Tax qeustion, if I dont claim tuition?

[Bizzareo]

So I'm basically going to get raped on my tax return if I claim tuition, is it better in the long run to have the tax credits from my tuition, or to just not claim it and get a sizable return?

To add to this I did claim it on my new hire forms for work and did work during the year.

Is it tax fraud/illegal if i don't claim tuition?

[Mar]

Why wouldn't you want to claim an expense? Wouldn't that give you a higher return?

[ChappedLips]

Yeah why wouldn't you claim your tuition? It would reduce your taxes payable.

[bmeier]

you dont get penalized for claiming tuition. If you can though it might be better to carry forward the expenses to when you are in a high tax bracket.

[jacky4566]

There is no situation where claiming tuition is going to hurt you. If you or a parent can not use it then it will be carried forward until you need it.

Just go buy turbo tax 2010 for 30$ enter in your info an you will get 100% of all the benefits you can. honesty that program gave me 200$ extra because i didnt claim cpp overage one year.

[J-D]

This post confuses me.

[Bizzareo]

I don't pay for school, nor do I have loans for it so its not an "expense" (obviously i can claim it, and have claimed it before). And I don't owe any money regardless since my income is really low (I only work during school breaks). I would technically get a higher return if i don't claim any tuition because of some tax break the Harper govt introduced and forgot to tell anyone about..

The only advantage I have is carrying the credits through for later on (not sure how long i can hold onto them though)

What happened was that before i included my tuition into my taxes (using turbo tax), I was at ~1500 for a return, after I included it I was at ~300.

[DRKM]

Originally posted by Bizzareo
I don't pay for school, nor do I have loans for it so its not an "expense" (obviously i can claim it, and have claimed it before). And I don't owe any money regardless since my income is really low (I only work during school breaks). I would technically get a higher return if i don't claim any tuition because of some tax break the Harper govt introduced and forgot to tell anyone about..

The only advantage I have is carrying the credits through for later on (not sure how long i can hold onto them though)

What happened was that before i included my tuition into my taxes (using turbo tax), I was at ~1500 for a return, after I included it I was at ~300.

It does not matter who pays for your tuition you still get the credit for the classes and the books.

You have to be doing something seriously wrong if you add credits and get a smaller return...
Any credits that you do not use get rolled over into the next year. They last a while. 4 or 5 years I will have to ask my wife.

[codetrap]

Call the CRA and ask them. They're quite helpful. I'm not being sarcastic either. Every time I've spoken with them they've been straight up and great about what is good, and what it not good.

[BrknFngrs]

Would you mind summarizing what's included in your return? (I'm not talking dollar values; just what slips/items have been included)

T4 from a part time job, T2202a for education credits......etc

On a side note, are you sure that your ending value is actually a refund and not an amount owing?

[Muji]

Originally posted by codetrap
Call the CRA and ask them. They're quite helpful. I'm not being sarcastic either. Every time I've spoken with them they've been straight up and great about what is good, and what it not good.

This is true, might be the most user friendly government service I have used in Canada.

[tenth]

Originally posted by Bizzareo
I don't pay for school, nor do I have loans for it so its not an "expense" (obviously i can claim it, and have claimed it before). And I don't owe any money regardless since my income is really low (I only work during school breaks). I would technically get a higher return if i don't claim any tuition because of some tax break the Harper govt introduced and forgot to tell anyone about..

The only advantage I have is carrying the credits through for later on (not sure how long i can hold onto them though)

What happened was that before i included my tuition into my taxes (using turbo tax), I was at ~1500 for a return, after I included it I was at ~300.

Very little of your explanations here make sense. Can you do a screen cap of your tax summary in Turbo tax before and after you enter tuition?

[Kloubek]

I really don't understand how, under *any* circumstances, adding a tax credit (tuition) would hinder your return.

But, if for some ridiculous reason that is actually the case, I don't see why they would force you to claim it.

[narou]

Give credits to a parent/grand parent.. O.o?

[Toma]

No, he is fucking something up, or he is mistaking a refund for a amount owing.

[Feruk]

Even if you give the credit away, it still goes on your tax return. There is NO way I can think of where claiming tuition would give you a smaller return regardless of whether you or your parents paid for it. There's something wrong with Turbotax.

[Xtrema]

If your parent is paying your tuition outside of RESP, they can claim it too for bigger impact on tax saving. Especially if you made close to nothing or at the lowest tax bracket.

You need to talk to a professional. You don't even know what you're talking about.

[Bizzareo]

^Yea i talked to the CRA, best bet is to carry it over and let my parents claim it also.

So yea I had an income but taxes were deducted off every paycheck, and i made less than 16k.

Filed t4s, and t2022a (tuition). I'm just going to carry the tax credits over and be done with it. The credits will save me later on when I start working after University.

This is what raped me:

The Working Income Tax Benefit is a refundable tax credit intended to provide tax relief for eligible working low income individuals and families. TurboTax will calculate your claim, if any, on Schedule 6 and enter it on line 453 of your T1 General.
You must meet all the following conditions in 2010:

you were a resident of Canada throughout the year;

you earned income from employment or business;

at the end of the year, you were 19 years of age or older, or you resided with your spouse or common-law partner or your child.
You can not claim the working income tax benefit if in 2010:

Alberta only:
you were enrolled as a full-time student at a designated educational institution for more than 13 weeks in the year, unless you had an eligible dependant at the end of the year;

you were confined to a prison or similar institution for a period of 90 days or more during the year.

[eblend]

Did you enter all of the info correctly?

My wife had no income for 2010, but did get a $2500 scholarship (T4A). I entered the scholarship, and the return went down by like $700 bucks, which sucked. i did some digging and the government has some weird thing where you have to claim a T2202a as well, otherwise it taxes you on the scholarship over a certain value. My wife didn't get the T2202a from school in the mail, but it wa available online under her blackboard, we entered it in (even thought it is a fully government sponsored program and she paid ZERO for anything), and boom, the return went up $700 bucks. She also got something like 15k of credits, even though she didn't pay a penny, as she was full time 12 month in school.

At any rate, there are so many connections, that putting a 0 into a field can make a drastic difference in your return. There is no way that claiming credits should even make your return lower.

I don't know how long you can carry the returns personally, but if my wife still doesn't work in 2011 (still in school), will claiming her credits affect our joined return, or should I wait until she has a job and claim them at that time?

[realazy]

From what I understand, correct me if I'm wrong.

You have to claim tuition credits every year or else you would have to refile the credits for each of those years. After you file and not use them, they get carried over.

Income also has no effect on tuition credits (unless you never make enough to pay tax). You'll eventually get the same amount of tax credits back over the years that you have to pay tax.

You can't purposely carry over any tuition credits, every year you pay tax, the credits get applied until you run out of credits or have used the maximum amount that year.