Author Topic: Canadians in the USA - foreign scholarship income on CDN taxes  (Read 6893 times)

peppermint

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Hi all, I have a fairly specific tax question I'm hoping someone can help me with. I am a Canadian in the USA working on my 2013 Canadian taxes in Turbotax. I attended grad school in the USA, finished this fall, and began employment in the USA (a postdoc).

Prior to beginning employment as a postdoc, I was supported by a dissertation scholarship from my American university. This CRA webpage suggests that scholarship/fellowship income is not taxable: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/rprtng-ncm/lns101-170/130/schlrshp-eng.html

However, my scholarship is foreign income. It seems like this should be simple, but I can't figure out how to make Turbotax distinguish between foreign scholarship and non-scholarship income for the purposes of taxation (my postdoc income from the fall is also entered in there, and is taxable). I was supported by a Canadian government fellowship for the past 4 years and I know how to classify that from taxable income on the domestic side, but I'm not sure how to do it this year with a scholarship on the foreign side.

Thanks, I appreciate any help!

JFC

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Re: Canadians in the USA - foreign scholarship income on CDN taxes
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2014, 02:57:33 PM »
If a student qualifies for the full-time Education Amount (and I don't know enough about your situation to know if you did in 2013), then scholarship income is not taxable (and you don't have to report it on your return anywhere). It doesn't matter where the scholarship came from. If you're not eligible for any Education Amount, then report the amount over $500 at Line 130. Of course, it's always worth a call to the CRA to confirm as I don't know the specifics of your situation, residency status, etc.

You might want to take a look at this section of the CRA web site if you haven't already: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/rc192/README.html

peppermint

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Re: Canadians in the USA - foreign scholarship income on CDN taxes
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2014, 06:02:21 PM »
Thanks so much. I just checked and it looks like I qualify for the FT Education Amount. I will get help from the CRA to clarify tomorrow (during help hours). It'll save a lot if my fellowship income is not taxable!