Tuition Fees Carried Forward

[hanmeijie]

I declared Tuition Fees when I was in school and had no income, and I carried them forward. Now I want to add the carried forward amount to Deduction, how do I do that with Turbo Tax?

[TonyC11 · Accepted solution]

Tuition expense is a non-refundable credit.

Amounts are reported on a T2202A or equivalent slip, and must be used to reduce tax payable in the current year. Any credit left over may be either transferred to a parent or spouse, or carried forward.

Note that use of Tuition credit is NOT optional. The software will apply any eligible credit to reduce or eliminate tax payable. Your only choice is to carry forward or transfer, and only credit earned in the current tax year can betransferred.

Unused Tuition is tracked by CRA and amounts are reported on your Notice of Assessment.

Amounts may be seen in My Account and are downloadable using AutoFill (AFR)..

If you have unused Tuition, you can enter amounts under the Tuition section of 'Deductions'.

Amounts  of unused credit are applied to reduce tax payable automatically. There is no option to voluntarily postpone use of unused amounts. CRA knows your unused amount of tuition and they will apply credit even if you don't enter any amounts of carry forward yourself on your current return.

[user260582]

Hello! Just to clarify: if I've never used the amount that has been carried over, I file it under student fees, but if I've already filed some portion of it in previous year(s) and there's a leftover I'd like to file this year, then I need to choose "amount carried over", right?

[user260582]

Sorry, and what should I choose - federal or provincial one? My accountant carried my student fee in both sections but I think I need to choose only one, don't I? Should it be government?

[TonyC11]

Both federal and provincial amounts should be carried forward, and your total carry forwards will appear on your Notice of Assessment.

PPS.  If a reader votes my answer to the original question down, would they very kindly leave a polite comment, so that I may make the answer clearer?

[ppatel48]

In 2018 Notice of assessment CRA has not shown the tution fees carried forward. What do I do

[TurboTaxGinette]

@ppatel48

One reason for the missing amount may be that there is no tuition carry-forward amount left to use on file.

You can verify your carry-forward amounts through your My Account at the Canada Revenue Agency. If you are not registered yet, here is a TurboTax FAQ to guide you: How do I register for CRA’s My Account service?

If needed, you may want to contact the Canada Revenue Agency.

[Jackie18]

I am doing my daughter's taxes. 

She graduated last year from University. She has the tuition for 2018 and the unused portions from prior years for Federal and provincial. 

She does not need to use the unused portions to decrease her tax payable. She will get a refund without this. 

I would like to carry forward to future years, if possible, the unused portions. 

Do I have to enter the unused portions on this year's return or just when you want to claim it. Can you claim a certain amount or do you have to claim all of it. 

Thanks,

Jackie

[TurboTaxGinette]

You have nothing to do for this process. The credit for tuition fees for the current year is first applied to the current year if there is enough income to use it. Then those from previous years will be applied if they can be used and the surplus is carried over to the following year. Tuition fees for the current year that cannot be used in the current year can be either; transferred to a relative or they will be automatically carried over to the following year by TurboImpôt. Unused tuition fees from previous years will be automatically applied in future years, by the software as per the Canada Revenu Agency, if necessary and if the conditions are met. 

For more information about tuition amounts please see the link below.

Frequently asked questions about transferring and carrying forward tuition and education amounts