Ontario Children’s Activity Tax Credit – New For 2010 Tax Year

The Ontario government recently announced a provincial tax credit for Ontario families that would include all the sports activities covered under the federal fitness tax credit program, as well as non-sports activities. This program is an alternative to the federal children’s fitness tax credit for the 2009 tax year, which is available to all Canadian families, but only includes sports activities.

Rules and Amounts

• These expenses can be claimed for children under 16 years of age or disabled children under 18 years of age.
• You can claim up to $500 of children’s activity expenses ($1,000 if child is disabled).
• If the child is not disabled – the tax credit is 10% of the expense for a maximum of $50 per child.
• If the child is disabled – the tax credit is 10% of the expense if expense is less than $100. If the expense is between $100 and $500, the credit is 10% of expense plus $50.
• Eligible expenses incurred on or after January 1, 2010 will qualify for the tax credit.
• It is a refundable tax credit, which means the government will give you the money, even if you don’t pay any taxes at all.
• The plan will be in addition to the federal children’s fitness tax credit. If you have eligible sports expenses that are covered by the fitness tax credit – they will automatically be covered under this new Ontario credit.
• Child’s age is as of January 1st of the tax year.

List of eligible activities

Here is a link which lists all the eligible activities.

Some example activities are languages, cooking lessons, voice lessons. I’m not sure if band camp qualifies. 😉

More information

Tax credit article from the Globe and Mail.

Ontario Children’s Activity Tax Credit Q&A

Ontario government announcement

Children’s Fitness Tax Credit