• Total income. This section is where you include all your sources of income.

• Net income. In this section you reduce your total income with deductible expenses. These expenses are 100-percent deductible against your total income. The most common of these expenses are your RRSP deductions, union dues, child care expenses, moving expenses, registered pension plan, support payments, carrying charges, and interest expenses.

• Taxable income. This section takes your net income and applies capital and non-capital losses, limited partnership losses, stock option deductions, capital gains deductions, northern residents deductions, and home relocation loan deductions.

• Non-refundable tax credits. The taxable income is further reduced by non-refundable credits. Credits are different from deductions in that you only get 16 percent of the expense as a deduction against your taxable income. The most common of these credits are your basic personal amount, age amount, spousal amount, CPP premiums, EI premiums, tuition, and charitable donations. The reason they are non-refundable is that these credits can only be used to bring your income to $0 and not below, and thus create a refund.

• Refund or balance. And now the line everyone wants to know about. The last section calculates the tax you owe and applies the payments you have made against it. The bottom line indicates tax payable or refund owed.

Along with the T1 General comes ten pages of supporting schedules:

• Schedule 1 — Federal Tax Calculation
• Schedule 2 — Amounts Transferred from your Spouse
• Schedule 3 — Capital Gains (Losses)
• Schedule 4 — Statement of Investment Income
• Schedule 5 — Details of Dependants
• Schedule 7 — RRSP Unused Contributions, Transfers, and HBP or LLP Activities
• Schedule 8 — Canada Pension Plan (Quebec Pension Plan) contributions on Self-employment and Other Earnings
• Schedule 9 — Donations and Gifts
• Schedule 10 — Refundable Medical Expense Supplement
• Schedule 11 — Tuition and Education Amounts

The T1 General is not a single uniform document. Four slightly different versions are produced across the country:

• The first version is produced for all provinces and territories except for Ontario, Yukon, and for non-residents.

• The second version, created only for Ontario, has a box allowing you to donate your refund to the province for deficit reduction (we're wondering the same thing — who checks off this box?). It also omits certain sections pertaining specifically to Quebec withholding tax.

• A third version is printed for Yukon. This version also omits the Quebec section, and includes sections that identify filers as residents of First Nations settlement lands and charges Yukon First Nations Tax to these residents.

• The fourth version is for non-residents and those individuals who were deemed to be residents of Canada and who must pay Canadian tax on earned income other than employment or business income from a permanent Canadian establishment. If you are only reporting this other Canadian income, then this package is the one for you. Examples of this other income include scholarships, fellowships, bursaries, research grants, and capital gains from disposing of taxable Canadian property. This version of the T1 General also includes additional schedules A and B that calculate the tax credits on the non-resident income.

Each T1 General package also carries provincial and territory forms. Each package is customized to carry only the forms required for your province of residence.

You only need the provincial forms for the province you were resident in on December 31. This is deemed to be your province of residence for the entire year.

If you become non-resident during the year, use the forms for your last province of residence.

The T1 General can be used by everyone. As mentioned above, it is the catch-all return. In fact, if you have various sources of income and deductions, you will be forced to use the T1 General because the short or special returns will lack sufficient detail for your purposes. When in doubt, use the T1 General.