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What's New For Tax Year 2010?
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Tax law changes that affect most taxpayers:
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- Home renovation expenses
This one-time tax measure is no longer valid after 2009 tax year.
- Universal Child Care Benefits
If you were a single parent on December 31, 2010, you can choose to include all UCCB amounts
you received in 2010 in the income of a dependant
- Special relief for tax deferral elections on security option benefits
You may elect for special relief in respect of gains from a disposition of eligible securities
on which you elected in a previous year to defer the security option benefits. Since you have to
surrender all proceeds of the shares as a special tax and you also lose all the loss room, this
tax relief might not benefit everyone.
- Scholarship exemption and Education amount
Post-secondary programs consisting mainly of research are eligible for the scholarship exemption
and the education amount only if they lead to a college or CEGEP diploma, or a bachelor, master,
or doctoral (or equivalent) degree. Post-doctoral fellowships are taxable.
For a scholarship, fellowship, or bursary received in connection with a part-time program for which
you can claim the part-time education amount for that program, the scholarship exemption
is equal to the amount of tuition paid for the program plus the costs of program-related materials.
- U.S. Social Security benefits
If you received U.S. Social Security benefits in 2010, you may be eligible to claim
a deduction of 50% of the benefits received.
- For Ontario residents
- Ontario sales tax credit has been combined into GST/HST credit and no longer calculated on tax return. As long as you file your
return and apply for GST/HST credit, CRA will calculate this credit for you;
- Ontario property tax credit has been changed to "Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit (OEPTC)", people who reside on a reserve
can get up to $200 OEPTC if they pay energy costs, even no property taxes were paid;
- The cut off income for OEPTC has been increased a lot, if you did not get any sales and property tax credit in previous years because your income
was more than 40K, you might get some OEPTC this year. Our suggestion is everyone should apply for OEPTC and let the software
calculate if it can bring you more refund.
- There is a new credit called "Ontario Children's Activity Tax Credit", all costs eligible for federal "Children's
fitness amount" are eligible for this credit. This credit is even better because it is refundable, and certain costs
for educational after school programs (which are not eligible for federal fitness amount) are also eligible for this credit.
- For British Columbia residents
British Columbia sales tax credit has been combined into GST/HST credit and no longer calculated on tax return. As long as you file your
return and apply for GST/HST credit, CRA will calculate this credit for you.
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Other Highlights
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- T-Slips in the software - we have changed the layout to look like the actual paper slip. This is part of the effort to help you
eliminate keying errors
- View CRA's What's new for 2010?
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Find out,
Tax Chopper
is your best choice!
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