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Student Life

Squeezing stones, students file their taxes

Posted by David Rhinehart ⋅ February 29, 2012 ⋅ 1 Comment

Filed Under irs, money, students, taxes, USF

Tax return forms can seem intimidating to people who have never filed before. Photo Credit: David Rhinehart

April 17 is a date that some students have to be well aware of, and file their tax return by, or they will face the wrath of the IRS.

Mason Chilmonczyk, a sophomore at USF, filed his tax return at the start of February. His filing status is an independent, something most students don’t have to deal with. Independents are people who are financially responsible for themselves and cannot be claimed on anyone else’s taxes.

“My taxes are easy because I make so little money,” Chilmonczyk said. “I like taxes though, because without them I wouldn’t be going to school. I would actually like higher taxes, but that’s because I’m a godless liberal.”

Nicole Alese, a senior at USF, had her parents file her tax return for her. She doesn’t know how to file and said she’ll learn when she makes more money. Alese also said that taxes are necessary. She just wants all of the taxes to make sense.

“I don’t file my own taxes,” said Chris Thompson, a sophomore at USF. “I called my mom the other day to ask her to do it, and she already had. I’ll learn how to do it, eventually.”

Thompson sees the importance of taxes but doesn’t want to care about them until he has to.

Nathan Tracy, a junior at USF, hasn’t bothered to learn how to file his tax return, either.

“I didn’t learn how to do my taxes,” Tracy said. “I learned the hours of H&R block.”

Chilmonczyk doesn’t remember how he learned to file his tax return and recommends just using Google to find out how. He said that the tax system isn’t that complicated, just read the instructions and put the numbers in the corresponding boxes.

“I love taxes,” Chilmonczyk said. “I’m poor, so when I went to college the government made it rain on me. I live better now than when I lived with my family.”