What Can you Claim?
You cannot deduct expenses like books, laptops or equipment you had to buy to take your course. Likewise, you cannot claim parking or gas if you are attending a college of university out of town (ie live in Cornwall but drive to Algonquin each day). You will receive form T2202 from your college or university which is your official tuition tax receipt. Please note that the receipts you were issued when you paid your tuition are not acceptable for tax purposes. You must provide me with a copy of Form T2202 from your college or university (you can get it either online or in person at your administration office – most institutions do not post them until Feb 28th). Most institutions no longer mail these slips and students must log into their student accounts and print them. If you are attending a college or university that is not in Canada, they will provide you with a TL11-A which is the equivalent of the Canadian T2202 but you usually have to ask for it.
Grants, Scholarships & Bursaries
If you received Grants, Scholarships or Bursaries through OSAP, your school itself or privately, you should receive T4As for those. They will also be available in your student online account.
Parents of Students
Unfortunately, parents cannot claim their children’s rent, moving expenses or tuition. Students must claim their own tuition, rent and moving expenses. In terms of tuition, a student, as long as they did not make more than $14,398.00 during the taxation year, can transfer up to $5,000 of their tuition and education credits. It is preferable if all tax returns, student and parents, are done at the same time to maximize deductions for all parties concerned. Either way, the student MUST claim their tuition on their taxes first to determine the amount of the transfer PRIOR to a parent claiming the transfer on their own income tax return.
Interest on Student Loans
Students can claim interest they paid to the National Student Loan Centre (NSLC) (this is a loan that was made through OSAP).
Students can carry the interest payments they have made on their student loans for up to five years if their income is not high enough to claim it. If this is the case, the receipt will be returned to the student with a note stating, “please submit again next year”.
The NSLC does not usually mail out receipts – students must log into their Student account and print their own receipt.
Students cannot claim the following:
- Interest they are paying on an OSAP loan that has gone to collection
- The interest on a student loan that has been combined with another kind of loan.
- The interest on a student line of credit.
Residence
If you live in residence, this is not considered rent as schools do not usually pay property taxes. The Ontario Tax Benefit is a ‘refund’ of a small amount of property taxes you pay either directly to your municipality or is included in rent at a residential address. If you live in residence, make sure you tell me as I can still claim a $25 residence credit for you.
Rent
Students who live in apartments or shared housing can claim the rent they paid. The rent receipt you provide me MUST be from the landlord themselves. For example, Chloé, Amanda, Laura and Stephanie share a four bedroom apartment and each pay $500 a month. Amanda collects the $500 from the other girls and writes a cheque each month to the landlord for $2,000. Amanda may not write a receipt to the other 3 girls for the rent as she is not the landlord (she only collected the money). Therefore it is important that the landlord issue a receipt to each girl with the amount they paid, the address they rented, what period it covered and provides his legible name and phone number. In order to claim rent and receive Ontario Trillium Benefits, you must be attending a school in Ontario. If you paid rent in any other province, you may not claim it on your tax return.
Moving Expenses
Students may claim moving expenses such as air, train or bus fare, hotels, mileage (if by car), meals and moving van/truck rentals but only to their school in September and back home in April (you cannot claim trips to/from school for visits and breaks) against their eligible income. However, please note that the only eligible income that qualifies are taxable scholarships, bursaries, fellowships, research grants and/or certain prizes that were received in the same taxation year. Most of this income is already tax exempt for full-time students and almost mostly exempt for part-time students so claiming moving expenses usually has no benefit whatsoever. I have been preparing tax returns for 30 years and I have yet to see one student benefit from this credit.
