Jill Fier

April 15 is a day that will either give you a sense of joy or a sense of fear. That is the day final day that citizens have to file 2003 income taxes, which either means a nice refund from or a dreaded payment to the IRS this spring.

Most students will recieve money back when they file because of their low level of income.

“It depends on your income, but most students get back what they put in throughout the year,” Joe Spilde, owner of Liberty Income Tax on Main Street near downtown Brookings, said.

Students are usually paying taxes in a 10-percent bracket because of their low level of income. People with higher incomes pay taxes in higher brackets, like 15 or 25 percent.

Parents usually are paying taxes in one of those higher brackets, and that is why they claim their children and use them as a deduction.

Some students may be beginning to file taxes on their own for the first time. This does not have to be a difficult thing, though.

Spilde said students really only need three things to get their taxes done. They are your W-2 from any place you worked in the last year, the amount of money you paid in interest for student loans over the past year and education credits to show what you paid for school.

The Internet has also made filing income taxes much easier than it has been a decade ago. Filing online can show you whether or not the IRS accepts your information within 24 hours. This means you can have your refund just as quickly through some tax services instead of just waiting for a refund check to come in the mail.

Now is also the time to go see your accountant about filing.

“The first rush was done at the end of last week, and the other rush will come the first week in April,” he said.

If you have questions about filing your income taxes, a good resource to check out is http://www.irs.gov.