Carlie Weinreb is 8, and she can do your taxes
Toronto Grade 3 student Carlie Weinreb teaches fellow students about taxes and applied math
It's always wise to get an early start on filing your income taxes, but one Toronto Grade 3 student has taken that advice to the extreme, developing the math skills needed to fill out a tax return at just eight years old.
Her name is Carlie Weinreb. Her dad Lorne is a chartered accountant.
He started teaching Carlie math when she was just two years old. By four, she was multiplying and dividing. By six, she was lecturing university students about Canada's income tax system.
Now the Summit Heights Public School student is eight and continues to teach students three times her age about taxes and applied math. After learning the mechanics of tax formulas from her father, Carlie was a quick study in filling out tax returns.
"Every night my dad gives me a pretend tax paper and then I do it," Carlie said during an interview today on CBC Radio's Metro Morning.
Started learning math at 2
Her math lessons started with "skip counting" (counting by twos, threes, etc.) to get Carlie started on concepts like multiplication and formulas. She was a quick study.
"I have a flavour for math and my wife is a school teacher," he said. "We just wanted to give her a head start in math, and tax is applied math."
Carlie has even lectured about Canada's tax code — a topic that can confound many adults — to university students.
She plans to give a workshop at Western University, and another is in the works for the University of Windsor.
"I love doing math, and I love teaching," said Carly.
Here is a YouTube video of Carlie showing U of T students how to crunch the tax numbers.