Dear Sirs:
This is in reply to your letter of December 6, 1990 asking if certain tuition fees paid to a private secondary school qualify for the tuition tax credit.
As we understand your situation, the school offered an advance calculus course to a number of Grade thirteen students during the 1990-91 school year. The successful completion of this course will give a student a course credit at Canadian universities. It is your view that the calculus course is a post-secondary course. You have therefore asked whether all tuition fees paid to the school are eligible for a tuition tax credit under subparagraph 118.5(1)(a)(i) of the Income Tax Act regardless of whether the particular student is enroled in the calculus course.
Our Comments
Without complete details of the content and enrolment in the calculus course, we cannot confirm whether the course in question is, in fact, a course offered at a post-secondary level. Should you wish information in this regard, you should contact your local District Taxation Office. However, the following general comments may be of assistance to you.
Where a student is enroled in a school at a time in a taxation year when the school is providing the post-secondary course, fees paid by that student for all courses in respect of the year would qualify for the tuition tax credit even though the student was not enrolled in the post-secondary course. On the other hand, where a student is only enrolled in the school for part of a taxation year and the school was not providing the post-secondary course at any time during that part of the taxation year, tuition fees paid to the school would not qualify for the tuition tax credit.
In July, 1990, the Honourable Michael H. Wilson, Minister of Finance, released details of draft amendments to the Income Tax Act which, among other things, would restrict the transfer of tax credits for tuition fees under subsection 118.5. Clause 91 of those amendments, if enacted in its present form, will be effective for tuition fees relating to a period after June, 1990.
We trust our comments are of assistance to you .
Yours truly,
for DirectorBusiness and General DivisionRulings DirectorateLegislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Branch