Volunteers from Steinbach Community Outreach (SCO) are helping people with filing their taxes, which is a service they offer all year-round. 

They offer their free services for individuals making $35,000 annually or less, and couples or families making $45,000 annually or less. You don't need to frequent SCO to utilize the service. 

Charlene Kroeker with SCO advises people should bring their T4 or T5 slip, any prescription receipts that they've paid for out of pocket, and receipts for services like the optometrist or dentist. 

She adds that if you have children, there are more items you should bring to get your child tax. 

“We'll need to know their names and birthdates, and they can also claim if they've paid for any fun stuff for their kids, like recreation opportunities that they've enrolled their kids in. We need to know their social insurance number and all of that stuff to help them.” 

They provide walk-in services anytime Monday to Friday between 9:30am and 3:30pm.

They take your papers, run through the questionnaire, and then pass the information onto their tax consultants. 

“And then in the evening in their spare time, they will file all of these taxes and then they give the papers back to us.” 

All of their volunteers for the income tax program have financial experience. 

“They are people who have worked at H&R Block in the past, maybe they're retired accountants, businessmen, that type of thing. But some kind of financial background who are doing this in their spare time.” 

She estimates they helped 270 people file their taxes last year, and they have already done over 200 in the current tax season. 

The 2024 tax filing deadline is April 30, but Kroeker notes you can file your taxes at any time throughout the year, and SCO offers their services all year-round. 

“It just means you won't be getting your GST cheques and stuff on their scheduled dates.” 

-With files from Adi Loewen

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