jimf

A few quick questions on completing the return:

1. We received receipts from the elementary school for lunchtime supervision. Is this only eligible if the lower income of the two parents has employment income ie rental income doesn't count?
2. Can the cost of the Quicktax software be included as a cost? If so where?
3. I will be visiting the UK rental property in July this year. I'll be using the return portion of a flight I bought last year and I expect a single to return to Canada. Is this cost eligible? If so do I have to wait until next years tax return even though I've already paid for half of the ticket?

Answers much appreciated.

Forgot to include:

Does UK child benefit have to be declared in canadian tax return? There are two periods:

When mrs jimf was still in the UK and I was in Canada.

When the whole family was in Canada and payments continued for a while until we told them we had moved out of the country. I don't know whether they will try and claim those payments back but so far so good.

Pammy

I am watching this thread, dont think you can surely claim for your plane ticket, you are making money off the rental property so they are more likely to tax you on it!

Quicktax, dont think so, I went to H & R Block and did not get that fee back!
I can put my accounting software through the business now though.

The lunch thing, think it will depend on how much you make too.


Cant wait to see though as I am no expert, maybe I have missed out in the past?!

JonboyE

1 Childcare expenses can only be deducted from the spouse with the lower income, and only if they are incurred to earn income or to study. Rental income is not earned income and therefore does not quality.

2 As a general rule no, it is a personal expense. However, as you have rental income I would go ahead and claim it as a rental expense on line 8810 or 8860 of the T776.

3 If you only have one rental property then generally you cannot claim travel costs to and from it. The only exception is when you are required to travel because of necessary maintenance or repairs. Also the claim has to be reasonable. Spending $1,000 on a plane ticket to do some maintenance that a local handyman could do for £50 is not reasonable.

jimf

On 2 that sounds good. When using Quicktax (platinum) I assume that once you've entered the rental income & expenses on the T776 you don't put the same income down in the foreign income section.

There were also some payments we made to the school for childrens' textbooks - are these eligible? Everything I've read seems to suggest only post 16 costs are eligible.

JonboyE

I don't use Quicktax so I can't say for sure, but I would be surprised if you had to enter income twice. Don't forget the T1135 if you became tax resident in 2008or before. It is optional if you became tax resident in 2009.

You cannot claim this.

jimf

Just wondered if you noticed the child benefit edit I did to the first posting?

Thanks for your replies. I think I'm just about done now but it'll be worth the effort in the end! No doubt it will be a few months before the money comes though.

JonboyE

I don't think there is any downside to filing the T1135. One poster some while ago was in this position and didn't file a T1135. Someone at the CRA didn't notice that it was their first year of filing and tried to collect penalties and interest.

I assume the reason it is optional is that the form asks if you owned foreign property worth more than $100,000 at any time during the year so the CRA would get lots of forms from new immigrants that would have no bearing on their Canadian tax situation.

For UK child benefit they will want the money back that they paid after you left. It is therefore not income so I don't think you need to declare it.

UK child benefit is paid to the mother so it will never be your income. I assume Mrs jimf was still tax resident in the UK while receiving child benefit when you were in Canada. As such neither she nor you would count it in your Canadian income.

The4BellsLondon

Re No.1 - does that include things like the summer camps etc?? think we put that down on Hubbys return, not mine! hell the cheque came today and has been banked any way!!

Oakvillian

Depending on the nature of the summer camp it might qualify under the child fitness tax credit, in which case you're not in the realms of childcare and don't need to worry about whether the lower-paid souse was able to work or study as a result. Ours did, as did the cost of membership of the local soccer club. Maximum eligible expense of only $500 per child, though.

Souvy

They didn't just try. Gits.

The4BellsLondon

aha - that's what I thought - ours are for the fitness bit - not childcare!

Southcote

What happened with your UK Child benefit - did you ever have to repay it ?

jimf

We sent the forms stating when we left the UK to the CHB office before Christmas. So far so good heard nothing to date.

Southcote

I suspect they'll want the money back. We just closed the UK bank account !

jimf

No doubt they'll catch up with us in the end. They know where we are if they want it. They must have received our letter saying we had left as the payments stopped shortly afterwards.