It took a long time me to find something I understood about the subject. Finally after years I found the explanation: If you have a profession, no matter how skilled you are and no matter how long you've worked, and you have not made money from it, then your profession is categorized as a hobby. If you make money from your lifelong calling then you can say you have worked. The difference is of fundamental importance when you are filing out your government documents. I have made a lot of money, millions from my work. And almost immediately, once the bread came in, it was taken away by force. hence there is no trace of the bread. Hence I have not ever worked according to the government and my official files.
The issue has come to mind with my current financial situation. I am supposed to be the daughter of the people who called themselves my parents for all my adult life. (Forget being auctioned off as a slave from a prison not far from where I have always lived. Also all my positions and my inheritance were auctioned off. Think $50.00 starting some for millions of dollars worth of stocks or even actual money. think the same sum for a $25,000.00 car. Forget about this). Lets say, for the sake of what I am talking about, that these people were my blood relatives and were benevolent. One of the practical things this means is that for fifty years I took the bus for a two hour bus ride and voyage there and back every week. Because to me, that was reality. the truth was unimportant. the reality was that these people were my parents.
So fifty years have passed and the both of them have died. What did they leave me? They left me, dig this, enough money for now, (the money is not indexed) to live in a women's shelter that you pay from day to day. So far, if I did not have this money I would have to leave.
Now I am a welfare recipient all this time and have the dubious distinction of being relegated to a special category of senior welfare recipient called last resort welfare recipients. The welfare system has been known to jealously and unforgivingly guard its welfare recipients. Its frankly a lifetime calling. They have a reputation to fight to hell so that you will never leave.
What this translates to is that the inheritance that my parents gave me is being scalped so much so that it is now about the same as welfare, give or take a few, way below the poverty line bucks. And as the tax time comes in I am being frankly murdered. I live in my room. I go for walks to entertain myself. I rarely can afford a movie and I go to the library to work. thank god that the library is near with the metro system. here. Which is why I want to stay in the shelter in the first place.
There is much talk about cheaper rent in more distant neighborhoods and no talk about urban sprawl. this is a taboo subject. which is rarely talked about. To me urban sprawl means first of all a great deal of difficulty to get any food at all. (lack of transportation, lack of stores within walking distance).. it also means lack of defence. The dwellings are greatly impersonal to the new comers so that means that social personnel don't or can even begin to care or understand about your feelings or needs. It also means you are defenceless when subject to violent attacks either physically or verbally.
However if things continue to go the way they are the small sum I pay for room and board will not be there. I also, by the way pay for internet and a cell phone. No TV. just that. I go with Bell and Apple which are two dependable services. the amount I pay for this takes up a lot of my income but being socially isolated and also working I feel this is a necessary expense. First of all this is defensive need. I can call for help or directions really fast. Also I get to do my work on a regular basis. I did not have the ability to do this before.
I also pay for the bus pass. every month. this means I can go for my walks free. I cannot even think of paying for an athletic club. Also in the winter I can do my errands inside. And go to the library when I need to.
This takes up most of my bread. I find it hard even to buy the fruit and vegetables I have been trained to eat for a healthy life style. My home believes in a spartan fare. No spices no variety. Sometimes I can't eat it. A lot of times.
So I have been watching in horror as I have been informed that I am to pay yet again 1200 dollars in taxes every year. This is when I start to think. I mean the wheels really start turning. I paid last year this sum and it has been absolutely horrible. I also paid about $600 before this.
According to the will that was read I am supposed to, as one of two heirs, have received property and possessions from my parents. I have never received any documentation of this. I have also never had any slips from the government that I have paid taxes on this. I have received two letters from the government asking for about 150,000 dollars for the property I inherited. My brother says to ignore it. I do not think this is a wise thing to do.
So there is a chartered accountant from the family doing my taxes. My brother has been asking me for some bills that I have to see if I can get some compensation from he government. he wants monthly expenses added up and all of the information put in pdf form. This is two years we have been negotiating this. I have about thirty bills that he considered acceptable to declare to the government.
Meanwhile I have, because I see myself in financial danger, having been subscribing to the QuickBooks bookkeeping system and I have been entering all my bills regularly for about three years. With rent, bus pass, food, cleaning supplies and all sorts of stuff I have hundreds of transactions recorded during the year. I told my brother that his high placed chartered accountant might not like someone who is receiving a last resort financial assistance cheque to be her responsibility and I was going to look into doing my own accountant with he ressources available. I have been contacted by the Canadian government who offered a free service until the 25th of this month. And there is always on the radio H and R block talking about a fee of about $50 bucks to fil your income tax. So I am checking the ressources available. I find accounting system that connects to my bookkeeping system. My transactions are categorized and in the flash of a monkeys tale they are ready to contact the CRA and file my return. Just add money. Its about $75 for the CRA. This is a huge sum for someone in my financial situation. But I can do it.
I have difficulty speaking to anybody. I have difficulty relaxing at all. For years I did not calm down. I just joined last year a meditation app that helps me enormously. I have a simple computer and I subscribe to a security system as was suggested by Microsoft. So $75.oo bucks for the Canadian tax return is large expense. then there is the provincial that has to be filed. I start thinking again.
I am supposed to have inherited some property and possessions from my parents. thank god I won"t be on he street again. My brother says I have them. Then he says I don't. I mean why did I occupy my life around people who leave me destitute without recourse for a lifetime. Its a fucking waste of time.
So I start to think of what I started out with in this article. If you make money then what you do is considered work. If you don<t make money then it is a hobby and you are unemployed. Does this mean ditto for the house and property, the business and the stuff I was supposed to have inherited. (like my name and any money at all?). It seems so. Because I extrapolate. If you pay taxes on your property, etc., and the government receives it, then you own it. If you do not declare it then it is not yours. Up shits creak..
remember the title of this article/ Fighting for welfare. I have a choice. to continue to receive money from a devouring welfare system. Or to rely entirely on the family income. this is what I think is being fought for. the problem. I do not see the family solution to mean anything but forced labor (more than now). Sooner or later that's what it comes down to. Why? If left to recourse of just the family they have practically carte blanche power along with they social ties. If I try to hang on for welfare, they will be at least interested parties. Although they will be hostile they will also be concerned somehow. even competitive. They will be facing the same issues. Talk about the devil and the deep blue sea.
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