Tuition is a Non-Refundable Tax Credit that must first be used to reduce the tax payable or liability of the student. Tax payable is what is calculated on your income entries, not the bottom line of a refund or balance due.
Unfortunately, you cannot choose to carry forward your tuition amounts. You must report your tuition, education, and textbook amounts in the year they are incurred and you must claim and apply this amount in the first year you have a tax payable.
This means if you have to use any of the tuition amounts this year to reduce your tax payable, they will be applied to your return automatically by CRA, even if you attempt to carry them forward.
TurboTax will apply the needed amount to reduce your tax payable to zero this year and carry forward any excess to future years. If you need to use all your credits in a particular tax year, you are required to do so. You cannot spread them out over a number of years or wait to claim them.
