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Thank you, you deserve a BIG THANK YOU for your detailed response.
Suppose I paid total $5000 tuition fee, and my employer reimbursed only $0.01, then I am not able to claim education and textbook amount. This is not reasonable in my opinion. ( only an example.) So I should be able to claim the education and book amount (?). You are also right that we need to contact CRA.
Where are those tax pros in this forum?? :confused:
Post by John_molson2003;2948102
You response stimulated my curiosity. Although I am notworking in tax department of my firm anymore, I considered my answers should beat least 80% right even without checking the Income Tax Act or material fromCRA. Since you are saying I am totally wrong, I decided to spend some time todo research and answer your question in detail.
Three issues in your case:
1. Whether the $400 reimbursement from employershould be included in your income or not?
According to employer guider (T4130) http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/t4130/t4130-10e.pdfpage 15 last paragraph, if the course you are taking will benefit youremployer, (for example, you are IT engineer and you enroll a course in Java,which will benefit your employer), you don’t need to include the $400 in line101 or 104. If the course you are taking will benefit yourself (for example,you are IT engineer and you enroll a course in auto repair, which is yourpersonal hobby), you have to include the $400 in line 101 or 104.
Conclusion: depends on your situation, youwill have to include the $400 in your income. Thus my answer in my first postregarding to this issue is correct.
2. Whether you can claim the $500 tuition fee or $100tuition fee in your schedule 11
According to P105 student and income tax http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/p105/p105-10e.pdfPage 20 paragraph 4, If you include the $400 reimbursement in your income andthe program you enrolled met the condition in above link, (Page 19 mainlymeans whether they are in post-secondary or not) you can claim the $500tuition fee. If you didn’t include the $400 reimbursement in your income, youcan claim nothing for your tuition fee, as the tuition fees should bemore than $100 ($500 tuition fee minus $400 reimbursement is $100). Detail seeabove links. In both case, if the program is not in post-secondary, you claimnothing
Conclusion: you can either claim $500 ornothing depends on your situation. I was wrong in this issue as I forgot the$100 limitation.
3. Whether you can claim the education and textbookamount?
According to P105 student and income tax http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/p105/p105-10e.pdfpage 22 to page 24 , if the program is in post-secondary level and last forconsecutive 3 weeks with at least 12hrs per month involvement by the student,you are able to claim the education and textbook amount. There is a tricky inyour case. According to Page 23 in above link, as you employer reimbursed you$400 tuition fee, you may not be able to claim the education and textbookamount. However, since the guide means that the employer reimburse the cost ofyour education, while your employer only reimburse partial of your tuition cost($400 out of $500 tuition fee not even mention the travel, lodge, coursematerial), I think you still eligible for the education and textbook amount. Ifyou are not sure, you can contact to CRA directly. Be care for not the veryfirst person answer your phone will be able to answer your question but yourneed the answer from a tax specialist in CRA. I have contacted to CRA before onbehalf of my client many times, the low level technician always give me an answerwhich doesn’t make any sense.
Conclusion: if the program is in postsecondary level and last for 3 consecutive weeks with 12hrs involvement eachmonth, you are eligible for education and tuition amount. Thus my answer forthis question in the first post should be correct.
You question could worth around $500 to you.Take an extreme example: you have to include the $400 in your income becausethe program is for your personal hobby, and you cannot deduct $500 tuition feebecause the program is not in post-secondary level. You are already in highesttax bracket in Quebec (Income more than $120,000 :wink, so the $900 will be taxed at53%, which transferred to $477 income tax payable. Now I give your all thesuggestion with backup for free. Do I desire a THANK again.
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