...