Changing tuition amount claimed on Sch11

Forum|Forum|2 months ago
April 14, 2026
1 reply
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I want to override using the maximum tuition deduction turbotax is automatically applying in order to use up foreign tax credits instead. I want to carryforward the tuition to offset future income. How can this be done without overriding the cell, which would make the return ineligible for netfile?

user17713445337

Level 6

You cannot "save" tuition credits if you owe taxes. The Income Tax Act requires that tuition tax credits be used. If you have a tax liability, the CRA requires you to use your current year's tuition and any carry-forward amounts to reduce that tax to zero before carrying forward the balance.

The CRA’s formula on Schedule 11 is designed to calculate the maximum amount needed to reduce your tax to zero. Unlike some other credits, you cannot voluntarily skip claiming tuition to "save" it for a higher-income year.

If you have tax owing, the tuition credit must be applied first.

If you try to reduce the claim (an override), the CRA’s computer systems will likely "correct" your return during assessment, apply the tuition anyway, and then reduce your carry-forward balance accordingly.

If your tuition credit wipes out your Canadian tax payable, your tax liability becomes $0$.

Since the Foreign Tax Credit can only be used to offset tax actually paid in Canada on that foreign income, if your tax is already $0$ due to tuition, the Foreign Tax Credit often goes to waste (unless it's for "non-business" income, which has limited carryforward).

In a nutshell, you cannot bypass the cell and carry forward tuition to offset future income.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.

lyip1Author

Level 2

To clarify, I want to change the tuition amount on line 17 of schedule 11 so that the tuition credit does not get generated. This would allow me to use up my foreign tax credits that is lost if not used (as you have noted), whereas the tuition amount can be carried forward to future years. According to Income Tax Folio S1-F2-C2, CRA forces the application of the tuition credit to reduce Part 1 tax, if it exists but it does not mandate that you make a tuition claim. Thus if I am able to change my tuition claim to zero, no tuition tax credit will be generated to apply. However if I override this, I will no longer be able to netfile my return.