My son is a full time student at a Canadian unversity. I am completely supporting him, how should I show that on my return?

Hello, thanks for your question. Your son would have been issued a T2202A slip for the calendar year's tuition expenses from his institution.  Any unused tuition fees can be transferred to a parent if the student approves the transfer. For federal purposes, $5,000 of non-refundable tax credits can be transferred. 15% of the respective amount will offset the recipient's federal tax liability.

To be clear, your son will have to report the slips content on his personal tax return and utilize his tuition fees first before he can transfer his unused tuition fees. Ensure the back of the slip is signed appropriately as instructed in case a T1 process review of your claim occurs in the future. Retain the slip as well. 

Hi there.

If you are supporting your son as he completes his post-secondary education, your son can transfer some of their tuition credits to you. The maximum that can be transferred on the federal part of the return is $5,000 less the amount they need to reduce their own tax payable to zero. The amount that can be transferred on the provincial/territorial part of the return depends on the province or territory.

If your son is going to transfer some of their tuition credits to you, he will need to complete and sign the transfer section of his T2002 (which is located on the second page) and provide you with a copy of that completed document. It is a best practice to complete your son's tax return first in order to determine whether any of their tuition credits need to be applied to reduce his tax payable and then calculate how much of the $5,000 maximum can be transferred to you.

One thing to note: once a student has carried forward tuition credits (i.e., not used to reduce their tax payable or transferred to a parent, grandparent, or spouse, those tuition credits cannot be transferred and must be used by the student at a time when there are needed to reduce a future tax payable.

I really hope this helps.