My Student Summary says that out of ~45k in unused tuition credits, $0 is able to carry forward (for both provincial and federal). My summary says "amount claimed for 2019" and claims all ~45k as if I need to claim it all to reduce my debt. I'll be receiving a large return this year, and understand I may still be tax liable despite receiving a return, but owing 45k worth? I didn’t even earn that much this year. I live in Ontario, never moved or lived elsewhere, and graduated in 2018. I carried them forward last year with no issues.
How come it isn’t carrying forward my tuition amounts to this time? I thought these were indefinite until I need them.
Hope that made sense.
Are you using TurboTax Online or TurboTax CD/Download?
Online browser and used the CRA automatic fill-in to generate these amounts.
I tried removing the claimed amounts manually and it decreased my return amount by almost $5000, which confuses me even more. I thought these credits were to reduce debt, not tradeable for refund. I'd rather carry these forward for future years rather than receive a one time refund for them? I guess I'm just not understanding the mechanics of these credits because last year was a breeze and they carried over as usual.
The rules for tuition & carry forwards haven’t changed since 2018, so you are right, you shouldn’t be getting a refund because of your tuition carry forward. I tried it my self in a simple test return in both TurboTax Online Free & TurboTax Online Standard and it seems to work normally. However, there might be a credit or something on your return that’s being effected by the tuition amount.
If you are using a paid version of TurboTax, you can contact our phone support and they look at what’s happening on your return. You can get the right number to contact our phone support team using the form on this page: https://support.turbotax.intuit.ca/contact/