Kids' Cdn Taxes and Parent's US Taxes

Pamela · Post by **Pamela** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:13 pm

Our 18 and 21 year old kids were students and had summer jobs in Canada. The older child has not lived with us in the States, but the younger one completed high school here. She will not be moving back to the States. I'm using Ufile (thanks for the recommendation Nelson) for their Cdn tax returns. How do I go about claiming their tuition payments when we had only a bit of Cdn interest income? Should we the parents file Cdn tax returns just for this? Should we file a US return for our daughter?

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:09 pm

There is nothing stopping you from claiming the tuition in both Canada and US.

Of course the tuition does you no good in Canada, since youy don't earn income there (athough it does present a scenario for a non-working resident to draw down their RRSP tax-free a little faster). You can use the expenses only in the year they occur, while The student can carry forward the tuition indefinitely, so leave it for them.

In US you can claim the tuition on your return, so long as your kid(s) are still considered dependants (they probably are if not married) along with lifetime learning and hope credits.

Whether or not they file in US depends on their income, and woill not have an effect on whether or not they are your dependants.

Pamela · Post by **Pamela** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:40 pm

Thanks Nelson. I'll finish up my daughter's return tonight, and nag my son (again) to got his stuff in to me!