hello! it’s that time of the year again–tax time! i’m a first year currently and i’m completely lost on what “unused tuition transfers” are. i wasn’t employed in 2020 and the only “income” i received are the CESB and OSAP, but i don’t know if i have unused tuition or if i should transfer it to my parents. do you know anything about that? thanks! 🙂
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hey there,
i know today is tax day, so sorry for cutting it so close to the deadline! i literally just emerged out of a pile of finals an hour ago, and am back on here doling out advice.
i’m really not qualified to be a tax consultant, but i can try. this is what the CRA says about tuition transfers, including unused tuition transfers.
this turbotax explanation is also helpful, even a bit clearer:
“As a non-refundable credit, if the tuition amount is greater than the tax owed, the non-refundable credit can only be used to reduce or eliminate the student’s federal/provincial tax bill but won’t generate a refund. If you aren’t able to use the full amount of the credit, any unused credits can be carried forward to a future tax year, or transferred to a spouse/common-law partner or parent/grandparent.”
“Unused tuition credits calculated on Schedule 11 can be transferred to qualifying relatives. Spouses and common-law partners, parents and grandparents — including those of your spouse or partner — can be designated for all or part of the transferred amount.”
so it seems like, if you have a low income and aren’t owing much tax, claiming your tuition fees won’t do much in terms of getting you a refund. so the portion of your tuition that you can’t use to get credit then becomes “unused,” and you can transfer up to $5000 of that “unused” amount to a relative.
in the future, if you need help with taxes i’d recommend checking out the utsu’s tax clinic. a lot of students don’t know this resource exists, but accessing it will get you free one-on-one help with a student volunteer who’s trained with these things! much more reliable advice than mine, imo.
be Boundless,
aska