How to Claim the Public Transportation Amount Tax Credit in Ottawa

A non-refundable tax credit represents an amount of money that can be used to decrease one’s taxable amount (income). However if the total amount of these credits exceeds your federal tax, you are not entitled to a refund hence the term non-refundable.

In Canada, it is possible to claim the amount that one spends on monthly public transportation passes (and those of longer durations) for a given tax year. This Step by Step guide details everything you need to know in order to claim your OC Transpo passes as a non-refundable tax credit.

Instructions

  • 1

    Who Can Claim the Amount?

    The amount that has been spent on public transport passes can be claimed by one of the following individuals as long as it has not already or will not be claimed by anyone else:

    - the individual

    - the spouse or common-law partner of the individual

    - an individual on behalf of their or their common-law partners children as long as the child was under the age of 19 at the end of the tax year.

  • 2

    The Amount

    The amount claimable is the total of what has been spent on monthly (or longer) public transportation passes over the course of the tax year or any other pass that may qualify as per Step 3.

  • 3

    Eligibility

    In order to be deemed eligible, the public transportation passes must allow for unlimited travel on one of the following vehicles:

    - local buses

    - streetcars

    - subways

    - commuter trains/busses, or

    - local ferries

    Passes are required to display certain information in order to qualify. A list of this information can be found here.

    Note: passes are not claimable if there is a limit (number of rides or the number of hours) on the amount of travel. Tickets and day passes do not qualify.

    Shorter passes may qualify if they meet the following criteria:

    If the pass allows for unlimited travel for 5 days can be passes of a short duration and they can be bought as to allow for unlimited travel for at least 20 days in a 28 day period.

    If a card allows for an individual to make 32 one-way trips in 31 days then it is an electronic payment card. This card type must be issued by the public transit authority with a receipt for the cost of using the card.

  • 4

    How to Claim the Amount

    The amount to be claimed is to be entered on Line 364 of the Schedule 1, Federal Tax. The amount may be claimed by any party indicated in Step 2. If the amount is shown on your T4 slip (Box 84), enter this amount. You can only claim amounts for which you have not been reimbursed, and if you have been reimbursed, you can claim the amount if it has been reported as income on a T4 slip.

    If you are electronically filing your taxes, keep all the invoices and supporting documentation in case you are audited.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


nine × 6 =