Tax Refund for Canadian International Students

The Canada Revenue Agency website www.cra.gc.ca clarifies the tax rights, responsibilities and obligations of international students, and provides detailed explanations on issues related to tax filing and tax refunds for international students. Call 1-800-206- 7218, 1-800-267-5177 can provide corresponding answers. According to the tax law, anyone who has lived in Canada for more than 183 days, regardless of whether they have income or not, needs to file a tax return. In this way, international students studying in Canada should exceed the prescribed residence time limit, and it is inevitable to file a tax return.

The biggest daily expense for international students is tuition. The role of tuition fees in tax returns is to offset income, thereby achieving the purpose of paying less tax. Tuition does not count if there is no income during the tax year. But if you apply for tuition fees, once you have income and need to pay taxes in the future, the tuition fees will help you get more tax refunds. No matter how long it takes to declare tuition fees, you can make a supplementary claim.

Paying rent is also a big expense in studying abroad. If you provide your residential address, length of residence, rent amount, and landlord's name when filing your tax return, you can get a housing subsidy tax refund of at least 300 yuan. It should be noted that you do not need to provide rent receipts when filing taxes, but after filing taxes, or even after tax refunds, the government may require receipts. If receipts or sufficient evidence cannot be provided, the government has the right to request a refund of the taxes received. And interest is charged. Therefore, it is important for international students to properly retain these rent receipts.

Consumption is inevitable when living in Canada. International students enjoy the same tax refund treatment as residents of their own country, which many international students do not know. Generally speaking, after the tax is filed, the government will subsidize a GST every quarter starting from the following July, and each person can receive a consumption tax rebate of at least 242 yuan per year.

If you do not have a Social Insurance Number (SIN), first fill out form T1261 on the tax bureau website to apply for a non-resident individual temporary tax number. With this number, you can get the forms and information needed for tax filing, and then you can apply. Filed taxes.

Every year around March, the post office prepares free tax forms and tax filing guides. You can also visit the official homepage of the CRA (Tax Bureau) to request them to be delivered to your home. The CRA also accepts online applications and sends the completed tax return information directly to the CRA through the Internet in the form of netfile. es offset

all or part of theGST or HST that they

pay. This means that the Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax subsidy is the GST/HST paid by the government to partially or fully compensate low-income individuals and families every quarter. Please note that this part of the subsidy is tax-free.

Usually, after tax filers file their taxes for the previous year before April 30, the government will pay a GST/HST subsidy every three months starting from the following July, usually every An individual can receive up to $250 cumulatively per year, with the amount gradually decreasing based on the individual or family’s income.

The federal government implemented new Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax subsidy regulations in 2002. The regulations stipulate that immigrants, international students who entered Canada after January 1, 2002, and even visiting scholars and relatives who plan to stay for more than half a year can apply for this subsidy, and it will be calculated from the date of entry. Therefore, this subsidy is also called "landing tax". It is important to note that even if you are entitled to this subsidy, you must still apply. If you do not apply, the government will not proactively pay you this subsidy. Therefore, if international students want to receive this subsidy, they must first complete a tax return.

2. Housing subsidy

Ontarians who meet the tax filing requirements, including international students, can receive partial rent subsidies if they pay rent and have no income or low income. If you want to apply for this subsidy, you must provide: residential address, length of stay, amount of rent paid, name of landlord (or name of real estate company). If you lived in different places during the year, fill it out for each place. We need to remind everyone that although there is no need to provide rent receipts when filing taxes, those who apply for this subsidy must keep the rent receipts, because the tax bureau may write to the applicant after refunding the subsidy to the applicant asking for rent. Receipt. If the applicant cannot provide receipts, the tax bureau will require the applicant to return the subsidy and charge interest. If you purchase a property while studying abroad, you can also receive a corresponding proportion of the housing subsidy based on your income based on the property tax (Property

Tax) you paid.

3. Tuition fee declaration (TUITION FEECREDIT)

This is an area that international students need to focus on, because the cost of studying abroad often adds up to a large amount. It is a pity that many international students did not declare or only declared tuition fees for part of the year.

Usually, you need to obtain form T2202A from the school before declaring CREDIT for tuition fees. International students can download it from the school's website, or go directly to the student office to request or request a replacement for a lost receipt. Although tuition is a non-refundable CREDIT in tax returns, it means that it can only be deducted from your income when you have income, thereby achieving the purpose of paying less tax.

However, since tuition CREDIT can be accumulated indefinitely and carried forward to the next year (Unlimited Carry

Forward), until you have income to use the tuition CREDIT to offset it . You apply for tuition fees, and once you have income and need to pay taxes, the tuition fees will help you get more tax refunds. A simple calculation: if you spend $70,000 a day while studying abroad, and your average annual income after graduation is 40,000 yuan, this deduction can usually save you about 15,000 yuan, which means you don’t have to pay taxes for almost two years. Or you can apply for a refund of the taxes you paid while working. There is also a very user-friendly regulation from the Canada Revenue Agency. Even if you have no income or insufficient income that year, if you are married or have children, you can still transfer your tuition fees to your credit

Spouse or children.