money – Imaginary Sunshine

It looks like tax season

Michelle — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:30:55 +0000

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.

In-tell-a-what?

Michelle — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:50:01 +0000

I am pleased to announce that I’ve actually been paying attention in my psychology class (this prof is so much more engaging than my last one). Oh, and I’m head-over-heels in love with my literature prof’s voice. Not with him, mind you, just his voice. I don’t think that I’d have much luck convincing Clay to adopt a New Zealand accent, so luckily I love his voice too. My chem prof is kind of monotone, but I have a friend in the class this time (yay) and biology… Well… My bio prof is always a laugh a minute (.. or 10 minutes… or 30.)

I also got my very first credit card bill the other day, not sure if I mentioned it or not. It wasn’t too bad (under $100). A lot of it was spent on lunches out with the family, so my parents are paying me back for it (they want me to get ‘experience’ using my credit card and for me to eard the reward points since it’s 1 pt for every dollar) so really… I personally didn’t spend too much. Which is good, since I just spent a bunch of money on my used, but pristine, copies of my English literature books.

My camera? Still MIA, thank you for still being out of stock.

And I was asked this question in my psychology lecture and I figured I’d ask you the question as well:
When you think of the word ‘intelligence’, who are the first five people that you think of?

I’ll let you know the top 10 people that my prof told us were what the general population considered to be intelligent when posed the question in my next blog entry.

The money’s there, kids!

Michelle — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:39:50 +0000

In regards to my previous post about how my account at school wasn’t showing the payment that I made on the 29th: today my account showed that I was owing my school $0.00 and so I decided to check my payment history with my school. They processed the bank transfer (i.e. my school received the money) on January 2, 2009. Which is 3 business days after I had authorized the transfer from my bank account to my school’s. So my school is willing to take the money on the 2nd but they won’t credit my account with the payment until the 5th? I mean, I know sometimes things get held up and all, but you’d think the systems would be synchronized enough that it would have shown the payment earlier. But I won’t bitch and complain about that – my school received the money, all my classes are properly registered with me in them, it’s all good.

Well… Almost. Somehow my school has more snow than my front yard. Normally when it’s snowing where I live, it’s raining at school. There’s just normally warmer weather. But… umm… There’s approximately 3 feet of snow (if you’re measuring it where it hasn’t had more snow piled on or whatnot) in my back yard. At school? There’s close to 4 feet of untouched snow. It’s practically higher than me! But I won’t complain about that. What I will complain about is the drainage at school. Puddles that could masquerade as oceans and no one would know the difference. Boots that are oh-so-wonderfully waterproof but it doesn’t matter because snow can still get in, along with dirty puddle water. Tis the season, I suppose?

Oh, and my psychology prof this term is rather engaging and makes sexually-driven jokes to keep us on track (and my prof isn’t a guy either, shocker) and my English lit prof is the most charming man that I have ever met. Plus he has a New Zealand accent. And he’s charming. Oh, so very charming. He personally introduced himself to everyone as they walked in the door and shook hands and everything.

Am I impatient or they just slow?

Michelle — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 03:24:37 +0000

My arms and legs are no longer red and splotchy and itchy today! I’m back to my regular “No, I hardly ever get any sun – it’s hard to read my laptop screen in bright sunlight, thanks” complexion. At least for my legs. My arms still have a bit of a tan left over from the summer. But my legs? Kinda sickly looking compared to my arms, to be perfectly honest. At least they’re no longer covered with random splotches of red itchiness. Hooray for that.

Today was spent… Ignoring my father’s comments about how my sisters and I are socially incapable of finding “proper boys” to date. Then again, it’s not that we’re incapable of it. It’s just that their definition of proper and our definition of proper are two very different things. But today was the last day of my winter holidays before the start of second term tomorrow in the late morning. Which isn’t that bad, considering the fact that I only have two classes tomorrow and that means I’ll only be in lectures for two hours (mmm, English literature). The problem is that I did a bank transfer to pay for my second term tuition (credit cards aren’t allowed – debit is, but only online or in person and line-ups are going to be insane and I don’t believe my debit limit is high enough to cover it) on the 29th but the bank note states that the transfer will be done on the 30th (… Don’t ask, banks are odd at times). And it’s only supposed to take 2 business days for the transfer to complete and for it to be credited to my account at school. It’s been… 3 business days, still no credit. I still have my payment slip and the bank slip stating that the money was transferred, so I have proof that I did pay for the term so I can contest it if it doesn’t get credited by the last day that tuition is due without having interested charged (the 7th – Wednesday). So I’m going to wait until tomorrow night to see if it’s credited to my account and if not, I’ll annoy the people at the administration building until they credit my account. I really cannot afford to pay tuition twice.

That being said, I’m looking forward to my English literature class (yes, another one) that’s covering years and years worth of literature written by dead people. So excited for that. I’m also excited to unload my biology textbooks on people. I need to pay for my books for English somehow!

What’s short and red all over?

Michelle — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 04:05:57 +0000

Has anyone else been having a lazy day today besides me? My laziness may be coupled with the fact that I’ve been sniffling all day. Oh, plus I opened a new bottle of body wash today and it’s a brand that I’ve used before and loved so I bought the same product with a different scent. Apparently coconut does not agree with me? My arms and legs (where the body wash made contact with first) got really warm first, then started itching like mad. Thankfully I had the sense to stop using it and switched to regular soap. But my arms and legs are still very itchy (especially my fingers!). At least I didn’t do my back, I can’t imagine how much added discomfort it would be for me since I wouldn’t be able to reach it very well. Yay for random allergic reactions? Next time I’m most definitely sticking with the green apple scent, at least that didn’t cause me to break out into a rash. I hope it gets better by tomorrow…

And in happier news, buyers have been finding me to buy my biology textbooks! I have two buyers lined up for two different books ($45 for one and $100 for the other). I got a profit from the first one of $10 but I’m taking a nearly $40 loss on the second one as I had to buy that one brand new as it it was a new edition that the prof insisted we needed in order to use the questions in the book (not available in the older edition) for marks. I’m just glad I have buyers! I can free up some shelf space, maybe go and get my English anthology books that I need.

Icon challenges are still going on! The deadline is January 9th.