Income Tax 2019 - credits & benefits

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May 7th, 2020 10:24 pm

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May 7th, 2020 8:28 am

insighthraa [OP]: Newbie; May 6, 2020; 6 posts

May 7th, 2020 8:28 am

Income Tax 2019 - credits & benefits

Making sure I don't miss out any credits & benefits. My situation is pretty common / straight forward, living in ONTARIO

* dual income household (T4s)
* children (daycare)
* investments (T3, T5)
* RRSP
* Lending Loop (very small amount)
* Charitable / donation
* Mortgage

Since the auto-fill, practically almost everything is filled up already. I reviewed & compared with every slip that I got to make sure there's no mismatch.

What else should I review to make sure I got all the credits / benefits that I can get? So far, the only things I need to add **manually** to StudioTax filling is:

* daycare (-> I believe the lower income spouse should to fill this?)
* Climate change initiative (-> I believe the lower income spouse should to fill this? or should both claim it in their tax return?)
* Donations (-> I believe the higher income spouse should fill this?)
* Lending Loop (did not get T3/T5 from them, so I am entering them manually)

I almost missed the daycare one, that would have been huge $ miss. Anything else I might have missed?

5 replies

May 7th, 2020 10:28 am

georvu: Deal Fanatic; Feb 4, 2015; 7534 posts; 3654 upvotes; Canada, Eh!!

May 7th, 2020 10:28 am

Ontario property tax, etc credits... not sure if automatically or not

Ensure dividends are entered so max efficiency... normally enter dividends in income of person getting and software will maximize efficiency... not sure if that gets done with CRA download

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July 13, 2017 to October 25, 2018: BOC raised rates 5 times and MCAP raised its prime rate next day each time.

2020: BOC dropped rates 3 times and MCAP waited and waited to drop its prime rate to include all 3 drops.

May 7th, 2020 6:17 pm

zeddy: Deal Addict; Jun 12, 2008; 1304 posts; 782 upvotes; Ripley

May 7th, 2020 6:17 pm

Medical receipts.

Studio tax makes it very easy to go through the forms line by line to see if they apply to you. You can also look at a print out of the forms from last year and make sure you didn't miss anything.

+1

May 7th, 2020 9:06 pm

FoFai2015: Deal Addict; Jan 2, 2015; 1633 posts; 638 upvotes; Toronto, ON

May 7th, 2020 9:06 pm

For charitable donations, you can get the "first time" super credit, usable once every five years. I store up five years of donations and claim them all at once.

Carry forward
You do not have to claim, on your income tax and benefit return for the current year, the eligible amount of gifts you made in the year. It may be more beneficial for you to carry them forward and claim them on your return for any of the next 5 years (or over the next 10 years for a gift of ecologically sensitive land made after February 10, 2014). No matter what your choice is, you can claim them only once.

You have to claim tax credits for gifts you carried forward from a previous year before you claim tax credits for gifts you give in the current year. If you are claiming a carry foward, keep a record of the portion of the eligible amount you are claiming this year, and the amount you are carrying forward.

I read a suggestion that the lower income spouse should claim medical credits. Note that this is after you have claimed the child care deduction.

+1

May 7th, 2020 9:17 pm

yvrbanker: Sr. Member; May 2, 2019; 597 posts; 756 upvotes; Vancouver

May 7th, 2020 9:17 pm

insighthraa wrote: ↑Anything else I might have missed?

If you have extra time and want to be thorough, you can get your numbers into TurboTax online. Their questionnaire is good. You don't need to pay anything as long as you are not actually filing with them. You won't see all the details in the resulting return, but it's enough to check if the bottom line is the same as you get with StudioTax.

+1

May 7th, 2020 10:24 pm

bubak: Deal Addict; Jul 15, 2009; 2382 posts; 1541 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 10:24 pm

FoFai2015 wrote: ↑ For charitable donations, you can get the "first time" super credit, usable once every five years. I store up five years of donations and claim them all at once.

I read a suggestion that the lower income spouse should claim medical credits. Note that this is after you have claimed the child care deduction.

First time super credit ended in 2017. Doesn't exist anymore.

It may still be advantageous to save up several years of donations because the first $200 you claim in a year gets a lower rate of credit than the part that's over $200.

+2

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