You must have paid more than $100 during the year to each educational institution whose fees you claim.

You cannot claim other expenses related to pursuing your education, such as books, or board and lodging. Credit for these amounts is allowed for in the education amount (see below). To claim tuition fees paid to an educational institution in Canada, you must obtain from your educational institution an official tax receipt or a completed form T2202A "Tuition and Education Amounts Certificate."

To claim tuition fees paid to an educational institution outside Canada, you must receive from your institution a completed form TL11A "Tuition Fees Certificate — University Outside Canada," which you can obtain from any Tax Services Office. In order to qualify, you must attend a university outside Canada, and must be enrolled full-time in a course that lasts at least 13 weeks and leads to a degree.

Education amount

You can claim this amount for each whole or part month in 2001 in which you were enrolled in a qualifying educational program. Your educational institution has to complete and give you form T2202 "Education Amount Certificate," or form T2202A "Tuition and Education Amounts Certificate" to confirm the period in which you were enrolled in a qualifying program.

The following amounts apply:

• You can claim $400 for each month in which you were enrolled as a full-time student.

• You can claim $120 for each month in which you were enrolled in a qualifying part-time program.

You cannot claim more than one education amount for a particular month.

A full-time program is a program at the post-secondary level that lasts at least three weeks, and requires at least ten hours per week on courses or work in the program. A part-time program must also last at least three weeks, but it does not have a ten-hour per week course or workload requirement.

You can claim $400 a month if you attended your educational institution only part-time because of a mental or physical impairment. In this case, you have to complete form T2202 "Education Amount Certificate" to make your claim.

Generally, you cannot claim an education amount for a program for which you received a reimbursement, benefit, grant, or allowance, or for a program related to your job if you received a salary or wages while studying.

Transferring and carrying forward amounts

In many cases, students simply do not have the cash flow to pay for their own education. However, for tax purposes, the student — not the person who paid the fees — gets first crack at tuition and education credits. It is only if you do not need all the credits that you may transfer the credits to another person.

First, you can transfer to your spouse the part of your tuition and education amounts that you do not need to use to reduce your federal income tax to zero. Your spouse would then claim the unused portion of your tuition and education amounts on line 326 of his or her return.

You must use all the credits necessary to reduce your taxes to nil before you can transfer the credits to another person. If you do not transfer your unused amount to your spouse, you can transfer it to your or your spouse's parent or grandparent, who would claim it on line 324 of his or her return. Complete the back of form T2202 or form T2202A, as well as schedule 11 on your tax return, to calculate and designate this transfer. The maximum amount you may transfer to a spouse, parent, or grandparents is $5,000 less whatever credits you need to reduce your taxes payable to zero.

You can carryforward and claim in a future year the part of your tuition and education amounts that you did not need to use and did not transfer for the year in which they were incurred. However, if you carryforward an amount, you will not be able to transfer it to anyone else in the future. You must claim your carryforward amount in the earliest year possible. In other words, you can't pick and choose the tax years to claim the credits. The carryforward amount should be calculated on schedule 11 of your tax return.

If you are transferring a tuition or education amount to another person, do not transfer more than the person needs to reduce his or her federal income tax to zero. That way, you maximize the benefit of the credit and can carryforward the unused amount to a future year to offset your future tax bill.