Free tax assistance for low-income earners
by Alysha Wilson
Ethan Gillespie is an 18-year-old mechanical techniques student at Loyalist College, and until now he did not know what a T4 could do for him. He has had part-time jobs and has received the meaningless slip of paper but never knew what to do with it.
A T4 has information on it about a worker's hard earned income for the previous year. It states how much the worker made, and how much tax they paid the government.
Families and people of low-income earnings like Gillespie are able to receive free tax assistance through Revenue Canada's "Community Volunteer Income Tax Program."
"We assist low income earners with the preparation of their tax return," says Green, a volunteer with the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program.
Green is a volunteer in the program running out of the community of Tyendinaga. The program is run by volunteers for Revenue Canada and is based in communities all over the country. There are a number of volunteers who work out of a computer lab at First Nations Technical Institute. The college has opened its doors for the volunteer program to use free of charge.
Green says, the program is open to any one individual and has been in the area for seven years, and has been coming to Loyalist (specifically the Aboriginal Centre) for the last couple of years.
Green says he receives calls all year round by people who have missed their tax deadlines. He then proceeds to help them get back on track.
The service the volunteers provide is free and open to low-income earners of all ages.
Green and Nora Brant, another volunteer, do tax clinics throughout March to get people geared up for tax season, which is not always a pleasant time for some people.
Brant is also acting co-ordinator this year and a volunteer as well. She says businesses cannot use this service; individuals are the only one with the service available to them.
"I think it's fantastic actually, I didn't expect companies to actually charge," says Brendon Fung, an 18-year-old television and new media student.
Although Fung has never needed to do his taxes, he understands the basic outline of what happens during tax season.
After they have calculated the person's income from the previous year, they take a percentage of the tax taken from the paycheques. The percent taken by the government depends on how much the individual made. After the government gets their share, they give the rest back.
If the person didn't get enough taken off of their cheques through the year, they will owe the government money rather than receiving money back.
Tax season is avoided by some and unheard of by others. Many people drop their T4s off at H&R Block, not caring that they lose a percentage of their return, just glad to have gotten some money back. H&R Block charges 15 per cent (45 dollars) for the first three hundred dollars of what the individual will receive back and five per cent (5 dollars per every one hundred dollars) for everything after that. Students are charged a flat fee of $31.45 including GST. |
