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Taxes 101: information for students

Gregory Sawisky - Photo Editor

Each year we greet tax time with as much enthusiasm as a pap smear or a prostate exam. But, just as both of those procedures are important to our health, doing our taxes is important too.

And there is good news. Tax time doesn't need to be stressful or confusing. There are a multitude of services available to students that do taxes for free, or for a reduced rate. For those who feel a little more adventurous, you can even file your own taxes online.

If you've worked at a legitimate job over the past year, you will receive a form from your employer called a T4 slip. I don't know what T4 stands for (total time-consuming tax time perhaps?), but it will tell you how much money your employer paid you, how much tax you paid to the government and how much you contributed to the Canadian Pension Plan among other things. For example, if you made $10,000 at Burger King, your T4 slip would contain that information. It would also say that you paid, I'm guessing here, $1000 of that to the government for tax and perhaps $200 for CPP.

So here's the first reason to file your taxes: free money. In Canada, if you earn less than roughly $11,000 in a year, you pay no federal income tax. So all those taxes that were collected throughout the year can come back to you in one giant cheque. But only if you file your taxes.

Many students prefer to go to an accountant or a commercial service like H&R Block(heads) to file their return. There is nothing wrong with this. Usually they offer a student rate of around $30. If you get a tax return of $1000, that's $30 well spent. The problem here that you need to be aware of is that they are processing thousands of tax returns in only a few weeks and they don't have time to inquire as to your complete life history over the previous year. You need to make sure you bring all your T4's (if you worked more than one job) with you at once. And if you attended university this past year (and if you are reading this there is a good chance you have), you need to ensure that you print off your T2202.

When you attend university, you are allowed to write off the amount of money you paid for tuition on your tax return. For example, if you made $14,000 over the summer (you obviously had a good summer), and you went to school for two semesters and paid $4000 in tuition, then that $4000 comes off of your total earnings so you technically only "made" $10,000. You are now under that magical $11,000 tax bracket again, and you will receive all the money you paid in taxes back!

Your T2202 is available to print from your myTRU account. If you attended another university in 2009, then you can also get a T2202 from there.

Finally, did you have to buy something this past year so you could work? Did you have to buy a hard hat for a contruction site, or perhaps you had to buy black pants and a black shirt to work at a restaurant? If you did, then you can write the cost of those items off on your taxes. But you must have your employer sign a T2200 form. This form basically says that your employer made you incur costs that you were not reimbursed for. Be advised, the cost of your car and gasoline don't count here. Everyone has to get to work somehow. The catch here is that you have to have saved the receipt for the items you bought. If you didn't save the receipt, consider this a good piece of knowledge to squirrel away for next year.

So don't forget to print off your T2202 from your myTRU account, gather all your T4s, get a T2200 signed (if you saved receipts) and file your taxes.