Hi,
Just a brief background. I'm currently a BC resident/student doing a full time program at a community college here in BC as well. I also work part time on a retail store during weekends. Just right now I filed my T4 and got a really good tax refund from it but when I filed my T2202A given to me by my school, it significantly reduced my refund from my T4.
I just want to point out that I'm on a student loan as well for half of the tuition. The other half I paid out of my own pocket. I also got a bursary from that student loan as well.
My question is, is it even beneficial to file my T2202A?
What likely happened is that when you put in your T4, TurboTax claimed the Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) (aka the Working Income Tax Benefit) for you. This is a refundable tax credit for people who work, but don’t make very much. However, students are usually not eligible for this credit, so when you added your tuition, then the CWB was removed, lowering your refund.
You should definitely include your T2202, because if you want to use the tuition credit in a future year, you’ll have to adjust your 2019 return (and returns in between) to be able to use it.