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When is withholding the truth really lying?

I have an opportunity to be dishonest - I think - and I want to sort it out here first.

It's about my student loans. Currently I am on Interest Relief (IR) and I hope to remain in this program until I have my consumer debt paid off (end goal is end of 2010). After 60 months on IR I can apply for a program called DRR (Debt reduction in repayment) that will knock a large amount from my principle owed, as well as reduce my monthly payments to hopefully less than half of what I am expected to pay if I am not in the DRR program.

The part where I lie is when I file this year's taxes. Because I took two half courses to finish my degree in 2008 I will receive a T2202A slip to use as a credit on my tax return. I was thinking of not putting this credit in my return, so that there is no real paper trail showing that I was in school this year.

Why would I do this? Because the DRR program stipulates that a loan recipient has to be out of school for the entire 60 months. As far as my research shows, I cannot take even one course during this time period because I will then become ineligible for DRR.

Part of me says, don't file the T2202A because I don't have to if I don't want to. It's not required by law is it? I assume that the government is not going to care if I don't add things that will actually improve my refund. Also, if I file, the two half-courses will be forever linked to my SIN, which means that the information will be accessible to the DRR people in a couple of years when I want to apply.

The option is to file the slip, get the extra amount added to my refund, use it towards my LOC, pay off consumer debt in two years, then begin paying student loan debt for another three years (forget about DRR).

But then the whole debt thing really feels never-ending, and not so encouraging.


Seriously,
Karissa


Comments

  1. If you omit to include the courses on your taxes, will the DRR program ask for your transcripts and find out that way that you were enrolled in part-time courses?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:16 PM

    It's funny that you have to be out of school completely for 5 years to qualify for this, but they make you start paying back even if you're a part-time student. Typical Government.

    ReplyDelete

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