Part 1: Personal Federal Taxes Changes

5.  Credits for Tuition, Education, and Textbook Amounts

As a post-secondary student in Canada, you may be eligible for Tuition, Education, and Textbook amounts.  These amounts can be carried forward to future years by the student for reducing their tax payable in the future; or a maximum amount of $5,000 can be transferred to the student’s spouse/common law partner, a parent, or a grandparent to calculate transferee’s tax credits each year.

After January 1, 2017, education and textbook amounts are no longer available but the credit for tuition amounts is still available.  The unused amount of tuition, education, and textbook amounts before 2017 is available to carry forward to future years. 

In order to claim these non-refundable tax credits, certain criteria must be fulfilled before the student can claim the credits:

• the taxpayer must be a qualifying student
• the school is a designated educational institution in Canada or outside of Canada.
• the program needs to be either a qualifying educational program for full time credits or a specified educational program for part time credits. 
• The institution must certify the student.

In Summary:

Credits for Tuition, Education, and Textbook Amounts

1. After Jan 1, 2017, Education and Textbook tax credits are no longer available
2. Education and textbook amounts carried forward from prior years before January 1, 2017 are still available for the future.
3. Tuition credits continue to be available for students to claim them.

For more information, please contact us @ 778-374-1865 or info@theresalocpa.ca

Note:  All information relating to the tax credits above is available from CRA website.

By Theresa Lo, CPA, CGA

January 14, 2017