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New Member
posted Apr 17, 2024 7:58:32 AM

Can I claim seniors home maintenance expenses such as snow removal and lawn maintenance in Quebec?

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5 Replies
Intuit Alumni
Apr 17, 2024 8:04:33 AM

You may be able to claim it if you are eligible. Please see our TurboTax article: Québec Tax Credit for Seniors’ Home-Support Services.

 

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

Level 1
Apr 22, 2024 7:15:49 AM

A warning to all seniors in the province of Quebec:

 

Yes, you can try.  But Turbotax is likely to screw up your return.

 

I live in my own home and decided to claim the $143 I paid for chimney cleaning.  I filled out all the answers to the three pages relating to Home-Support Services for Seniors correctly.  Only after paying Turbotax to produce the return did I discover:

1) It was ineligible for Quebec NetFile

2) The reason (apparently) was the presence of a TP-1029.61.MD-V form, "Expenses Included in Rent at a Private Seniors' Residence", which Turbotax located at my home address (this despite checking the box "You lived in your own house in 2023).

3) Turbotax did NOT include Schedule J in my return, contrary to Revenu Quebec's requirements expressed on the page https://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/citizens/tax-credits/tax-credit-for-home-support-services-for-seniors/claim-the-home-support-services-credit/.

4) Oddly, the Keying Summary _does_ show entries for Schedule J (lines 50, 75, 81 and 88), though I not being able to see the actual form, I can't tell for certain what they are.  One of them is definitely my $143 claim.

5) To add insult to injury, Turbotax inserted a nine-page TP752014 "Certificate Respecting an Impairment", in which all fields are blank.

 

I have tried to contact TurboTax but the phone number given in the "Contact us" information consistently plays a recording saying phone number "707-such-and-such" (a California area code) is not accepting calls.  Of course the "AI assistant" is completely unable to help; it offered to connect me to a human specialist, then reneged unless I upgraded to Assist & Review.  But I don't need advice from a tax consultant, nor do I want to spend $100 to save perhaps a third of that.  Also, I discovered this morning that the same, or a very similar, issue has been afflicting customers since at least 2020: see https://turbotax.community.intuit.ca/community/getting-started/discussion/where-is-the-home-support-tax-credit-for-seniors-it-is-normally-annex-j-but-don-t-seem-to-be-able-to/01/1378963#M18184, particularly the third comment by MR82.  I second his final comment, "This level of support and concern for defective programming is disgraceful."

 

So I guess I'm going to have to print out and mail the bulk of my return, omitting the irrelevant parts and adding a cover letter explaining why there may be inconsistencies between the keying sheet and the rest of the forms submitted.  Perhaps Revenu Quebec will lean on Intuit harder than any customers can.  I'd love to see them threaten to revoke Intuit's licence to peddle defective and unsupported software.

Moderator
Apr 22, 2024 5:29:15 PM

@pbrowne I'm sorry to hear of your negative experience. If you would like I could have someone from our phone support team call you to discuss this issue. Would you prefer to be called in the morning or afternoon?

Level 1
Apr 22, 2024 7:04:30 PM

I would like to see this fixed, so yes, it would be good to talk to someone about it.

Either 11AM EDT or between 14:30EDT and 16:30EDT is good for me.

Moderator
Apr 24, 2024 1:34:03 PM

@pbrowne I've put in the call back request for you. You should hear from them in about 2 business days.