This time of year is one of the most stressful. It is the time when all my receipts need to be gathered together to prepare a package for the accountant who will be charged with doing my income tax preparation. Usually, we have received all medical reimbursements by this time, so the medical file not only details the expenses (both allowed and disallowed) but also includes all the receipts. Because we have not yet received all the reimbursements from the insurance company, my wife and I are reluctant to let the receipts out of our control. Insurance companies can be pretty stingy, and many times, they will lie and tell you that you forgot to file a claim. Your only recourse is to re-file. Anyway... this year, we have several thousands of dollars in outstanding medical expenses that have yet to be reimbursed, and I think those will be allowed as claims against income (I really don't know the details of tax filing any more, since this will be the fourth year in succession that we have allowed an accountant to file our taxes for us).

The preparation took about two hours, and then I took time to finish some homework for the course I've been taking at work. All together, those two activities have more or less taken up the entire afternoon.

Tomorrow, I will once again try to get in touch with the insurance company to inquire about outstanding claims. Unfortunately, the company didn't expect that Canadian residents would need to file claims with a U.S. company, so their toll-free number does not work from Canada. Furthermore, they have no published direct dial number (why would they need one - the entire country can call toll-free).

I'm not complaining too bitterly, because I'm still on the good end of the equation (working for U.S. dollars but spending them in Canada). But it does have it's down side.