Line 214 - What payments can you claim?

You can claim payments for child care expenses made to:

• caregivers providing child care services;
• day nursery schools and daycare centres;
• educational institutions, for the part of the fees that relate to child care services;
• day camps and day sports schools where the primary goal of the camp is to care for children (an institution offering a sports study program is not a sports school); or
• boarding schools, overnight sports schools, or camps where lodging is involved (read the note in Part A of Form T778, Child Care Expenses Deduction).

Advertising expenses and placement agency fees paid to locate a child care provider may also qualify as child care expenses. For more details, see Interpretation Bulletin IT-495, Child Care Expenses.

When the child care services are provided by an individual, the individual cannot be:

• the child's father or mother;
• another person;
• a person for whom you or another person claimed an amount on line 305, 306, 315, or 367 of your Schedule 1; or
• a person under 18 who is related to you.

  A person is related to you if he or she is connected to you by a blood relationship, marriage or common-law partnership, or adoption. For example, your brother, sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and your or your spouse's or common-law partner's child are related to you. However, your niece, nephew, aunt, and uncle are not.

  Notes
  You may have paid an amount that would qualify for the child care expenses deduction and the children's fitness amount or the children's arts amount (lines 365 and 370 of your Schedule 1). If this is the case, you must first claim this amount as child care expenses. Any unused part can be claimed for the children's fitness amount or the children's arts amount as long as the requirements are met.
  
  If you paid an individual to provide child care in your home, you may have some responsibilities as an employer. If you are not sure of your situation, contact us.
  
  You can claim payments for child care expenses that you paid for the parental contribution set ($7.00 per day) by the government of Québec.
  

The individual or organization who received the payments must give you a receipt showing information about the services provided. When the child care services are provided by an individual, you will need the social insurance number of the individual. The receipt can be in your name or that of your spouse or common-law partner.

Note
You cannot carry forward unclaimed expenses to a subsequent taxation year.

Supporting documents

Filing electronically
If you are filing electronically, keep all your documents in case we ask to see them at a later date.

Filing a paper return
If you are filing a paper return, attach your completed Form T778, but do not send your other documents. Keep all your documents in case we ask to see them at a later date.

Forms and publications

• Form T778, Child Care Expenses Deduction

Need assistance?

If you are unable to find the information you were looking for about this specific topic, please select the Contact us button.