Your Bi-Weekly Challenge: Taxes = Money

I know. You have midterms and you really do not have time to be facing one more of my challenges. In fact, you shouldn’t even be reading this article. Good thing you can save this challenge for reading week, but make sure you get to doing it.

I’m sure that throughout the first couple months of the year, you’ve been receiving all those wonderful and official-looking T-slips and other tax documents through the mail. I hope you’ve kept a hold on those because it’s soon going to be time to start using them.

Canada has a wonderful system for taxes called a “progressive” system (if you want more details, look to pg …..) which means that the people who earn more money pay more taxes. Luckily for students, you can claim all sorts of things to get tax credits. These won’t reduce your net taxable income, but they will reduce the total income tax that you have to pay. Since you might not be making a lot of money at the moment, some of your tax credits can even be transferred to future years or other people. Savvy?

Tips and Useful Reminders

1. Fill in Schedule 11 of your tax returns. This is the spot where you’ll be able to claim stuff like tuition and the education and textbook amounts (for the months you were on-term). These will go into line 323 of your tax returns. Your T2202 (to fill in Schedule 11) can be found on Quest under finance > tax receipts. This sum can then be claimed for yourself, transferred to your parents or transferred to future years.
2. For all of you wonderful people that did not claim your WEEF refunds (remember, WEEF is GOOD), you can claim this amount on line 340 or save the receipts to carry your claim forward to any of the next five years (i.e. when you actually start making a lot of dough).
3. You can also claim your “public transit amount.” Go to http://feds.ca/sites/feds.ca/files/upass-2011.pdf and you can put this amount in line 364 for each term that you paid your FedS fees. Up to 15% of the cost of your U-Pass will be used for tax credits. Any other public transit fees that you paid can also be claimed (assuming you have proof).
4. Moving credits go on line 219. All of us move a lot for co-op. If you move more than 40km for your co-op job, you can claim expenses such as travel, transportation, storage and the cost of meals and temporary accommodation for up to 15 days. You must have income at the location that you move to in order to claim this amount. You can claim for the move to a co-op location if you’re getting paid at that location, but you must have taxable income in Waterloo in order to claim for the move back to school (most scholarships, etc. are non-taxable income). CRA must also be notified of your new address every time you move.
5. For all of you getting close to graduation, once interest starts to accumulate on your government student loans, you can also claim this amount in line 319.

Tax refunds have subtleties and nuances that could not all be covered in this article, but I hope I’ve at least given you an introduction (and if I’ve made any mistakes, please let me know). Take the time during reading week to complete them and read up on any additional perks that you may be eligible for. Some of your friends may be good resources too. Also, talk to your parents/relatives to determine if you’ll be transferring tax credits to them. Tax refund forms are due on April 30^th this year.