Owing a tax balance (while having unused non-refundable credits like tuition) is common for self-employed taxpayers because amounts due such as Canada Pension Plan premiums cannot be offset by non-refundable credits. Check your detailed tax summary for details - paying special attention to lines 420-428- to view your balance due details.
Thank you for the reply. However, I am not self employed. All my income comes from school scholarship and parttime job. This is why I am confused. I couldnt find anywhere allow me to input the amount I want to use towards my balance due. I do find a poster saying I have to input the amount I want to carry on to next year (which I remember the amount is calculated itself in turbotax so I just click next step, didnt change anything). Do I have to manually input the total amount i have so far minus the amount I want to use toward this year balance owe? For example if I have $1000 tuition credit (after multiple 15%), and I input carry on $900, in this way I can tell the system to use 1000-900=100?
Once you enter the tuition slip information in the Student section, TurboTax will assign the proper amount of credits needed to lower your tax payable to zero. Input the full value of your tuition for 2017 and any unused amounts from previous years (if you haven't imported your 2016 information into your 2017 return or used auto-fill my return). Check the detailed tax summary for line 323. This reflects the amount of tuition claimed for you.
Line 323 is $21,572.48. Is this the amount I used (towards tax balance) for this year, or I gained credit from this year's tuition I paid, or all credit accumulated from previous years? My total payable tax (line 435) is only 74.04, my tuition credit is more than enough to make it zero. Where am I wrong?