Pooling donations and medical expenses

If you have a spouse or common-law partner, you can put both of your charitable donations on one return, and either of you can claim the medical expenses for both of you and your children under 18. Pooling often gets you a bigger credit, because each credit has a part that applies once per return: a lower rate on the first slice of donations, and a threshold that medical expenses must clear.

Both are non-refundable credits. They reduce the tax you owe, but if they’re more than your tax, you don’t get the difference back. So whoever claims needs enough tax to use them.

Donations: why one return is better

The federal donation credit is worked out on Schedule 9 in tiers:

• 14.5% on the first $200 you claim for the year
• 29% on the rest
• 33% instead of 29% on the part of your donations above $200 that matches your taxable income over $253,414.

Every return starts at the lower first-tier rate. If you and your partner each claim your own donations, you each get the lower rate on your first $200. Put everything on one return and the lower rate applies only once, so more of the total gets the higher rate. If one of you has taxable income above $253,414, claiming on that return can also get part of the donations the top rate.

Outside Quebec, your province or territory gives its own donation credit, calculated on the same donation amount you claim federally. Rates differ by province; see the personal tax credits table.

Donations: saving them up

You don’t have to claim donations in the year you make them. You can carry them forward and claim them in any of the next five years (ten for gifts of ecologically sensitive land). If you give small amounts each year, claiming two or more years together on one return means the lower first-tier rate applies once instead of every year. When you do claim, amounts carried forward from earlier years have to be used before the current year’s.

Two limits to keep in mind:

• You can generally claim donations up to 75% of your net income for the year. Some gifts of capital property, and gifts in the year of death, can go higher.
• You need an official receipt from a registered charity or other qualified donee for every amount you claim.

Medical expenses: clear the threshold once

You get a credit only for eligible medical expenses above a threshold: the lesser of 3% of your net income and $2,834 (for 2025). Each return has its own threshold, so if you and your partner split the bills, you each lose the first part of your expenses to a threshold. One claim for the whole family clears it once.

On line 33099, either of you can claim what you or your partner paid for:

• yourself
• your spouse or common-law partner
• your or your partner’s children who were under 18 at the end of the year.

The CRA suggests comparing both returns. It’s often better for the partner with the lower net income to claim, because 3% of a smaller income is a lower threshold. Check that the lower-income partner has enough tax to use the credit; if not, the other partner may get more from it.

Pick your 12 months

You can claim expenses paid in any 12-month period that ends in the tax year, as long as you didn’t claim them the year before. You choose the period, so pick the 12 months that capture the most expenses, such as July to June if a big bill came in the summer. You can claim only the part that you weren’t, and won’t be, reimbursed for.

Adult dependants are separate

Expenses for other dependants who depended on you for support go on line 33199. That includes your or your partner’s children who were 18 or older at the end of the year and grandchildren, and parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews who were residents of Canada at any time in the year. Each dependant’s expenses are reduced by a threshold based on that dependant’s net income, so they don’t pool under one threshold the way your own family’s expenses do.

Your province or territory also gives a medical expense credit, claimed on your provincial form. If you live in Quebec, Revenu Québec’s rules apply to your provincial claim.

What to do

1. Add up your donations and your family’s medical expenses for both partners.
2. Put all the donations on one return, usually the one with more tax to reduce or with taxable income over $253,414.
3. Try the medical expenses on each return and use the one that gives the bigger credit, often the lower-income partner.
4. Choose the 12-month period for medical expenses that gives the largest total.
5. Keep all receipts; don’t send them unless the CRA asks.

To see how much a credit is worth at different incomes, try our income tax calculator.