Tax Tips

[LeadSled204]

Am I able to claim the interest on my Line of Credit that was used to pay for my flight training or does it not count as a "student loan"?

Cheers!

[co-joe]

I would guess no unfortunately, but it's worth looking into further.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency ... loans.html

[Bede]

I'd claim it. In this case worst they can do is deny the claim (and have you pay some interest).

[DanWEC]

If you paid full HST on your training you should also be eligible to get the Federal (or Provincial, I can't remember.) portion back. I found this out a year late and just made the cut for retroactive processing for most of my training. Got quite a bit of cash back.

[photofly]

If you paid full HST on your training you should also be eligible to get the Federal (or Provincial, I can't remember.) portion back. I found this out a year late and just made the cut for retroactive processing for most of my training. Got quite a bit of cash back.

You absolutely can't, no.

Fees for education can be exempt of sales tax, but they are not zero-rated, which is a very important difference, because a business cannot claim an input tax credit for costs associated with exempt sales.

A training organization can remit charging HST on its sales, if those sales are eligible to be exempt. However, at the same time it must reduce the input tax credit it claims, by the proportion of its input tax that matches the proportion of its tax-free sales.

So the the flight training isn't taxed to the customer, but the flight school now has to cover all the HST on the fuel, maintenance, rent, oil etc. that go into that training. Since input costs makes up most of the price you pay, the pre-sales-tax costs would have to go up by nearly as much as the sales tax you would no longer be charged. Unsurprisingly no flight schools choose to do this, because it hugely disadvantages everyone who isn't training as a career choice - who would have to pay the inflated prices plus tax on top.

You can reclaim claim sales tax paid in error if the organization made an exempt sale but mistakenly added the tax. You cannot unilaterally decide that the sale could have been exempt if the organization had chosen to make it so, but didn't.

If you do reclaim the tax, then you will likely be paid it, until the CRA conducts an audit when you will have to pay it back, with interest, and probably with penalties. Just like if you mis-declare your income on your tax return.

[DanWEC]

First I've heard that. A quick google search shows explainations about this exact tax credit for training on the main pages of many FTU's, first on the search are Harvs Air and BFC. The form itself is a TL11b. Mine was done through an accountant, and I just had to provide the stack of receipts, which was submitted with it.

[photofly]

TL11b is for a tax credit on your income tax; not an HST refund. Those are two different taxes entirely. You wrote specifically about HST.

Up to a certain limit and under certain conditions you can claim the cost of tuition - including the HST, if it was charged - against your income tax, but you have to be paying income tax in the first place. You can do this for only a limited number of flight training hours, you must be enrolled in a CPL course, and you must be training at a federally recognized Designated Learning Institution. You’re receiving your own income tax back, not the HST.

This is what Brampton Flying Club has to say about HST:
https://www.bramptonflightcentre.com/wp ... x-FAQs.pdf

IF you want to chance it, fill out a form GST189:
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency ... ation.html