Claim your education expenses

If you were a student at a post-secondary institution, or in a skills improvement program certified by Employment and Social Development Canada, you may claim certain education expenses. 

In this article, you can learn more about claiming all of your education expenses:

Claim your tuition

As a student, you must claim your tuition on your own return. A parent, grandparent or partner cannot claim tuition on your behalf. However, you may be able to transfer unused tuition to them after claiming it on your own return. 

 To claim your tuition on your own return, follow these steps:

Web Mobile app
  1. Head to my.wealthsimple.com and sign into your Tax profile
  2. Scroll down to the search bar under Build your return
  3. Type Tuition in the search box and add the Tuition and Education Amount section
  4. Answer Yes  to Were you a post-secondary student in 2022
  5. Use your T2202 or TL11 slip to enter your 2022 tuition and number of months (if you didn’t get a slip, see the FAQ at the bottom of this article)
  6. If you were a student in a prior year and have unused tuition amounts, answer Yes to the question Were you a post-secondary student in an earlier year? and enter your unused amounts
  7. We’ll automatically calculate your claimable tuition amount for you. You can review the calculation on the federal and provincial Schedule 11 in the Documents section.
  1. Log into the Tax mobile app
  2. Scroll down to the search bar under Build your return
  3. Type Tuition in the search box and add the Tuition and Education Amount section
  4. Answer Yes  to Were you a post-secondary student in 2022
  5. Use your T2202 or TL11 slip to enter your 2022 tuition and number of months (if you didn’t get a slip, see the FAQ at the bottom of this article).
  6. If you were a student in a prior year, answer Yes to the question Were you a post-secondary student in an earlier year? and enter your unused amounts.
  7. We’ll automatically calculate your claimable tuition amount for you. You can review the calculation on the federal and provincial Schedule 11 in the Documents section.
Note: You aren’t able to choose how much tuition to claim this year or how much to carry forward. The amount of tuition you must claim is calculated for you automatically based on the rules in the Income Tax Act.

Residents of Quebec:

If you are a resident of Quebec, you will also receive an RL-8. Your RL-8 includes amounts for the Quebec post-secondary amount (in box A) as well as the tuition amount (in box B). You need to include both amounts.

To properly calculate the post-secondary amount you can transfer, you must also report the total amount of solidarity tax credit that you received in 2022. You can find this amount on the solidarity tax credit notice that you received from Revenu Québec.

Claim your textbook fees

Depending on your province, you may be eligible for a provincial textbook credit. The credit amount is determined using a formula and is based on the number of months you attended a full or part-time educational program. We automatically apply this amount for you. 

You can see how this credit is calculated by looking at your Schedule 11. You get this amount regardless, so you don’t need to keep your textbook receipts.

Note: As of January 2017, the federal textbook credit has been eliminated. Unused federal textbook amounts from years prior to 2017 can be carried forward.

Claim your licensing examination fees

Certain examination fees may be eligible for the tuition tax credit. To claim eligible examination fees, follow these steps:

Web Mobile app
  1. Head to my.wealthsimple.com and sign into your Tax profile
  2. Scroll down to the search bar under Build your return
  3. Type Exams in the search box and add the Licensing exams section
  4. Add a description and the amount paid for your eligible examination fees
  1. Log into the Tax mobile app
  2. Scroll down to the search bar under Build your return
  3. Type Exams in the search box and add the Licensing exams section
  4. Add a description and the amount paid for your eligible examination fees

Find your unused tuition

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.

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

  1. Click Go to Tax returns details in the Tax Returns section
  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 2022
Note: If you don’t see a row for 2022 (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 2021 Notice of Assessment, or on your federal and provincial Schedule 11 from your 2021 tax return.

Find your unused tuition if you live in Quebec

If you have a Revenu Québec My Account, you can find your unused tuition at the 20% and 8% rate by logging in. These amounts can also be found on your 2021 Notice of Assessment.

If you don’t have Revenu Québec My Account, you can find this information on boxes 40 and 48 of your 2021 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:

Web Mobile app
  1. Head to my.wealthsimple.com and sign into your Tax profile
  2. Scroll down to the search bar under Build your return
  3. Type Tuition in the search box and add the Tuition and Education Amount section (if this is not already added to your return)
  4. Answer Yes to Were you a post-secondary student in an earlier year
  5. 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
  1. Log into the Tax mobile app
  2. Scroll down to the search bar under Build your return
  3. Type Tuition in the search box and add the Tuition and Education Amount section (if this is not already added to your return)
  4. Answer Yes to Were you a post-secondary student in an earlier year
  5. 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 2021 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 your federal tuition carry forward information for all years.

Frequently asked questions

What do I do if I forgot to claim tuition for a previous year?

You cannot report forgotten tuition from a previous year on this year’s return. You must amend the prior year return, claim the credit in that year, and then calculate any unused amounts that you’re allowed to claim this year. 

Note: This might involve changing tax returns for multiple years.

What do I do if I’m missing a T2202 or TL11 slip?

If you didn’t receive a T2202 or TL11 slip from your institution but you paid eligible tuition fees in the year, you can enter the amount you paid in the Total tuition amount box. You will need to contact the institution to which you paid the tuition to ensure you are sent a slip, as you will need this for your records.

Why can’t I choose how much tuition credit to use or carry-forward?

You must claim the tuition and education amounts if you have income to claim it against. The amount that you’re required to claim in any particular year is calculated on the Schedule 11. You can’t choose to only claim a portion of the credit.

When completing your return, you must include last year’s unused amount (found on your Notice of Assessment) and any eligible tuition amounts from this year.

If you have dividend and/or foreign tax credits in the current tax year, they may go to waste if you have tuition credits. This is because of the ordering of credits on your tax return. Tuition credits must be claimed before either of these credits, and if your tuition credits are large enough to reduce your taxes payable to zero then the dividend and foreign tax credits won’t further increase your refund that year. Unfortunately, dividend/foreign tax credits cannot be carried forward.

I paid a lot of tuition, why didn’t my refund go up by the same amount?

There are several answers to this question:

  • The tuition tax credit is a percentage of the tuition you paid (15% federally and a lower amount provincially). For example, a BC student who claims $10,000 in tuition will get a tax credit of $2,060 (20.6% of $10,000).
  • The tuition tax credit is “non-refundable”. This means that you can’t create a refund out of tuition tax credits. If that same student had $1,000 of tax deducted from her paycheques, her maximum refund is $1,000 (even though she had $2,060 in tax credits). Any unused amount will be carried forward automatically.

We highly recommend reviewing the calculations on the Schedule 11, Schedule 1, and T1 General so you can understand exactly how the math all works. You can find these forms in the Documents section under your return Summary.

Why do I need to report the number of months I paid tuition?

You need to report the number of months that you paid tuition as this can impact your eligibility for other tax credits. 

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