It's that time of year again...TAX TIME!

Hey UTSC!

For many of you first years, you've probably never filed your taxes. If you do know what they are, great job on the head start! For those of you who haven't, lucky for you being an undergrad, UTSC does your taxes for you, or rather. help you do most of it and best of all, IT'S FREE!

Follow these steps to success:
Go to the market place anywhere from 11AM-5PM
Be prepared, you have to bring the following things in order to do your taxes.

1. University of Toronto student T-Card
2. Passport *only required for International Students at UTSC
3. Income Tax Number (ITN) letter or Social Insurance Number (SIN) card (NOTE: If you do not have a SIN card or ITN, please contact the ISC for assistance)
4. Direct Deposit Information or VOID Cheque (information required from your financial institution: Account #, Branch #, & Institution #), is necessary to set-up the direct deposit of your tax refund
5. A Canadian address where your tax letters can be mailed back to you during Summer 2012. (NOTE: If you will be leaving Canada for the summer 2012 for vacation, please make alternative arrangements to secure a local mailing address (examples: friend or family member’s address, Canada Post mail box rental, etc.)
6. Rental receipts for any off-campus housing or a copy of canceled/returned cheques/money orders/bank drafts you used to pay your landlord (NOTE: students living on-campus in UTSC’s Residence do not require any receipts)
7. T2202A – 2011 Tuition, Education and Textbook Amounts Certificate Form (can be printed from ROSI under “tax forms”)
8. T5 Slips – Mailed in January-early March 2012 directly to you by your Canadian financial institution if you have a high interest bank account, GIC and/or investment (contact your financial institution for details)
9. TTC Monthly Passes, TTC Weekly Passes, or Go Transit Monthly Passes and receipts of purchase
10. T4 Slip (if you were employed and paid in Canada during the tax year of 2011)
11. Any receipts of charitable donations you made
12. 2010 Notice of Assessment (if you filed your income tax return last year)
13. Your CRA Netfile Access Code if you have previously filed your taxes before and are eligible to file your tax return electronically.

Some of these might not apply to you, go through item carefully!

Before the process you have to sign a form saying that a volunteer is helping you and does not represent the Canadian Revenue Agency etc. They verify your information, ask you various questions and then you make an account on UFile. It's the tax papers software. So basically you plug in information and numbers and after all that, you get an estimate of the tax refund, before you get all excited, you have to understand that this amount is divided by four and sent out every 2-3 months.

After all of that, you get a copy of your tax forms, you have to print about 30 pages, so make sure your TCard is loaded. All you have to do is put those pages in a envelope, put your address on it, put a stamp on it, and send it. VIOLA! You're done.

Basically, when you file your taxes, you are claiming that GST back, that "30%" which is deducted say for example on your pay cheque. So you getting a tax return is you getting that 30% back.

As some of you may or may not know, it is the last week of work study and this may or may not be my last blog post (most likely not). I'd just like to say thanks for tuning in and reading my rants, opinions, critiques, etc. I'd like to say, that first year is and always will be hard, once you get through the train that is first semester, second semester is a wee bit less difficult, we have a reading week.

Although I love UTSC, I'll be taking a break. I'd like to wish my fellow bloggers of today and tomorrow the best of luck.

Epic Quote of the week: "To all the women in Pakistan who are working for change, don't give up on your dreams. This is for you" Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy's Oscar speech (HOLLA!)

Epic Video of the week: