Need help claiming tuition on my taxes?

Hi,

I'm trying to file my taxes using quicktax, if anyone is familiar, please help!

On my 'student summary', it says:

Unused tuition and education amounts from previous years 16,731.00

2007 total tuition fees 1,700.26
2007 total education and textbook amount 1,860.00
SubTotal 3,560.26
Amount claimed in 2007 0.00
Maximum amount available to transfer 3,560.26


Why does it say amount claimed is 0? and how do I fix that?

The 16,731.00 is the total tuition you paid in previous years. The reason that the amount wasn't claimed is because you didn't need it. While you were in school, you were either not working or working very little so you didn't have any taxable income to apply it to. The tuition credit is a "non-refundable" tax credit so all it does it reduce your taxes payable. You would use only as much as would be required to reduce your taxes payable to zero. You didn't have any taxable income, so it got carried forward and will continue to get carried forward to future years until it is all used up.

In the year that you originally claim your tuition fees and education amount, any amount that is not required on your own return can be transferred to a spouse or parent's return if you don't want to carry it forward. So this year, you can transfer the $3560.26 if you so choose... or you can carry it forward with the rest of it (assuming you still don't have taxable income). That means that this year, you can earn up to about $30,000 and get all your taxes back. That would be a nice refund. Don't worry. You won't lose these credits. They will continue to get carried forward until they are all used up. Once you're out of school and get that big paying job you want, those credits will sure come in handy. But, for now, they just sit there and look pretty. =)

I'm going to guess that either you are a dependent for 2007, or you don't have any tax liability for 2007 - for either of those situations you couldn't get benefit from an education credit or deduction.

I'm a little confused about some of the other numbers - they don't make much sense. For example, your total education expenses for the year would INCLUDE your tuition, so adding those two together makes no sense.

Do you owe any money or are you getting a refund?

If you provide your income it will be easier to confirm this but it appears that you did not make enough to have to pay income tax in 2007. Tuition is used to reduce tax liability it is not something you get a percentage of back. That you have $16,731 unused from previous years would imply that has been the case since you started university.

You can't transfer the $16,731 but the $3560.26 from this year can be transfered and used by a list of people (parents, spouse, grandparents etc) who might have income tax liability. If you don't transfer it then you'll carry it forward and it will join the $16k of unused that can be applied against your future tax liability.

The number $3550.26 does not seem to make sense and I think there is something wrong there but that doesn't have an impact on why you can't claim any of your education amount.