The UNB Law tax clinic educates students on Canadian income tax and assists students with their income tax returns. The clinic files tax returns, free of charge, for interested UNB students.
The clinic will be open from March 11 to April 11 in the Gérard V. La Forest Law Library (Room 301B).
Hosted by UNB Law students, these information sessions provide an introduction to filing taxes in Canada and explain the importance and basics of income tax compliance.
Contact tax.clinic@unb.ca for more information.
Tax clinic team: Megan Stewart, Michelle Chippin, Chase Wallace, Amin Tabrizchi, Reza Aghazadeh, Kelechi Owasi.
If your income comes from any of these sources:
Generally, every individual resident in Canada must file income tax returns with the CRA before April 31 every year. This is especially true if the person sold a capital property or has withdrawn money from their RRSP under the Home Buyer’s Plan or Lifelong Learning Plan in the past that they have not yet fully repaid. You are also required to file a tax return annually if you want to receive government benefits such as the child tax benefit or GST/HST credit. Only in some very limited circumstances may an individual be exempt from filing.
We recommend students file their income taxes annually even if they did not have any income to report for the year. The filing allows them to get their tuition expenses recorded with the CRA, which they can use to offset against their income in future years and to have a high tax refund.
Note that you may be considered a resident of Canada even if you are an international student who came to Canada to study for a year.
There are many reasons to file your taxes. As a student, it is possible to get a tax refund from the government if you were employed during the previous year. The government generally withholds income taxes at source and therefore you may qualify for a refund of some of this tax money. Other reasons include taking advantage of the tuition tax credit, the GST/HST tax credit, being able to deduct moving expenses and being able to contribute excess funds into your RRSP. There are also potential penalties for failure to pay taxes.
Generally, Canadian residents on their worldwide income and non-residents on their income from Canadian sources pay income taxes in Canada. For students born, raised and living in Canada, they are almost certainly Canadian residents.
For international students, who came to Canada for study, the answer depends on many factors. This includes if they have a permanent place to live, a spouse or a child in Canada or if they stayed in Canada for more than 183 days in a year.
April 30 every year (for non-business owners).
The CRA is the Canada Revenue Agency. This government agency is in charge of administering and collecting taxes in Canada. They perform this function for the Federal Government and for most provinces, including New Brunswick.
At this stage, we service UNB students (whether domestic or international) and their direct family members (spouse or children) who reside in Canada.
Receiving support for filing annual income tax returns or for clarifying questions relating to it. Note that the clinic’s services are seasonal, generally provided during tax season during March and April.
If you meet one of the below criteria, please see an accountant:
The tax clinic is a student-run pro bono service organization that focuses on helping the UNB student community, while H&R Block is a for-profit business organization. Our clinic offers to help you do your income tax returns at no cost. While H&R Block has a free software for self-filing, services of their experts generally come at a charge.
We sign consent forms through the CRA and provide you with our CRA volunteer number. Further, we delete any documents that contain confidential information as soon as we complete our service to you. Finally, we can meet in person so there is no permanent transfer of confidential information.
No, we can file anyways. However, we recommend you set one up to access your Notice of Assessment (NOA), credits and to set up online banking for direct deposits.
Please call this CRA number: 1-800-959-8281. Remember, the address that you provide them is the one to which they will send your code. Save the error message that you are receiving so they can resolve it as quickly as possible. Generally, it takes five business days from the creation of your CRA account/resolution on the phone to receive the code.
Unfortunately, no, according to the nature of the clinic. The UNB Law Tax Clinic volunteers are only UNB Law students who have been pre-screened, selected and trained for the clinic well before the tax season starts.
