For many students, university life is a juggling act. Between assignments, part-time jobs, and trying to stay on top of everything, the last thing on anyone’s mind is taxes. This is exactly the case for Alex, a 19-year-old undergraduate student who lives at home with his parents.

Alex’s days are filled with the usual daily chaos of lectures, studying, and pulling shifts at a local coffee shop to help cover his expenses.

He feels overwhelmed by the whole tax filing process. He doesn’t know:

• if he needs to file
• what information he needs
• what happens if he makes a mistake

T4s aren’t so complicated

Alex gets a T4 slip from the coffee shop he works for, but he is still not sure what to do with it.

Alex asks his family’s group chat and his younger brother tells him about an online course he is taking at school. It’s called “Learn about your taxes” and gives simple tutorials on how to do taxes.

Finding easy tax tutorials online

Alex checks out the “Learn about your taxes” tutorial and, to his surprise, he finds the course clear and user-friendly for beginners. It walks through the basics of taxes, including key documents he needs to do his taxes.

He finds out his T4 shows how much he earned and what taxes were deducted. He just needs to enter the amounts from his T4 on his tax return.

Alex also learns that all tax documents should be saved for at least 6 years, in case the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) asks to see them later. He finds a sturdy box and starts an envelope with the tax year written on it. He feels very grown up!

Tips are taxable

Alex has always treated his cash tips from the coffee shop as extra pocket money, so he doesn’t keep track of it. But now he realizes that those tips are taxable income and must be included in his tax return.

Initially, this feels unfair, but the course explains how reporting all of his income could work in his favor, including:

• helping increase his RRSP contribution room
• improving his standing for future loans or mortgages

Reporting all his income also helps Alex avoid penalties from the CRA.

Filing taxes with confidence

It’s mid-April. Alex is using tax software to file his taxes online before the April 30 deadline.

Now that he understands the process, Alex knows that filing his income tax and benefit return is about more than just following the rules. It is a way to:

• get benefit and credit payments
• claim deductions that could reduce taxes owed or even lead to a refund

As a student, Alex may be able to claim:

• Tuition tax credit
• Disability tax credit
• Interest paid on student loans
• Moving expenses

Doing your taxes isn’t too scary

After filing his taxes for the first time, Alex feels oddly proud, like he’d leveled up in real life. Wanting to share the moment, he posts a quick story on Instagram.

He didn’t expect much, but later that night, a reply popped up.

The message made him smile. It was warm, curious, and a little flirty in tone. As they messaged back and forth, the topic quickly drifted from taxes to classes, to favourite music, and then to late-night confessions about what they wanted to do after graduation.

And just like that, one step into adulthood turned into the first step toward something entirely unexpected.

Stay tuned as we introduce Neena.