Why are my tuition fee credits not being applied to the amount still owing on my return?
The tax credits for tuition fees and student loan interest reduce net federal tax on your tax return. The credits are non-refundable, meaning they can't make your net federal tax less than zero. Once your net federal tax is reduced to zero:
Any unused tuition credit remaining may be transferrable to your spouse, or a parent or grandparent of you or your spouse. If after that, there’s still an unused tuition credit balance, it's carried forward to the next tax year.
Unused student loan interest credit can’t be transferred, but it can be carried forward for up to five years.
These credits can’t be applied to reduce a non-tax amount owing, say if the amount is owing due to insufficient CPP contributions.
To claim the tuition credit or to transfer or carry forward an unused tuition amount, the necessary information from the applicable forms (such as Form TL11A, TL11C or T2202) must be entered into TurboTax.
