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Awesome Teacher Ditches Car and Moves for Work in a Canoe, Beats the System

Teachers are awesome, whichever way you look at it. This Canadian teacher is twice as awesome, though, after finding a very smart way to beat the system and get the state to accept his moving expense claim as deductible from tax income.
Teacher moves for work in a canoe to test Canada's income tax law 7 photos
Photo: cbc.ca
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John Konecny spends half his time in Whitby, Ontario and half in Ottawa: he teaches in Ontario for the entire academic year and then moves to Ottawa to teach during the summer. For almost 3 decades, he was able to deduct his moving expenses from his income, under Canadian law, the Income Tax Act.

Then, in 2014, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), decided that moving to Ottawa for the summer wasn’t as much for work as it was for fun. A judge even called the relocation a “working vacation” and suggested that Konecny was up to defraud the system by making false claims.

Konecny didn’t spend a fortune on moving, but it was still money he wasn’t willing to pay since he was entitled to it by law. He took the matter to tax court where, to his surprise, he lost. Not only was the claim disallowed, but he also lost about $3,000 in court fees. So he made up his mind to fight the decision.

“I guess my position with the government is, ‘Don't allow me to do something repeatedly under the law and then tell me 20 years in that I'm not correct’,” he tells CBC.

The judge suggested that, in order for his expense claim to be allowed, he should change his driver’s license and get receipts for paid subscriptions in Ottawa, to prove that the move is legitimate. Instead, Konecny ditched moving by car (or moving truck, or plane, bike, or any other means of transport you can think of) and opted for a canoe.

He calls the whole thing a “Monty-Python-esque farce,” one that saw him load food and his belongings (and a bike) in a fiberglass canoe and paddle down Rideau Canal. On his way, he went through 5 provincial parks and religiously kept admission fee receipts, including for campfire wood and for the ice bags that kept his food and insulin cold.

In the end, the mission was a success: the CRA allowed his claim as legitimate and he became the first man to “successfully claim expenses for a move by canoe since the Income Tax Act underwent a major rewrite in 1972,” CBC says.

However, this is only a temporary victory, which leaves Konecny planning for his next relocation. “So my friends have suggested a really great move would be dog sled,” he laughs.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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