I can still vividly recall the first time I attempted to complete my own tax return. I was living away from home as a student and had only minimal annual income from my summer employment. Indeed, my income was well below the threshold at which I would have to pay tax due to the basic personal amount. But my friend, Jonathan, convinced me that it was worth filing since by doing so I would be eligible for the GST credit, which, back in the day, was worth nearly $200 — enough to cover almost a month’s rent on my shared student apartment.
So, Jonathan and I got copies of the tax return packages containing numerous schedules and forms, all of which was completely foreign to me. We worked our way through the forms together and after an hour or so of mind-numbingly tedious calculations (which turned out to be pointless since the tax owing was zero), we had completed our returns and mailed them in. Then, that summer, I received my first GST cheque — jackpot!
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