Should students refund increase when claiming current year tuition and adding carry forward amounts from 2016 CRA assessment?

[scrappycat]

My kids are getting refunds already when claiming 2017 tuition but when I add in the carry forward amounts from the 2016 NOA the refunds increase significantly.  Is this correct?

[TurboTaxKim · Accepted solution]

Claiming those tuition carryforwards on your kids' tax returns will indeed increase their refunds! The Tuition & Education Credits are used as Non Refundable Tax Credits to reduce any tax payable they may have to zero. Often when this is applied, all the tax which was withheld is refunded to the student, resulting in a large refund.

And even if you were not to add the carryforward amounts, CRA has them on record and would automatically apply them to the tax return as you have to claim this amount in the first year that you have to pay income tax.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-re...