Can I still claim my textbooks?

[kira-x-chan]

A family member payed for my 2014 tuition costs out of his pocket; however, I payed for all of my textbooks ($550) and other expenses. Am I still able to claim my textbooks somehow?

[TonyC11 · Accepted solution]

It is of no concern to CRA that your Education is actually paid for by you, a relative or some other party entirely. Nor does it matter what you actually paid for textbooks.

Only you, the student, can claim the Federal and Provincial Tuition, Education and Textbooks credit, which is non-refundable but can be transferred (up to a limit of $5000) to a parent or spouse or be carried forward by you to a future tax year. You, the student, must file taxes to receive this credit.

To claim the credit, you must attend a recognized college or university either on a full-time or part-time basis. You must receive or obtain a T2202A Tuition slip from your school. You will input the Tuition fees and 'months' of Education from the data on this slip. Your total Tuition credit will be calculated from your entries. The amounts for Education and Textbooks are standard amounts of credit for each month you were officially on the course.

The catch in claiming Tuition credit is that the amount must first be used to reduce your tax payable to zero. This is non-optional. Also, amounts carried forward must eventually be used up by you the student, and can never be transferred.

[TonyC11]

And, going forward as accountants say, the Education and Textbooks credits are going away, like the dodo bird. The only Tuition amount to claim will be the fee itself.