Cash in with your Kids this Tax Season

Deductions for Parents

Kids are expensive – however you can recoup some of these costs via tax savings when filing your personal returns.  Get credit for being a parent.  Here are some tips to save on tax if you have children.

Canada Child Benefit is a tax free payment available for children under the age of 18.  This replaces the previous Canada Child Tax Benefit.  The amount of benefit you receive depends on the number of children you have and your family net income.  The benefit is calculated every July based on your previous year tax filings and paid over twelve months.

To be eligible, you must live with the child and be he person primarily responsible for the care and upbringing of the child. Where there is shared custody, each parent will get 50% of what they would have gotten if they had full custody of the child and the amount is calculated based on their own adjusted family net income – however talk to a professional as this could get complicated.   

The benefit is based on your family income.  The maximum eligibility is $6,997 per year ($583.08 per month) for each child under the age of six and $5,903 per year ($491.91 per month) for each child aged six to seventeen. However, these amounts are reduced based on your adjusted family income (AFNI).  The payments gradually start decreasing when the adjusted family net income is over $32,797. 

Child Care Expenses are amounts paid to have someone look after your child so that you could earn income from employment, carry on a business, attend school or carry on research for which you received a grant. 

The costs may generally be deducted by the lower income spouse to a maximum of $8,000 for children under age seven and $5,000 for children aged seven through sixteen. 

Payments may include the following:

• caregivers providing child care services

• day nursery schools and daycare centers

• educational institutions, for the part of the fees that relate to

child care services

• day camps and day sports schools where the primary goal

of the camp is to care for children (an institution offering a

sports study program is not a sports school)

• boarding schools, overnight sports schools, or camps where

lodging is involved

Tuition credits are available for post-secondary students.  Canadian institutions will provide a tax certificate with the total eligible fees paid for the tax year.  Fees paid to an institution outside of Canada will qualify if it develops or improves skills in an occupation and the institution has been certified by Employment and Social Development Canada.  The course should have been taken in the year of the claim.    

To make the claim you will need an official tax receipt or a completed form T2202A from the institution.  If the fees were to an institution outside of Canada, you will need form TL11A or TL11C completed by your institution.   

The student has to claim the current year’s federal tuition fees on their own return.  If there is no tax owing, they have a choice to either carry this amount forward or to transfer all or a portion of the amount to a designated person.  They can transfer a maximum of $5,000 less the amount they claimed.  However, previous year carry forward amounts cannot be transferred.  The student will have to complete schedule 11 and the back of the T2202A, TL11A, TL11B or TL11C. 

Credit for Student Loan Interest can also be claimed or carried forward for five years. 

Moving expenses to attend post-secondary school may also be deductible under certain circumstances. 

Conclusion

Shajani CPA Chartered Professional Accountants and Advisors have a team of Calgary Accountants, Edmonton Accountants and Red Deer Accountants ready to assist you in your personal tax filings.  

This information is for discussion purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. There is no guarantee or warrant of information on this site and it should be noted that rules and laws change regularly. You should consult a professional before considering implementing or taking any action based on information on this site. Call our team for a consultation before taking any action. ©2023 Shajani CPA.

Shajani CPA is a CPA Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer firm and provides Accountant, Bookkeeping, Tax Advice and Tax Planning services.