Find and claim your unused tuition

In this article:

Overview

As a student, you may have leftover tuition expenses after you bring your taxes owed to zero. If you have a remaining amount of tuition costs, you will be able to carry them forward to another year or transfer them to someone else. 

Note: Unused tuition amounts from a previous year cannot be transferred to anyone. Only unused credits that were earned in the current tax year can be transferred to a parent, grandparent or spouse.

Find your unused tuition

You can check your CRA My Account to see if you have any unused tuition from previous years by following these steps:

  1. Click the Tax Returns link.
  2. Scroll down to the Carryover amounts section, and click View carryover amounts.
  3. Scroll down until you find the Federal Tuition, Education and Textbook Amounts and the Provincial Tuition, Education and Textbook Amounts tables.
  4. If you have any unused amounts, you’ll find them in the first column (Amount from prior year) of the row for the most recent year.
Note: If you don’t see a row for the current year (or if that row is blank), then you don’t have any unused amounts that you can claim this year. Don’t enter any amounts under the Earlier years heading.

Find your unused tuition if you don’t have a CRA My Account

If you don’t have a CRA My Account, you can find this information on your most recent Notice of Assessment, or your federal and provincial Schedule 11 from your prior year's tax return.

Find your unused provincial tuition if you live in Québec

If you have a Revenu Québec My Account, you can find your unused tuition at the 20% and 8% rates by logging in. These amounts can also be found on your most recent Notice of Assessment.

If you don’t have Revenu Québec My Account, you can find this information on boxes 40 and 48 of your most recent Schedule T.

Claim your unused tuition from previous years

Once you have found your unused tuition, if you wish to report it on your own return, you can report it by following these steps:

  1. Log in to your Wealthsimple account.
  2. Select the Tax tab at the top of the page.
  3. Select Add tax forms from the menu on the left.
  4. In the search box, type Tuition and add the Tuition and Education Amount - T2202 & Unused Amounts section (if this is not already added to your return).
  5. Answer Yes to Were you a post-secondary student in an earlier year.
  6. Enter your unused tuition amount that you wish to claim in either the Unused federal tuition amount box or the Unused provincial tuition amount box.

If you moved between provinces

If you moved within Canada (other than to Quebec), enter your unused federal and provincial amounts exactly as described above. Make sure you also enter that you moved in the year in the About your residence section. Certain provinces will use your unused federal amount and others will use your unused provincial amount: these rules are programmed into Wealthsimple Tax so we’ll take care of this for you.

Note: If you moved from Quebec, enter the amount from line 40 or 48 of your most recent Schedule T. If you have an amount on both lines, add them up.

If you moved to Quebec from elsewhere in Canada:

If you paid all your tuition after 2012, add up the tuition amounts from all your T2202 slips to find your total tuition. Enter the lesser of your federal unused amount and your total tuition in the box for Unused Quebec amount at 8% rate.

If you have any unused tuition from before 2013, please call Revenu Québec and they will help you calculate the amounts you need for the 8% and 20% boxes. Before calling, gather all your T2202s and federal tuition carry-forward information for all years.

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