Tax time can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. If you are a student and you’re looking for the best way to file your personal income taxes, it’s important to know what tuition tax credits are available to you as a PEI resident. Here’s how to find out if you are eligible for education amounts and tuition tax credits and, if so, how you can best claim them.

Claiming Education Amounts and Tuition Tax Credits in PEI

Filing your taxes begins before even putting pen to paper (or in the case of TurboTax, logging in). To make your tax claim as seamless as possible, gather all relevant documents to your personal income taxes. This includes your T4(s), as well as (specifically to tuition) proof of tuition paid.

Official documentation of tuition paid can be obtained through your post-secondary institution. Be sure to download and save a hard copy of your T2202, which is an official receipt stating the amount of money paid for tuition. Other official receipt forms can include forms TL11A, TL11C, or other official tuition tax receipts. Contact your post-secondary institution if you can’t seem to locate any of these forms.

Once all your T4s and documents have been collected, start filling out a 5002-S11 Schedule PE(S11). This form is the official Provincial Tuition and Education Amounts form for residents of the province of Prince Edward Island.

 

Transferring Tuition Amounts

Many students pay more than the provincial limit for claimable tuition fees in one year. Instead of letting these tuition fees go to waste, you can make the fees work for you and your family a little more by transferring the unusable balance to another individual.

This individual has to meet certain criteria in order to legally be able to claim your tuition fees on their own personal income taxes. This person can be a parent or primary caregiver, grandparent, spouse or common-law partner, or even your spouse or common-law partner’s parents or grandparents. You cannot transfer tuition fees to your spouse’s parent or grandparent if the spouse claimed your tuition fees on their personal income tax claim.

To transfer your tuition fees to another person, you must complete one of the following applicable forms to designate who can claim the transferred amount and to specify the provincial amount this person can claim:

  • T2202, Tuition and Enrolment Certificate
  • TL11A, Tuition and Enrolment Certificate – University Outside Canada
  • TL11C, Tuition and Enrolment Certificate – Commuter to the United States

Carrying Unused Amounts

 

After you’ve filed your maximum tuition for the year, you can choose to transfer up to $5,000 of tuition fees to another individual. In fact, you can do both! If you are in the position where you still have leftover tuition fees to claim, the next step is to file unused amounts as carryover amounts, which can be used in future years to reduce the amount of personal income tax payable to the government.

To properly state your carryover amounts on your personal income taxes, start by filling out the “Transfer or carryforward of unused amounts” section of Schedule PE(S11). This section helps you to calculate the amount you are allowed to carry forward to a future year.

By writing this ‘left over’ amount of tuition fees, you are stating that the amount on that line item is the part of your tuition and education amount that you will not be claiming in the current year and are not transferring to an eligible individual. Instead, you are planning to use this in a future year where you have not hit the maximum.

 

Federal Tuition Tax Credits

Tuition tax credits in PEI are just the beginning. Combine your tuition claims between provincial and federal claims to get the most out of your 2019 personal income taxes.

 

We’re Here to Support You

If the thought of tuition tax credits, provincial and federal have you a little unsure…we’re here to help. To make tax season as simple as possible, TurboTax has created solutions that work for all situations and preferences, including:

No matter your income or complexity of your return, you have an expert in your corner with TurboTax.