Students & first-time filers
If you studied in Canada last year, you should almost certainly file a tax return — even if you earned nothing at all. Filing with no income is what unlocks the quarterly GST/HST credit, and it registers the tuition on your T2202 so it is carried forward and reduces your tax in the years after you start working. Students who did work usually get a refund, because too much tax is typically withheld on part-time pay. We file for students at Conestoga, the University of Waterloo and Laurier every year, in person or entirely online. If this is your first Canadian return of any kind, our guide to filing your first tax return walks through the whole thing.
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This is the single most common thing students get wrong. A return with zero income is not a pointless return — it is how the CRA knows to start paying you the GST/HST credit, which is real money paid out four times a year, and how your tuition gets recorded for future use.
Students who skip filing in their first year often lose out on credits they could have had, and then have to file those years later anyway.
Your tax situation depends on your residency status for tax purposes, which is not the same thing as your immigration status. It turns on your ties to Canada — where you live, whether you have a home, a spouse, dependants, a bank account, a driver's licence.
Most students living in Canada through the year are treated as residents for tax purposes and file an ordinary return. It is worth having someone confirm which category you fall into rather than guessing, because it changes what you can claim.
If you worked on or off campus, you will have a T4 and there is usually a refund waiting. If you have moved onto a post-graduation work permit, your return gets a little more involved — and if you have started driving or freelancing on the side, that is self-employment income and needs a business schedule. We handle all of it in one return.
What it costs. Student returns are $45 when you have one T4 and one T2202. A return with no income at all is $40. If your situation is more involved, we confirm the price with you first — there is never a surprise.
See the full price listYes, and this is the most common mistake students make. Filing with zero income is what starts your GST/HST credit payments and records your tuition for future years. It usually puts money in your pocket rather than costing you any.
For tax purposes this depends on your ties to Canada, not on your visa. Most students living here through the year are treated as residents and file a normal return. We confirm this with you before filing — it is a quick conversation.
Your T2202 from your school, any T4 slips from work, your SIN or ITN, your arrival date in Canada, and your rent receipts or landlord details if you want to claim the Ontario Trillium Benefit.
Yes. We file prior-year student returns regularly, and any credits you missed are often still payable. See our page on filing late returns.
Completely. Send your documents through our secure upload or by email and we will handle everything remotely — a lot of our student clients never come in.
A free, no-obligation consultation — in person in Kitchener-Waterloo, or entirely online from anywhere in Canada. Complete information means we can start the same day.
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