Sometimes, the government might determine that the amount of benefits you received was actually more than you were entitled to. It might be that your circumstances changed, or that there was an error when your benefits were originally calculated. Either way, you might have included these overpayments in your income on last year’s (or a previous year’s) return – and that means these amounts need to be repaid. Thankfully, you’ll be able to claim a deduction for the amount you’ve already paid back on your federal return.
If you’ve repaid any overpayments of the following benefits and other amounts, you can claim a deduction on your federal return:
- Old Age Security (OAS) benefits paid directly to Service Canada, as shown in box 20 of your T4A(OAS) slip
- Employment insurance (EI) benefits repaid to Service Canada or the payer of your benefits, as shown in box 30 of your T4E slip (if your EI benefits were reduced to repay an amount, your T4E slip will show your net amount, so you can’t claim a deduction)
- Canada Pension Plan or Québec Pension Plan benefits
- Scholarships, bursaries, or research grants
- Retirement allowances
- Repayments of a shareholder’s loan
- Repayments you’ve made for a policy loan under your life insurance policy
- Income from a registered disability savings plan
Residents of Québec
If you’re a resident of Québec, you can also claim a deduction for repayments of the following amounts:
- Social assistance payments and any other forms of government financial assistance, like assistance received under the Alternative jeunesse program (your repayment amount is shown in box H of your RL-5 slip)
- Financial assistance from the Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale
- Net federal supplements, not including certain social benefits repayments
- Labour adjustment benefits
- The Canada education savings grant
- Income assistance payments
- Income replacement indemnities (your repayment amount is shown in box P of your RL-5)
- Québec parental insurance plan (QPIP) benefits (your repayment amount is shown in box D of your RL-6)
- The apprenticeship incentive grant
- Wage earner protection program (WEPP) payments
- Benefits paid to the parents of a crime victim
Where do I enter this?
Follow these steps in H&R Block’s 2017 tax software:
For the overpayment of government benefits or other amounts that were reported on a slip, you can enter your information slips by following these steps:
- On the QUICK ENTRY tab, click the QUICK SLIP icon. You’ll find yourself here:
- Type the name of your information slip in the search field and either click the highlighted selection or press Enter to continue.
- When you arrive at the page for your slip, enter your information into the tax software.
For the overpayment of government benefits or other amounts that weren’t reported on a slip, you can enter your repayment information by following these steps:
- On the PREPARE tab, click the OTHER icon. You’ll find yourself here:
- Under the MISCELLANEOUS heading, select the checkbox labelled Repayment of government benefits and other amounts, then click Continue.
- When you arrive at the page for the repayment of government benefits and other amounts, enter your information into the tax software.
