With all the commericals on television and all the (stupid) advertisements in the newspaper, it’s kind of hard to miss the fact that it’s tax season. I mean, really, like receiving my 2008 tax package that needs to get filled out back in January wasn’t a hint at all! That being said, I don’t mind tax season… For the most part.

I keep on reading blog entries about massive tax refunds and other awesome influxes of money into people’s bank accounts. Me? Umm… Well for one, I haven’t filed taxes yet (and they’re not due until sometime in April). And there’s a very good reason for this: I don’t have all my forms yet. Yes, I just printed off the T2202A form (Tuition and Education Amounts Certificate) for the 2008 year. I also printed off my Transit Tax Credit (which makes me smile, because without being enrolled in post secondary, if I were to have paid full price, it’d be more like $1920 for the full year) form. So all that is currently missing is the forms I need from work (from last summer) and whatever RESP forms that I get (even though I don’t get any of the money – I’m still bitter about this, by the way).

I don’t anticipate getting a whole lot of money back, considering I talked things over with the person who does Accounts Payable at work and she reversed all the income tax that was taken off of my paycheques and I got the thousand dollars back on my last paycheque (which was really nice). So I won’t be getting a refund because of that, but there’s a lot of tax credits that might end up with me getting something back. Poor post secondary students always love getting money back (hello, tuition for next year!). Plus, being 19 makes me eligible to get at least $75 (CAD) for, I believe it’s the PST or GST credit? It’s either some kind of tax credit or just money for not making enough and being way below the poverty line despite being a dependent. Or something like that.

So I’m going to get to filling out my tax forms relatively soon (whenever my former work place gets around to giving me the appropriate forms – which should be in early March, as I was told). And then sending it off before the deadline so that I can get a cheque (hopefully…) before the end of April. Of course, the end of April is also when I’m going to be unloading every single textbook that I no longer need nor require because there’s at least a thousand dollars worth of books sitting on my shelf. If I can’t find student buyers for them, I’ll do the buyback at the bookstore… I just need to get rid of them all!

Questions for you all!
1. Do you use any form of tax software to fill out/file your income taxes?
2. Which software do you use and do you find it easy to use?
3. Do you have an accountant that does your taxes for you?

My answers:
1. Nope.
2. I’ve never tried using any form of tax software.
3. Or an accountant. I fill them out myself and usually have someone look over my draft copy before I fill it out in ink.