Thompson Rivers University’s third-year business students will offer a free community tax workshop on March 6th.

The one-day workshop doesn’t just benefit tax payers though, the students gain practical experience and make links with the outside community. “This is especially valuable to international students who often lack work experience in Canada,” said Ivan Desjardins, the instructor teaching the taxation course at TRU. “This gives them the opportunity to put into practice skills that they have acquired in their taxation courses as well as working with other students as a team.”

The workshop is designed to teach members of the community the basics of the Federal and Provincial tax system and to be able to use tax preparation software in the preparation of a simple tax return.

Contrary to the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVIPT) offered by the Federal Government where participants have some one prepare their tax return on their behalf, this workshop will teach participants how to prepare a simple tax return on their own. We plan to teach the participants “how to fish” rather than giving them a one time meal.

TRU students assisting in the delivery of the workshop are mainly in the third year of the BBA program. These students have already taken the first taxation course last semester (BBUS 322) and are now enrolled in the second tax course (BBUS 323).

Workshop details:
• free of charge to participants.
• March 6th from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, (Bring your own lunch).
• Rooms IB 2004 and IB 2006 located in the International Building of the Kamloops Campus.
• Limited to 40 participants, selected on a first come first served basis. People who have participated in last year’s workshop will only be accepted if space is still available after accepting all first time applicants.
• Participants must have access to e-mail and to the internet from home.
• To apply, participants must contact Ivan Desjardins at: idesjardins@tru.ca and indicate “TRU Community Tax Workshop” in the subject line of their message. Individuals will be contacted by e-mail to inform them if they have been selected to participate and to provide them with further details about the workshop.
• Participants must have a valid social insurance number which they must have access to during the workshop. This number is needed in order to be able to use the tax preparation software.
• Participants will be given a tax simulation package to work with and therefore should not bring their own tax materials to the workshop.