u/GiantReignPanda

Before I begin, please no mean or rude comments. I'm already going through enough at the moment. Thank you.

About my situation:

In 2021 I filed my income taxes, and made below 30k from my employer.

My Notice of assessment came in through the mail in August 2022, stating the government owed me around 150$.

One month later, in September 2022 I moved to Germany for a job opportunity, full time and was no longer a Canadian resident (although I am a Canadian citizen), I lived and worked full time in germany and had no ties to Canada for those full two years. I was paying taxes in germany, I had health care, and I had german residency. No ties to Canada.

During those 2 years in Germany, I kept the same address on file for the CRA (my home address in Canada where my parents live). In those two years, the government never sent me any letters about my taxes, I never recieved any updates and I thought everything was O.K. since last time I heard from them, they owed me 150$ in 2021.

Now that I am back in Canada, I am working on filing my taxes for 2025 (2023 and 2024 are entered as 0 because I was not a CA resident)

After 5 years, it turns out the government recalculated my 2021 taxes, and since then, I have owed them money, all because I pulled out money from my education fund to pay for my tuition fees. When they recalculated my taxes for 2021, they taxes me on the education fund money I pulled out, but they never sent me a new statement and the never sent me a letter in the mail. (So I don't know how much I owed them because I don't have access to my CRA account)

After all this time, no letters, no phone calls, and no idea I've owed them money from my recalculed 2021 taxes.

Now, as I am filing my 2025 taxes, I find out I have had interest built up and I owe both the federal and provincial government (QC) around 4000$ (8000$ total for both) and I am flabergasted. I had absolutely no idea, no communication from them. No letters sent to my house in Canada (where my parents live and where I always received my past notices of assesments in the past)

When I was living in Germany, I had my own problems to focus on. I had german immigration documents to deal with, I had my own work permit stuff to manage (it was incredibly stressful. I was alone, and had to wait in line with refugees at 5am infront of immigration offices to get an appointment time because there were no appointments available to book online). The german government lost my application twice and I was alone at 22 years old with no one to help me. It was stressful times.

I was so preocupied with my life in Germany, with all the stuff I had to deal with there, that I had no time to think about Canada. And in my defence, why would I have to worry if I thought I never had to owe them money, since I am only working in Germany?

When I spoke on the phone to someone the other day from the CRA, they said when I filed my taxes for 2021, it is indicated that I opped in for the option "receive communication via online". I had no idea this option was checked off, and I also never ever logged into my CRA account because I always just got my stuff in the mail. So how is this my fault?

I want to file for request for interest relief.

Is my situation valid to request for interest relief?
What arguments are strong enough for my case? Does anyone have any advice on the best thing for me to do when stating my request for interest relief in my letter?

I also saw on the provincial government for Quebec, they say you can't apply for a request for interest relief if it has been more than three years...and clearly for me its been over 3 years...so I feel like I'm fucked for the provincial...is there any way I can still apply even though its been since 2021?

(This is not related, but my family has always been living on the poverty threshold line. I did not grow up wealthy and my family struggled to make much money when growing up. So for me paying 8000$ in taxes due to a stupid mistake I had no idea about is A LOT of money for me. While I was living in Germany, I found out my father was living in his car for 6 months due to him being homeless. (a very long story I don't want to get into) So yeah this situation adds a lot of financial stress on me.)

Today around midnight I was driving on St-Denis approaching Mont Royal, and saw a young guy walking aggressively on the street with a knife in his hand. I honked for him to move out of the way and he continued to walk fast and agressive but moved towards the side between the bike path and road, still with the knife in his hand.

We locked eyes multiple times when I drove by him slowly and tried to take a picture.

I felt a strange feeling with the way he looked at me, deranged and angry with crazy eyes.

Called 911 a minute later describing the situation and the appearance of the person.

A police officer called me back 5 minutes later thanking me for phoning in and telling me they caught the guy and they have him now. They asked me some more questions and said good evening.

I don’t know what could have happened if I didn’t call the police, maybe some innocent people would’ve been stabbed. Who knows. But at first I hesitate and didn’t want to be dramatic, calling 911 for something maybe not “important”.

But in the end it really is. So this is a friendly reminder to phone in and trust your instinct.

🙏

Edit: the streets and bars were crowded on st. Denis while this guy walked by everyone. No one seemed to be bothered by him (or no one noticed). But I did, and saw this person was clearly not well and possibly planning to hurt someone.