Commonly Missed Tax Credits for Families

T4's are due out by the end of February and as "Tax Time" gets rolling it seems like a suitable time to review the most commonly missed Tax Credits for families:

Childcare

More than "Daycare" counts as Childcare. Don't forget preschool, babysitters, day camps, overnight camp, boarding school, or Nannies. Some receipts for Arts or Fitness could also qualify as Childcare, which is worth more.

If your child has just started Kindergarten, don't forget to request receipts from January to September.

The lower income spouse normally must claim the childcare, but there are exceptions, so check before letting it go to waste.

The Family Caregiver Amount

If your child or spouse is Infirm or Disabled, you may be entitled to this new credit. If there is a Disability Tax Credit in place, go ahead and make the claim, otherwise you may need a doctors note. For a Child they must need more support than another child the same age and be likely to continue going forward, but it is not required that they have the Disability Credit.

Caregiver, Infirm Amounts and Disability Transfers

If you help with the Activities of Daily Livings for an Elderly, Infirm (Physical or Mental Challenges) or Disabled Relative over 18 you may qualify to claim their Disability Tax Credit, the Caregiver Amount if they Live with you, or the Infirm Amount if they don't.

Fitness and Arts Credits

If your child is in a Sports/Fitness program or in any Arts/Tutoring program for at least 8 continuous weeks or a camp for 5 consecutive days then you can claim up to $500 for each of these categories, plus additional Provincial Credits in many provinces. If your child has a Disability Tax Credit, you get up to $1000 for each because you get an extra $500 credit for any fees over $100.

Transit Passes for Unlimited Bus, Ferry or Trains

Weekly (5 day min), Monthly or Annual Bus Passes (and Discounted Student Bus Passes through BC Transit) can be used for a Transit credit. Often Post Secondary Students assume their passes are included in their Tuition receipt but you must print the school fees breakdown to get their Transit and Medical Insurance Amounts.

Medical Expenses

Often people are under the impression they don't have enough medical to make a claim because you have to subtract 3% of your income. They forget items like Extended Health and Dental Plans deducted from their pay, or don't think about other types of medical claims besides Prescriptions (such as Glasses, Chiropractors, Naturopaths, Braces, Medical Travel, Out of Province/Country Health Insurance for Vacations, etc). Even if you don't have enough to make a claim, you can save them for next year because you can claim the best 12 consecutive months ending in the current tax year. Also, the 12 months selected can be different for each family member. If you lost them, you can usually get Summaries for the entire year from your Health Practitioner or Pharmacy.

Medical Expense Supplement

Often the medical claim itself makes no difference to a person with low income, however there is also a Medical Expenses Supplement which gives back 25% of the Medical Expenses paid to low income taxpayers as a Refund.

Charitable Donations

Many people don't realize they can claim a donation receipt up to 6 years. This means you can save up all your small donation receipts because you get more credit for amounts over $200 total, or keep them if they make no difference this year for the future. Also if you forgot to claim them in the past, you can gather them up and use them for the current year.

For 2013 there is also a new “First Time Donor's Super Credit” allowing individuals who have never claimed donations before to get extra value for Donations from 2013.

If you think you have missed any of these credits on past returns contact a Tax Professional for Advice. Our company will assist with a free review to help you decide if you could be getting money back by making adjustments.

Do You Know the Difference Between Camp and Daycamp Expenses? - Frequently Missed Child Expenses

In the midst of a proposed school strike, people are signing their children up for Day-camps at local Recreation Centres. Also a co-worker was doing early registration for her child's summer camp. It's come up quite a bit that these ARE considered valid Childcare Expenses and are frequently overlooked.

Because of the word "Camp" people often doing think of these as "Daycare" but as far as your taxes are concerned, they still are valid expenses for Childcare.

Even though both use the word "Camp" they are treated differently for your taxes.

A DAY camp is no different than any other daycare expenses. You can claim the full amount subject to the same rules as any other Childcare expenses (as far as maximum claim amounts and the lower income parent has to claim it unless they are a student or have an illness).

A SUMMER or "OVERNIGHT" Camp is subject to a weekly maximum limit of between $100, $175 or $275 depending on the ages of the child and whether or not they have a disability.

If you child was in a "camp" in 2013, don't forget to claim this expense. If you missed claiming this expense in the past, your tax returns can be adjusted for up to 10 years. Most facilities can easily provide replacement receipts on request.

If you use software to prepare your tax return, keep this distinction in mind when preparing your tax return about the word "camp". If you mark the expense as a Camp in the software, it will apply the weekly limits. But unless it was an OVERNIGHT camp you should NOT do this. Any camps that don't have an overnight portion, are not really considered a camp. They are just considered ordinary day care.

Also keep in mind that if your child is in a sports camp, make sure to include this as DAYCARE and NOT as a Fitness expense.


Pain Free Tax & Bookkeeping Service provides free reviews and advice for tax questions about adjustments. If you have any question please contact us at service@painfreetaxes.ca

Why First Time Home Buyers should Leverage their RRSP and the Home Buyer Plan

I often hear from people that they want to save for a down payment before they think about buying their first home, but in the meantime prices are going up on values faster than they can save.

I always recommend getting an RRSP and using the Home Buyer Plan (HBP) to them, but not just strictly as a saving tool. There are a lot of ways that this can be beneficial.

While people often say they don't have the money to save for their RRSP or down payment, consider making automatic deductions. Each payday pay your RRSP $25 or $50 or try doing direct transfers from your bank account by "rounding off" your bank balance a few dollars each week. You will be surprised how fast it adds up and how little you miss it. You can also ask your employer to offset this by lowering your tax deductions at source to account for the higher refund you will receive, so often this works out to the same or similar "take home" amount.

Firstly, the contributions to the RRSP are tax deductible. So while you are saving up for your own home, you will get a tax break in the form of a higher refund or lower tax bill. This can be from 20% up to 40% of what you are putting into the RRSP coming back as a tax refund. Often the strategy ends here, once enough is saved the RRSP holder takes the money (up to $25,000 per spouse) out under the Home Buyer Plan and uses it as their down payment. Under the HBP you can take out money out of the RRSP without it being considered income or losing your tax breaks so long as you put it back in an RRSP over 15 years.

However, there are other ways to leverage that RRSP to help you buy your first home. The money can be used for anything, not just a down payment. The only requirements for taking it out are that you:
- are purchasing a home you intend to live in within a year of purchase
- you haven't owned another home in the past 5 years or have a balance owing to the HBP already
- The money has to be in for at least 90 days before the withdrawal
- you must make the withdrawal within 30 days of the purchase and if multiple withdrawals, they have to be in the same year
- you agree to repay the withdrawal over 15 years (with a 2 year reprieve before you starts) into your own RRSP, but if you can't make that payment you pay tax on the payment you should have made to offset the original tax break you received. (Note: in a year you have little or no income, you can basically skip it with no tax consequences).

Sometimes, using the HBP money in other ways can help make the purchase a reality, for instance letting your mortgage broker know you will use the withdrawal to pay down existing debts, instead of entirely as a down payment, may help you qualify for a mortgage or higher amount that you may not have qualified for due to "Debt Service Ratios" as these are used to determine how much of your income goes to debt. Even if you have only a few payments left to go paying down a debt, this can be held against you in qualifying for a mortgage. One client did this as we suggested and qualified for a mortgage of $80,000 higher. Making it possible to find a home available in the approved range that wouldn't have been previously possible. Often people take all the cash they have to pay down debt to try and improve debt service ratios, but recycling it through the RRSP first gets them the tax refund and the money to pay down debt in order to make that money go much further.

Another idea is that if you have a lump sum you are planning to use for your down payment or can "borrow" for 90 days somehow, put in the RRSP before using it to buy the property. This will allow you to get both a tax break and a nice size tax refund as well. Therefore getting more "bang for your buck" with the same money. Putting your down payment fund in the RRSP first may give you enough money to qualify for a larger mortgage, or provide you with money for closing costs, moving expenses, and incidentals like renovations or furniture.

Sometimes using this strategy makes the difference between making it work to buy your home or not. People are frequently disappointed that they can't qualify for quite enough money, when doing this can make it work. Mortgage brokers try to be helpful but aren't always knowledgeable about RRSP's options that might help or that sometimes less down payment and paying down the debts can be the key, even if they are small ones.

Keep in mind that as a first time home buyer you will also qualify for the First Time Home Buyer Credit which gives taxpayers a $5000 non-refundable tax credit in the year they buy their first home. This translates into a $750 extra refund.

Feel free to contact us at service@painfreetaxes.ca for free tax planning around buying your new home or leveraging your down payment in the best possible way. You might be surprised how using these strategies can make your dream of owning your own home a reality faster, or leave you with a little less cash crunch in the process.

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