Tuition credits and carry-forwards

If you pay tuition to a college, university or other qualifying school, you can claim a federal tax credit for it. The credit reduces your own tax first; what you can’t use can go to a parent, grandparent or spouse, up to a limit, or be carried forward to a year when you owe tax.

What the credit is worth

The tuition credit is non-refundable: it can bring your federal tax down to zero, but it can’t produce a refund on its own. Most federal non-refundable credits, including this one, are worth the amount you claim times the lowest federal tax rate. That rate was cut on July 1, 2025, so the full-year rate for 2025 is 14.5%. (Guide P105 still gives the rate from before the cut.)

The federal education and textbook amounts ended in 2017, but the tuition credit didn’t. Unused education and textbook amounts from before 2017 can still be carried forward and claimed.

Outside Quebec, provinces and territories work out their own non-refundable credits on Form 428, and their values differ from the federal ones. Provincial and territorial tuition amounts aren’t available everywhere; your province’s tax package shows what you can claim.

Which fees count

Generally, fees for a course you took in the year count if the course was:

• at a post-secondary institution in Canada, or
• at an institution certified by Employment and Social Development Canada, if you were 16 or older at the end of the year and taking it to develop or improve skills in an occupation.

The fees you paid to each institution must be more than $100 for the year. If you attended two schools, each one’s certificate must show more than $100.

Eligible fees include admission and application fees (the latter only if you then enrol), library and lab charges, exam fees that are part of your program, mandatory computer service fees, academic fees, and charges for a certificate, diploma or degree. Fees for some occupational, trade or professional licensing exams can count too.

You can’t claim fees that your employer or a parent’s employer paid or reimbursed, or that a government job-training program paid, unless the amount was included in your (or your parent’s) income.

Your school gives you a tax certificate, usually Form T2202, Tuition and Enrolment Certificate (some schools outside Canada use a TL11 form), or an official tax receipt showing the eligible fees.

You claim it first

Even if someone else paid your fees, you must claim your tuition on your own return first, using as much as you need to bring your federal tax to zero. Schedule 11 works out that amount, and you file it with your return.

Transferring to a parent, grandparent or spouse

You can transfer up to $5,000 of the current year’s federal tuition amount, minus what you used yourself. It can go to:

• your spouse or common-law partner,
• your parent or grandparent, or
• your spouse’s or common-law partner’s parent or grandparent.

You can’t transfer to any parent or grandparent, yours or your spouse’s, if your spouse or common-law partner claims the spouse or common-law partner amount for you, or claims amounts you transferred to them.

To make the transfer, fill out Schedule 11 and the transfer section on the back of your T2202, naming the person. A parent or grandparent claims it on their own return; a spouse or partner uses federal Schedule 2. Only transfer what they can actually use, so the rest stays with you to carry forward. Provincial and territorial amounts can be transferred too, where they’re available, with their own limits.

Carrying it forward

Whatever you don’t use or transfer this year carries forward, along with unused amounts from earlier years. A few rules matter:

• You must use it in the first year you owe tax. You can’t save it for a later, higher-income year.
• Once carried forward, it can’t be transferred. Only the current year’s amount can go to someone else.
• File every year. The CRA warns that if you miss filing a year between paying the fees and claiming them, the amount won’t be carried forward. Filing with Schedule 11, even with no income, keeps your balance on record.

Your notice of assessment shows the unused amount you can claim next year.

If you live in Quebec

Quebec has its own tuition credit, claimed on your Quebec return. It’s 8% of the tuition or examination fees paid for 2025, if they total more than $100 for the year. Unused fees carry forward to future years. You can transfer the unused part of the credit for the current year’s fees to your or your spouse’s parent or grandparent, but not credit for fees paid in earlier years. Use Schedule T, and file it even in a year you don’t claim anything, so the fees you can carry forward are worked out.

What to do

• Get your T2202 (or receipt) from your school for each year you’re enrolled.
• File a return every year with Schedule 11, even if you had little or no income.
• Decide on any transfer before you file, and complete the back of the T2202.
• Check your notice of assessment for the amount you’re carrying forward.