Remember the good old days, when we had a tax deduction for active kids, yeh, that went out the window, but I’ll keep this around for posterity.
After chatting with a parent at a basketball yesterday it struck me that there might be some folk who do not fully understand all of the tax deductions and features that are available to them, so here I give you a list (not exhaustive) of some of the deductions you should think about.
Children’s Fitness Tax Credit
This is the new one that a lot of folks may not remember this year. Up to $500.00 worth of fees that show your child in an athletic endeavour are deductible. The title of this section is a link explaining much more about this tax credit, that parents should take advantage of. Important to have a receipt for this.
Nope, if Johnny played the violin last year, that is not covered.
Other deductions?
Some other deductions you might want to think about if you are eligible for them:
- Don’t forget daycare costs, if you both work you should claim those costs, and remember important things like summer camp also can be included in there as well. I cannot claim these as my wife’s income is insufficient to take advantage of these.
- Safety deposit box, yup that is a carrying charge, that you can claim as a deduction on your taxes.
- GST sales tax credit? You never know when that might kick in. My daughter got that last year for the first time, so that one is kind of cool.
Any other interesting tax credits that folks have run into, please comment on this.
If you have one spouse with a low income and one with a higher income, then you may want the lower income to enroll in a full time school. I’m not sure of all the specifics, but my spouse only made around 4 grand last year because of schooling. Since she was in school and worked at the end of the year we have childcare expenses for most of that time. This can now be transferred to the higher income earner so we will be getting a pretty fat rebate cheque.
It does work to a lesser degree for part time students as well, so it may be worth while to look for courses that can be taken on down time for people with part time working spouses. You never know, it may translate in to very cheap education.