Mrs. C8j came up with this one, an interesting question too (actually a group of questions):
- When should you start filing tax returns for your kids?
- When should the kids start doing their own darn taxes?
For us, we started filing tax returns for our kids as soon as they started earning money. They already had their own SIN numbers, so submitting it was not an issue.
The question that arises now is when do I hand over to them their tax files and say, “Go Be Free!” ?
I must admit that doing their taxes while they are at University was an advantage for me, since it was much easier to then transfer their tuition credits to my own tax return, however, eventually they are going to have to figure out how to do it themselves (I suppose). It’s funny that schools never really offer courses on doing your own taxes, not even seminars or the like.
I think Universities and Colleges would do well to teach this, since even with software (I learned on those darn long forms, with pencil and pen) it can get intricate quite quickly (especially if you are carrying tuition credits from University and even more Loan Repayments for school as well).
When is the best age to get kids to do their own taxes, or should the parents just keep doing them until the child asks to do it?
I started doing my own taxes at 16 and if my kids do any work when they’re 16 that’s when they’ll start doing their taxes too. A T-1 Short is hardly going to strain their brains too much. (OTOH many university-age kids have a harder tax return to figure out than most working adults.)
They already watch us do our taxes every year, so they know the drill even if they haven’t added the numbers yet.
I’ll start them on paper first (a) because I’m cheap and (b) because I think some people are intimidated by the paper form and I don’t want them to be.
I find it funny that people are hesitant to use the paper form because it stays still and you can see all parts of it easily and it can’t mysteriously erase, double, or lose any data. It’s actually simpler than a program!