If you studied at a designated educational institution during the year, the school issues you a T2202. It sets out what you were enrolled in, for how long, and how much of what you paid counts as eligible tuition fees.
You do not fill it in. The school does, from its own enrolment records, and you use it when you file.
What it reports
The T2202, Tuition and Enrolment Certificate, describes the sessions you were enrolled in and the eligible tuition fees for them. Alongside the boxes, the certificate carries your name — surname, first name and initial — and your full mailing address, including the province, territory or U.S. state, the Canadian postal code or U.S. zip code, and the country.
Who sends it
Designated educational institutions. If you attended more than one school in the year, each one issues its own certificate.
The boxes that describe your program
- Box 11 – School type. A one-digit indicator: 1 university, 2 college, 3 other education institution providing courses at a post-secondary school level, 4 institution certified by the Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada, 5 flying school or club.
- Box 12 – Flying school or club. A one-digit indicator, if you attended one: 1 private pilot's licence, 2 commercial pilot's licence, 3 civil flying instructor rating, 4 helicopter category rating, 5 instrument rating, 6 other.
- Box 13 – Name of program or course you were enrolled in at the designated educational institution.
- Box 14 – Student number associated with that institution.
- Box 17 – Social insurance number (SIN).
The boxes that carry the months and the fees
Boxes 19 to 23 repeat once for each session, so a certificate covering two terms shows two sets of them:
- Box 19 – Start date of the session (two-digit year and month).
- Box 20 – End date of the session (two-digit year and month).
- Box 21 – Number of months part-time you were enrolled.
- Box 22 – Number of months full-time you were enrolled.
- Box 23 – Eligible tuition fees for that part-time or full-time session.
Boxes 24 to 26 are the totals for the year:
- Box 24 – Total number of months part-time.
- Box 25 – Total number of months full-time.
- Box 26 – Total eligible tuition fees, part-time and full-time, for sessions in a qualifying educational program or a specified educational program.
Because boxes 23 and 26 report eligible tuition fees, they will not always match what you paid the school. The certificate is the school's statement of which part is eligible.
What this page does not tell you
The CRA page this article is written from describes the boxes only. It does not say which line of the return the tuition amount goes on, so this article does not state one either. Look up the tuition amount in the CRA's own guidance for the year you are filing.
What to keep
Keep the certificate. It is the document that supports a tuition claim, and box 26 is the figure the claim is built from.
Keep a certificate from every school you attended in the year, and keep them with your receipts for the year rather than filing them with your return.
Dossier stores the certificate and identifies it as a T2202, so it is with the rest of your year's paper. It does not read the amounts off it; the eligible fees come from the boxes the school filled in.
Official CRA sources
The CRA's T2202 page lists no related forms or publications, so this article cites none.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency (canada.ca). Not tax advice.