All tax returns we did in these courses are individual income tax returns. The official name is “T1 General Income Tax and Benefit Return”. Every adult Canadian resident should file individual income tax return every year.

Individual income tax return has four main pages.

• T1 Page 1 includes your personal information.
• T1 Page 2 contains your incomes such as employment income, self-employment income, and rental income.



• T1 Page 3 has all your tax deductions such as RRSP deduction, child care expenses deduction and employment expenses deduction. For more information about tax deduction, read Tax courses 4: Understand tax deduction.



• T1 Page 4 shows the result – How much you owe or get refund. You can also enrol for direct deposit by input your bank account. If you have to mail your tax return, you have to sign on this page too.



Every time you need to check or change something, you can do that by going directly to the according page. For example, if you want to claim your universal child care benefit, you can go directly to page 2 and double click line 117, and input the number into the pop-up form RC62.

Important schedules on your individual income tax return

Schedule 1 must be included on your individual income tax return.

On schedule 1, you claim your Federal non-refundable tax credits such as public transmit amount, tuition amount and basic personal amount. Read more on Tax course 5: Understand tax credit.



Schedule 5 where you claim amount for spouse or common-law partner and dependants.

If you are single parent, don’t forget claim your child as eligible dependant in schedule 5. If you are married or live common-law and your partner is low income, you may be able to claim spouse or common-law partner amount.

Schedule 6 to claim working income tax benefit

Ontario tax form ON-Ben to claim your rent or property tax payment.

Check the box.



Input your rental payment amount.



The more you practice, the more you will understand your individual income tax return.Click to read all articles about Tax Courses.

In this case study, you will learn how to prepare tax return for couple. Clients’ information is as below.

Mary Black, living in Ottawa with his husband David Black, studies in college and works part-time. She has tax slips as below.

• One employment income tax slip T4.



• Tuition and education amount tax slip T2202A.



• She has unused Federal tuition amount $2000 and Ontario tuition amount $1500, which can be carried forward to this year tax return.
• She also has a U-pass for public transit. It costs her $500 in 2014.

Her husband, David Black, works full time and has one T4 tax slip as below.

Let’s create a new file and prepare this tax return for couple from the beginning.

1. Input personal information in a tax return for couple.

Run Studio Tax, create a new file, and follow the wizard to input personal information for the tax return for couple.

On Marriage Stutus, choose “Married” and check “create a spousal linked tax return”.

If your marital status changes you must notify the CRA within a month. The CRA will recalculate your benefits such as Child benefits, GST/HST credits and Ontario Trillium Benefit based on your marital status change. Your benefits will be adjusted the month following the month in which your marital status changed.

You can do this by using “Change my marital status” on My Account or by calling 1-800-387-1193.

Click the link to read more about CRA online services.

2. Select tax slips.

3. Check “tuition” box since she has unused tuition amount carried forward.

4. Input Mary’s T4 slip and T2202A slip.

5. Input unused tuition and education amount.

6. Input David’s T4 slip

7. Check the result in the tax return for couple.

Mary’s tax refund is $554.65.

David’s refund is $1515.99.

8. Claim public transmit credit on the spouse return to maximizing tax saving on this tax return for couple.

You may notice I didn’t claim Mary’s $500 public transmit amount on her tax return. This is because it won’t get more tax refund for Mary by claiming this amount on her tax return.

On Schedule 1, you can see Mary’s non-refundable tax amount, including basic personal amount 11,380 and Canada employment amount 1,127, is more than her income. Since she doesn’t need to pay tax, claiming more non-refundable tax credits won’t help her get more tax refund.

However, claiming the $500 public transmit amount on her husband tax return can increase his tax refund to $1590.99, saving tax $75 (15% of $500).

9. Transfer Mary’s tuition fee to her husband to get more tax refund.

Not only transmit amount, Mary can also transfer her tuition fee amount to her husband.

On Schedule 11, you can see the maximum transfer is 5,000, so you can check the “transfer to your spouse or common-law partner” and put 5,000 on the federal amount transferred.

On Schedule ON(S11), transfer the Ontario tuition maximum amount 6,680.

10. Check the result.

David’s tax refund is $2,678.63, increased $1,087.64 after transferred the tuition fee amount from Mary to David.

In all, while preparing tax return for couple, keep in mind there may be tax credits can be transferred to each other, and it will help to get more tax refund.

Click to read all articles about Tax Courses.

In this case study, we will learn how to prepare tax return for single parent.

Continue using the same client John Smith as tax course 5, we add additional information on him as below.

• He is single parent living with his son Mike Smith, who is born Jan 01, 2010.
• John paid $3000 child care expenses.
• He paid $800 for his son to play soccer.

Let’s learn how to prepare tax return for single parent.

1. Input his son information.

• Click “Dependants” on the main menu.
• Click ”Add” to add dependant.
• Input dependant’s name and click OK.
• Input dependant’s day of birth, relationship, his net income or check the box “income is NIL”, and then click OK.

2. Claim child care expenses.

• Click “child care expenses…” button.
• Click “add” at the pop up window.
• Input child care expense amount and name of child care provider, then click OK.

Click to learn more about child care expenses.

3. Input fitness amount $800.

4. Check the result.

Go back to T1 page 4, you should see the refund is $4209, before it is $2612.

Go to Schedule 1. You see the child amount 2255 was claimed properly. However, the amount for eligible dependant was not claimed automatically.

There is a mistake!

5. Fix this mistake.

• Double click line 305 on schedule or click “Forms” to add schedule 5.
• Click “pick name”, a window should pop up.
• Select “Mike Smith” then click OK.

6. Get back to see the result.

After we fix the mistake, the refund is $6309, increased more than $2,000.

This small tax mistake can you ost more than $2,000. Lesson learnt from this mistake:

Never rely on any software blindly.

Now you know how to prepare tax return for single parent, in the next course, let’s learn how to prepare tax return for couple.

Click to read all articles about Tax Courses.

In the previous post Understand tax deduction, we learn how tax deductions save your tax. In this post, we will show you how tax credit reduces your tax by example.

Tax credit directly reduces tax liability and hence produces the same tax saving amount for all taxpayers, despite their income and marginal tax rates.

There are two types of tax credits: refundable tax credit and non-refundable tax credit.

• Refundable tax credits will pay you a tax refund. The most common credits are: Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB), GST/HST credit and Ontario Trillium Benefit (OTB).
• Non-refundable tax credit reduce your tax payable. It can’t be used to get you a refund if you don’t need to pay tax. Howervr, you may be able transfer those unused amounts to your family members or carry them forward to future tax years. The most common tax credits are Child amount, Tuition amount, Disability amount and public transit amount.

Client information is the same as part 4.

John Smith, single, living in Ottawa, has 2 T4 tax slip and pay rental payment $8000 in 2014. He made $5000 Registered Retirement Saving Plan (RRSP) contribution, and paid $200 union due, which is not included in his T4.

Additional information in this case study

• He paid $1000 for his monthly bus passes in 2014.
• He studied in Ottawa University and paid tuition fees. He got a T2202A tax slip from his school as below.

Continue with part 4, let’s prepare his tax return step by step.

1. Input the $1000 monthly bus passes amount.

• Click Schedule 1 on the left.
• Double click Public transmit amount line 364, a window should pop up.
• Input $1000 on the other public transit amount, and then click OK.

2. Input the T2202A tax slip.

• Scroll down, and click the T2202 on the left.
• Input tuition fees paid, number of months in part-time and number of months in full time study as above.

3. Check the tax refund.

Go back to T1 page 4, you will see the tax refund is $2612.25, increasing from $967.64. By adding the public transmit and tuition tax credit, the total tax saving is $1644.61 ($2612.25 – $967.64).

Easy, right? You already know how to do it. Want to know why? Continue reading.

1. Get Federal Schedule 11 and Ontario schedule S11.

• Click the form on the menu.
• Add Federal schedule 11 on the left and Ontario schedule 11 on the right.

2. Open federal schedule 11

You will see how the tuition amount 7374 is calculated based on the tuition fee paid, number of months in full time and part time study.

3. Open Ontario schedule 11

you will see how the tuition amount 7690.8 is calculated based on the tuition fee paid, number of months in full time and part time study.

4. Go back to federal schedule 1.

You will see the total tax amount for tuition and public transmit is 8374.8 (1000+7374.8). Federal non-refundable tax credit rate is 15%. So the tax credit for the 8374.8 is 1256.22 (8374.8×15%). In other word, by adding the public transmit and tuition amount, the federal tax saving amount is $1256.22.

5. Click the ON428 to check Ontario tax credit.

Public transmit amount is not qualified as Ontario tax credit, so you won’t see it on ON427. Ontario non-refundable tax credit rate is 5.05%. So the tax credit for the 7690.8 is 388.39 (7690.8×5.05%). In other word, by adding tuition amount, the Ontario tax saving amount is $388.39.

The total tax saving is $1644.61($1256.22+$388.39) by claiming public transmit and tuition fee amounts.

Click to read all articles about Tax Courses.

Through this case study, you will learn an important tax concept – tax deduction.

Tax deduction reduces your taxable income, thus lower your tax bill or increase your tax refund. Let’s see how tax deduction works by example.

Continue with case study 1.

John Smith, single, living in Ottawa, has T4 tax slips and pay rental payment $8000 in 2014.

Additional tax information for John Smith.

• He made $5000 Registered Retirement Saving Plan (RRSP) contribution.
• He paid $200 union due, which is not included in his T4.
• He has another T4 slip as below.

Let’s prepare his tax return step by step.

1. Input his T4 slip.

You can get the T4 slip form from wizard or just click T4 on the left, and then you will see the T4 form as below. Input the T4 slip’s data into the form

2.Go Back to T1 page 4 to see the result.

• Net Federal tax Line 420 is $6875.01.
• Provincial tax Line 428 is $3409.89.
• Total income tax deducted is $9632.74.
• Balance owing is $652.16. He has to pay taxes!

You may also notice the working income benefit in line 453 become zero. This is because his income increases, he is not qualified for the benefit any more.

Now, let’s see how tax deduction reduces his tax owing.

3. Input his $5000 RRSP contribution.



• Click T1 page 3 on the left.
• On page 3, double click RRSP deduction Line 208. A RRSP contribution form should pop up.
• On the RRSP contribution form, input $10,000 on the RRSP deduction limit. You can find your RRSP deduction limit on your latest notice assessment. Make sure the deduction limit is larger than your contribution amount.
• Click “between March 4th and December 31st, 2014″.
• Input $5000 to the pop up window, and then click OK.

Click to read more articles about RRSP.

4. Input union fee $200.



• On T1 page 3, double click Annual union, professional, or like dues on line 212.
• Input $200 on the other due in the pop up window, click OK.

5. Check the result.



• Net Federal tax Line 420 is $5731.01.
• Provincial tax Line 428 is $2934.09.

Now, he will get tax refund $967.64, instead of paying $652.16. By claiming tax deduction, he got tax saving $1619.8.

The total tax deduction we added is $5200 ($5000 RRSP + $200 union fee), so the saving rate of tax deduction is %31.15 (1619.8/52000), which is the same rate as his marginal tax rate.

Read the post Marginal Tax Rate – How You Get Taxed to know more about how tax deduction reduces taxes.

6. Get back to the summary.



He is not getting GST/HST and OTB credits any more, since his income increased.

Now you understand how tax deduction reduces taxes, in the next post, we will show you how tax credits save your taxes.

Click to read all articles about Tax Courses.

Let’s start with a very basic tax return.

John Smith, single, living in Ottawa, has only T4 tax slip and pay rental payment $8000 in 2014. His T4 slip is below.

1. Continue with course 2, Input his T4 tax slip.

You can read the post How to read your T4 slip to understand the meaning of each box on your T4 slip.

2. Click next button until the wizard finish, then you will see the screen below. Save the file first, then double check the name, address, birthday and marital status.

3. Claim rental paid for his Ontario Trillium Benefit.

Click ON-BEN on the left, then you will see the “Ontario Application for the 2015 Trillium Benefit”. Check the box 6118.

Scroll down, on the Part A of the form box 6110, input his rental payment $8000.

4. Claim Working Income Tax Benefit.

Click Form on the main menu to open tax forms. Select Schedule 6: Working income tax benefit, and add it.

Click Schedule 6 on the left, open the working income tax benefit form. Since John is single with no dependant, check No on box 381 and 382.

Scroll down, and select Yes on box 391. If John is disable and has Disability Tax Credit Certificate from CRA, he can also click box 392 to apply WITB disability supplement for himself. More details about Disability Tax Credit Certificate, please read post How the Disability Tax Credit reduces your taxes.

More details about Working Income Tax Benefit, please read the post working income tax benefit-an extra pay cheque for low income workers.

5. Click T4 page 4 on the left to check the amount of tax refund, you will see

• Line 437 is the tax deducted from his T4 Slip. Since he is low income, he can get it all back.
• Line 448 is CPP overpayment. Canada Pension Plan (CPP) payment deducted on his T4 slip is more than he should pay, so he can get the overpayment back.
• Line 453 is the working income tax benefit, which we apply on step 4.
• Line 482 is the total tax refund.

6. Click Summary on the left and you will see the summary sheet.

• GST/HST credit estimates $272. This credit is calculated based on your income.
• Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit estimate $435. This credit is calculated based on your income and rental payment.
• Sales Tax Credit estimate $287. This credit is calculated based on your income.

All done. Any question, leave comment below, thanks.

After knowing how to prepare a basic tax return, I will show you more tax knowledge be on the following posts.

You can choose different tax software to prepare your tax return. Here, we use Studiotax to show you how to do it step by step. It is free for personal use. You can download it at http://www.studiotax.com/en/

Open Studiotax and click “create a new tax return”, it will start a wizard to guide you input your personal information. You will see,

Your name

Make sure it spells correctly, especially your last name. It must match with CRA’s record. If not, you can’t efile your tax return.

Fill your name, check if you change your name or not, fill your birthday and click next to next section.

Your mailing address

It must be your current mailing address, and it can be different with your living address. Canada Revenue Agency will mail your notice of assessment and tax review letters to this address. If you move, make sure you notify CRA as soon as possible.

Your email address

It is optional for you to sign up CRA online email service. After you sign up, your notices of assessment will no longer be printed and mailed to you. Instead, an email notification will be sent to your email address, and you will have to register and log in to CRA My Account to view it.

Your province of residence on December 31

The province you live on the last day of the year will determine which province tax you have to pay and benefits you are entitled to receive. For example, if you live in Quebec on December 31, 2014, you will be considered as Quebec resident and you have to file Quebec tax.

Click next to next section.

Marital Status

If you are married and living common-law, it is strongly suggested to prepare both of your income tax returns at the same time. This is because one spouse net income has to be shown on another spouse’s tax return, and another significant benefit is spouses may be able to transfer non-refundable tax credits to each other and achieve high tax saving. You can see this example in the coming blog posts.

Click next to next section.

Entry day

If you become a resident of Canada in the tax year, you need to provide the date you arrived Canada. If you are a new immigrant or an international student, you have to provide the entry day on your first income tax return, and your world income at the year.

Click next to next section.

Foreign property

If you own foreign property with a cost in excess of $100,000 at any period during the year, you must make an annual disclosure with the Canada Revenue Agency. It doesn’t include any property you own primarily for personal use, including your automobile, cottage, paintings and jewellery. If you are that rich guy, you have to fill form T1135 and submit it to CRA each year.

Click next to next section.

Tax slips

Click the boxes for the tax slips you have.

If you need to change your personal information, you can always come back to the wizard through the main menu.

To file your tax return, you must have one of the two identity number below:

Social Insurance Number (SIN):

A SIN a nine-digit number that you need to work in Canada or to have access to government programs and benefits. If you are Canadian citizen or permanent resident, you should already have one. If you don’t, you can apply for a SIN in Service Canada.

Individual Tax Number (ITN):

An ITN is a nine-digit number (09x xxx xxx) for individuals who need an identification number to file their Canadian income tax return but are not eligible to obtain a Social Insurance Number (SIN). ITNs are issued by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and are usually applied for by international students who do not have a work permit and SIN card. You can download the application form on the CRA website.

Most common tax slips and documents you may have:

T4 tax slip

If you work as an employee, you should get a T4 tax slip from your employer. If you can’t get it from your employer, you can register and access Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) online account My Account to get your past 3 years tax slips. If you can’t register with CRA, you can authorize us as your representative, so we can get your T4 tax slip for you. You can click the CRA link to find out how a representative can help you.

T2202A tax slip

If you are a college student and you pay tuition fees, you should get a T2202A from your school. If your college has online student account service, you can get the tax slip on your online account.

Rental receipts / property tax receipts for Ontario residents

If you are low and middle income, you can claim the rent or property tax you paid, and receive Ontario Trillium Benefit.

RRSP contribution tax slip

If you make RRSP contribution to your bank or financial institution, you should receive RRSP contribution tax slip from them.

You can use our income tax checklist to make sure you have gather all your tax slips and documents.