If you volunteered as a firefighter or as a search and rescue volunteer during the year, and you put in enough hours, you can claim a flat non-refundable amount. The volunteer firefighters' amount and search and rescue volunteers' amount are two versions of the same credit — you can claim one or the other, but not both.
The amount is fixed, so nothing here comes off a receipt. What supports the claim is a count of hours.
Who can claim it
You can claim the amount if you meet both of the following conditions:
- you were a volunteer firefighter or a search and rescue volunteer during the year
- you completed at least 200 hours of eligible volunteer firefighting services or eligible search and rescue volunteer services in the year
You can combine the hours you volunteered for firefighting and for search and rescue to reach the threshold.
Which hours count
Eligible volunteer firefighting services with a fire department include:
- responding to, and being on call for, firefighting and related emergency calls as a firefighter
- attending meetings held by the fire department
- participating in required training related to preventing or suppressing fires
Eligible search and rescue volunteer services with an eligible search and rescue organization include the same three things, in their own setting: responding to and being on call for search and rescue and related emergency calls, attending the organization's meetings, and taking required training related to search and rescue services.
To be eligible, a search and rescue organization has to be a member of the Search and Rescue Volunteer Association of Canada, the Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, or the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary — or its status has to be recognized by a provincial, municipal, or public authority. Your search and rescue organization can tell you whether it is eligible.
Which hours do not count
Hours with an organization that also employed you. If you were also employed by the same organization other than as a volunteer, for the same or similar duties, you cannot include any hours related to that organization when working out whether you met the threshold. Those hours simply do not count toward it.
Hours you claimed a different way. As an emergency services volunteer, you may instead be eligible for an income exemption for each eligible employer. That exemption is shown on your T4 slips and reduces the employment income you report on line 10100. If you choose it, you cannot claim the volunteer firefighters' amount or the search and rescue volunteers' amount. It is one route or the other.
What your certification of hours must show
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) may ask you to provide certification from the fire department or the search and rescue organization to confirm the number of hours of eligible volunteer firefighting or search and rescue volunteer services you performed. So the document that matters is a letter or form from the department or organization stating that number of hours.
What to keep
Keep the certification of hours from your fire department or search and rescue organization. The CRA is direct about this: do not send any documents, keep them in case the CRA ask to see them later. That holds whether you file electronically or on paper.
Because the claim is a fixed amount, the certification is evidence rather than a figure to add up. Dossier tags it to the year and keeps it with that year's records, so it is at hand if the CRA asks.
Official CRA sources
Source: Canada Revenue Agency (canada.ca). Not tax advice.