Canadian Tax Question: Do I need to file T2202A form or can my parents claim it? Simple tax forms help needed

This is a common situation for Canadian students. The T2202A form reports your tuition amounts that are eligible for tax credits. When you enter it, the system calculates how much of your federal and provincial tax can be offset by these credits. The reason your refund dropped is that the tuition credits were applied to reduce your tax payable first, before determining your refund. This means the credits "used up" some of the refundable amounts you were expecting. As for who should claim it - you must claim your own T2202A on your return. However, you can transfer up to $5,000 of the federal portion of your tuition credits to a qualifying person (like your parents) if you don't need all the credits to reduce your own tax to zero. There's a specific area on the form for this transfer. Keep in mind that you must use as much of the tuition credit as needed to reduce your own federal tax to zero before transferring any remaining amount to a parent.

I had the exact same issue last year and figured out what was going on. I found this amazing service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that explained everything about the T2202A and RESP situation. It analyzes all your tax forms and tells you exactly what's happening with your refund calculations. When I uploaded my T2202A, it immediately showed me how the tuition credits were affecting my refund and why it dropped so dramatically. Then it explained my options for transferring credits to my parents and how much would carry forward to future years. Saved me a ton of confusion and probably prevented me from making costly mistakes.

Just wanted to update after trying taxr.ai from the previous comment. It was actually super helpful! I uploaded my T4, T4A and T2202A forms, and it showed me exactly why my refund was changing. Turns out I can transfer some of my tuition credits to my parents, but I need to use enough to reduce my own federal tax to zero first. The tool showed me the optimal amount to transfer to maximize our family's total refund. My parents will actually get more benefit from the transferred amount than I would right now. Seriously wish I'd known about this before nearly having a breakdown over my "missing" refund money. The tool also showed me which credits will carry forward to next year when I'll be working full-time.

If you're having trouble getting clear answers about your tax situation, I'd recommend using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to get through to the CRA directly. I spent DAYS trying to call the CRA about a similar tuition credit situation last year, and it was impossible to get through. With Claimyr, I got connected to a CRA agent in about 15 minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours. They had a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent was able to look up my file and explain exactly how my tuition credits should be handled and how much I could transfer to my parents.

I was completely wrong about Claimyr. I tried it yesterday out of desperation because I needed to sort out my tuition credits before the filing deadline, and I actually got through to the CRA in about 20 minutes! The agent explained that I had to report my T2202A on my own return, but I could transfer up to $5000 of the federal amount to my parents if I didn't need all of it to reduce my own taxes. She also walked me through exactly where on the form to indicate the transfer amount and my parent's SIN. Honestly shocked that this actually worked. I've literally never gotten through to the CRA on my first try before.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet - if your tuition was paid from an RESP, make sure you've also properly reported any RESP income on your return! You should have received a T4A slip with box 42 showing the Educational Assistance Payments (EAPs) from the RESP. The EAPs are taxable income to you (the student), not your parents. This might be part of why your refund changed - you might have added income without realizing it.

Canadian accounting student here! Just to add some clarity about what's happening with your refund calculation: When you only had your T4/T4A entered, the system calculated your tax payable based on that income, then subtracted what you'd already paid through payroll deductions, resulting in your refund. Once you added the T2202A, the system applied those tuition credits to reduce your tax payable, but this happens BEFORE calculating your refund. So essentially, some of those credits are "using up" refund room that was previously being returned to you in cash.