Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 11/02) - Ken Belfry, a former Hudson's Bay employee, started doing taxes for friends 15 years ago. He found out that he could use his tax skills to help out more people -- and make a living at it.

So he formed Robin Hood Tax Service.

When Ken Belfry isn't filling out tax forms, he spends his time travelling around Europe and Asia. - Nathan VanderKlippe/NNSL photo

Why did you come up with the name Robin Hood?

Well, I didn't. The way the business started, the customers started it. I was helping family and friends, and then it was friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends. People were always offering money but I declined. I took wine and stuff, though. But then the wine was piling up so I figured I'd take money. The name Robin Hood came because I would discover deductions they didn't know about. I would go back through tax returns and make adjustments, and get thousands of dollars that they had been missing all that time. It was, "Oh, this is like Robin Hood -- taking from the rich and giving it to the poor."

Everybody views themselves as poor at tax time.

Why did you go with the door-to-door approach?

Because of the history of the business where just a friend would ask. I would walk to their place after work instead of my place, and look at their slips and things and eat dinner and then do their taxes.

When I started the business I just kept up with the same technique of going to people's place. It was a lot more interesting and Yellowknife was smaller and easier to drive around. A lot of my customers, maybe they were a bit shy and didn't like going to professional offices. They're used to going to an office, paying a lot of money, getting treated badly and getting screwed by somebody in a suit.

What sort of unusual places have you met people at?

Maternity ward. There's the odd woman who is in town having a baby and she's brought her T4s and things with her, and she wants to get her taxes done. I've been to the mines, to the houseboats, to the little huts in the woodyard, the campground and airport.

Have you done it at a bar?

I decline to go to bars. People do better at taxes with less alcohol.

You don't seem to have an awful lot of good to say about Revenue Canada.

We're supposed to have some democratic, law-abiding principles, but the government and Revenue Canada seem to have exempted themselves from that. For instance, "innocent until proven guilty." No, they send you a bill and you have to prove to them that you're innocent. Plus, they're the prosecutor, the jailer and the judge, and the government makes the rules. Only a small number of individuals take them to task for it and whup them and then they're as quiet as possible about it.

You're one of those who whups them every once in a while?

Yeah, they don't mind. It's their job. Most people make a big mistake when they're dealing with Revenue Canada: they ask for too much on the phone, they ask the wrong person and they yell at them and swear and make silly threats.

When I deal with Revenue Canada, any person to person thing is sort of chummy. I can argue with them all I want about tax matters and their department, but I never make it personal. You're never going to resolve a tax situation by calling names and slamming the phone.

See, they'll never admit it but if swear at them and call them names and hang up -- then somehow, miraculously, within a month or two these letters start to show up in the mailbox where they're just routinely checking on everything in the last several years. It's a sense of humour they have.

How did you get up to Yellowknife?

Back where I come from (Grey County in Ontario), when I got out of high school it was easy to find a job. But less than a year later I got laid off. I couldn't find another good job and I ended up in Toronto, working at the airport. I got sick of that and figured I would go out to visit my brother in Alberta.

I travelled around, including up in Alaska and the Yukon and I really liked it. I figured I'd like to see the Northwest Territories. There were virtually no roads, and I knew it would be expensive to fly, so I figured I would work myself around.

There was an ad in the paper: "Hudson Bay Company, we're hiring." So I applied, had an interview. And they said, "How far North can we send you? Brooks, Alta. Maybe Peace River or something?" They had a map, and so I pointed to the North Pole. "Sorry, no store at the North pole." So I started at Tuktoyaktuk, and that was the start of that.

When was this?

1983. I was young. I did that for a while and came here. I lived in Fort Norman and some other places. I was a baby-sitter for the RCMP in my spare time, and I worked in Iqaluit, too. I got posted for three weeks but it was a lot longer. Cruel. Lies! I showed up there, and "where's your stuff? You're allowed 2,800 lbs."

"Well I'm only here for three weeks."

"That's what they tell everybody."

I had to buy a parka before I left. I've been living here since Nov. 1, 1986.

What do you do in the off-season?

I'm just a corpse at the end of tax season. So rather than sit around here all the time, I travel in Europe. After a while that gets boring, statues and everything all that time, so I started picking up any old odd job on the side -- volunteering, tutoring, teaching some English and helping out at an orphanage.

It used to be cheaper. The dollar was good and it's nice over there. I liked the food, I ate my way around and I would study certain topics. I would stay with friends or go camping and travel around on ships and trains and get passes.

Did you have a favourite place?

Oh, a few. I like Denmark. I've still not seen all the museums there. Apparently, there's one the size of a medicine chest. I check out the farms and go fishing and shopping -- shopping is good. And I usually buy Christmas gifts over there.

How many languages do you speak?

I'm one of those "necessity is the mother of invention" kind of guys. I pick them up fast but if I don't use them all the time, I lose them. Until I went to Russia, I had at least survival level in the language of any country that I went to.

When I first went to Russia I only knew "da" and "nyet," "glasnost" and "perestroika" and Soviet. And for "da" and "nyet" I had to think back to that "Hogan's Heroes" where Col. Hogan is convincing Sgt. Schultz and Col. Klink that the Russians are coming and they've got to learn Russian to make friends. So I always had to think back to that.

When I first started going to Europe, especially out in the boonies, it was best to know the local language. But nowadays it's shocking. English is the language of all the airports and tourist districts, and it seems everybody except farmers and fishermen speaks it.

You must have a bit of a different perspective every time you come back to Yellowknife from abroad.

I used to think people were spoiled a lot. But nowadays I have absolutely no tolerance for anyone who complains about not enough money or a hard life.

When I first started going to Russia, it was around ruble crisis time and people were starving on the streets, old people hadn't received pension cheques for months on end and had no medical care really. A lot of places had no water or heat. Life there is very difficult.

We're actually quite fortunate here. Barring a few jet-set places, for ordinary people Yellowknife is probably the most wealthiest place on earth. People get paid for working on their jobs, you can drink the water that comes out of the tap....

What should people know about the Northern residents deduction?

A common misconception is that it's linked to how much you paid for your accommodation. The truth of the matter is it doesn't matter how much you paid and it doesn't matter if you pay anything. Another myth is that, even though Revenue Canada explains it well, you have to be in a prescribed area, or a group of them, for at least six months to make a claim. But that six months doesn't have to all be in one year.

Another misunderstanding about the Northern residency is that you have to make the residency claim to make the travel claim, but the fact of the matter is you only have to be entitled, in other words reside here, to make a travel claim.

If you're ever going to share your accommodation with anybody, even if you're letting them stay for free in your home, make it very clear before they move in, preferably in writing, how the Northern residency is going to be shared.

I estimate that Yellowknifers throw perhaps $2 million to $3 million on tax savings in the garbage or on the streets -- that's my estimate.

They don't need amazing sneaky off-shore tax havens or anything to save on their taxes. Just keep all receipts.