Getting a large tax refund each year simply means you’ve remitted too much tax to the Canada Revenue Agency throughout the year, essentially giving the government an interest-free loan.

That’s a bad idea, says Tim Cestnick, author of 101 Tax Secrets for Canadians.

While many employees understand that there’s a cost to overpaying taxes throughout the year, the idea of receiving a refund can be appealing since many view it as forced savings or found money. But it’s still a mistake, Cestnick maintains.

And getting it upfront from a tax discounter, by cheque or loaded onto a debit card, is likely worse. That's because it comes with a catch — a fee that can be as high as 15 per cent of the refund in certain cases — which, when you think of it, is a rather dim way to access your own money.

Cleo Hamel, senior tax analyst with H&R Block, answered many of the MSN audience's pressing tax questions last Friday on our live tax chat. Unfortunately, she was only able to get to a portion of the questions that were asked. Cleo has graciously answered many more questions, which we are posting below.

Questions are grouped by category and the categories are in alphabetical order. Enjoy!

Charitable contributions

1. Question: Is it a good idea to make a charitable contribution each year? How much do you get back?
   Answer: Charitable donations can provide a significant tax savings. You get a 15 per cent credit  on the first $200 and a credit of 29 per cent on every dollar over $200. To maximize this credit you should pool the household receipts and one person will claim the entire amount. Or you can hold on to your receipts for five years and claim them all at once.

It's not quite like winning a lottery, but almost 8.8 million Canadians will be getting a tax refund so far this year.

To date, 13.1 million tax returns have been filed before the April 30 personal income tax deadline. About 86 per cent of those were filed electronically, and the average refund to date is about $1,585.

If you're one of the lucky ones receiving a tax refund windfall, how do plan on spending your new found wealth? 

Well, according to a new study by BMO Nesbitt Burns, many Canadians will be paying off household debt and making investments.

Believe it or not, families are spending more on taxes than they are on the basic necessities of life.

According to a new report by the Fraser Institute, 42.7 per cent of an average Canadian family's income went towards taxes while just 36.9 per cent was spent on food, clothing and shelter in 2012.

And we wonder where our money goes.

Renting out your Florida condo can be a good way to offset some of your costs. But be wary when it comes to writing off expenses, experts warn.

Don't expect to rent out it out for a month or two during the winter and deduct a year's worth of interest and other expenses, for instance. The CRA expects to see such expenses be pro-rated, allowing you to deduct them only for those months when income was actually being earned.

If you've advertised that the property is available for rent but it still remains empty, you may be able to write off the expenses for this open time period. The time spent trying to find a tenant may be considered a deductible expense,providing you can document your efforts.

Forget about deducting the cost of your flight down there, however. And the same rules apply if you're driving.

Did you know there's a rhyme and reason to why you file your income tax return?

It's because it's the right thing to do.

According to the Psychology of Taxes Study by BMO Nesbitt Burns, 52 per cent of Canadians say they file their taxes because they believe its their civic duty. 

It's not unusual during tax filing season to discover that you botched a previously filed return. Ok, mistakes happen. Now what? 

Most people don't realize that they can adjust their tax returns if they miss something and that they can often go back as far as 10 years in certain instances.

If it's a straightforward omission, you can send a letter to your tax centre requesting an adjustment to your return and completeting Form T1-ADJ, a T1 Adjustment Request.

It's a one-page document where you simply make note of the lines on your tax return you'd like to change, provide an explanation at the bottom, and send it in. Generally, there's no need to file a complete amended tax return.

Many Canadians are becoming quite capable "Do-It-Yourselfers" (DIYs) when tackling home improvements.

But it's not only renovation projects they're undertaking on their own... they also prefer doing their taxes that way too.

According to a new report from BMO Nesbitt Burns, almost half of Canadians polled prefer preparing their own income tax returns rather than have someone else do it for them.

And, about 35 per cent have indicated they will be using tax software to help them get the job done.

The Canadian tax system relies upon self-assessment, which means, essentially, that you’re trusted to be honest in your reporting, maintain good books, and hang on to the records needed to support your claim. And most people do just that.

Every year though, the CRA highlights certain areas in search of unreported income like cash-intensive businesses, such as restaurants, for instance.

Recently, CRA has taken to double-checking reported company revenues by indirect means, such as extrapolating total sales based on tip income declared by wait staff.

There's been an appetite among investors, in today's low interest rate environment, to keep more of what are already relatively low yields.

One way to achieve that result is to invest in mutual funds and ETFs that allow an investor to hold a bond portfolio, but enjoy the favourable tax treatment of capital gains. The advantage being that interest income is taxed at your marginal tax rate, while only 50% of capital gains are included in taxable income.

These so-called “advantaged” funds have become extremely popular, so much so that the government is proposing to shut them down, according Finance Misister Flaherty's most recent budget.