Can tuition tax credits be used towards capital gains?

[joeman221]

As a student, I have some tuition tax credits. Since I do not have wage income yet as a student, but I do have some capital gains from investments last year, can I use the tuition credits towards the taxes due to capital gains? I wanted to make sure that tuition credits can be used for more than just standard wage income. Thanks!

[TurboTaxKim]

Your Tuition Tax Credits are Non-Refundable Tax Credits (NRTC) and can only be used to reduce any tax payable you may have during the year. 

If your taxable income exceeds the basic personal exemption of $12,069 and you have tax payable, you can apply the NRTC only to reduce your tax payable to zero. 

A nonrefundable credit essentially means that the credit can’t be used to increase your tax refund or to create a tax refund when you wouldn’t have already had one. In other words, your savings cannot exceed the amount of tax you owe. For example, if your tax payable after entering your income for your Capital Gains is $400 and you have a $1000 Tuition Credit, $400 of that credit will be applied to reduce your tax payable to Zero, and the remaining $600 will be carried forward. This means that the credit will eliminate the entire $400 of tax payable, but you don’t receive a tax refund for the remaining $600.