Definitions for Registered Education Savings Plans

Additional tax

You calculate this tax separately, using Form T1172, Additional Tax on Accumulated Income Payments From RESPs. Include a completed copy of Form T1172 with your return for the year you receive the AIP. You have to pay the additional tax by the balance due date for your regular tax, usually April 30 of the year that follows the year in which you received the AIP.

Common-law partner

This applies to a person who is not your spouse, with whom you are living in a conjugal relationship, and to whom at least one of the following situations applies. He or she:

a) has been living with you in such a relationship for at least 12 continuous months;

b) is the parent of  your child by birth or adoption; or

c) has custody and control of your child (or had custody and control immediately before the child turned 19 years of age) and your child is wholly dependent on that person for suppport.

In addition, an individual immediately becomes your common-law partner if you previously lived together in a conjugal relationship for at least 12 continuous months and you have resumed living together in such a relationship.

Under proposed changes, this condition will no longer exist. The effect of this proposed change is that a person (other than one described in b) or c) above) will be your common-law partner only after your current relationship with that person has lasted at least 12 continuous months. This proposed change will apply to 2001 and later years.

Reference to "12 continuous months" in this definition includes any period that you were separated for less than 90 days because of a breakdown in the relationship.

Family plan

In a family plan, each beneficiary must be related by blood relationship or adoption to each living subscriber or any deceased original subscriber. Only in a RESP that is a family plan can more than one beneficiary be named.

A beneficiary under a family plan entered into after 1998, must be less than 31 years of age at the time he or she is named as a beneficiary. When one family plan is tranferred to another, a beneficiary who is 31 years of age or older can still be named a benneficiary to the new RESP.

Post-secondary educational institution

A post-secondary educational institute includes:

• a university, college, or other designated educational institution in Canada;
• an educational institution in Canada certified by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) as offering non-credit courses that develop or improve skills in an occupation; and
• a university, college, or other educational institution outside Canada that has courses at the post-secondary school level, as long as the student is enrolled in a course that lasts at least 13 consecutive weeks.

Public primary caregiver

A public primary caregiver is one who receives a special allowance under the Children's Special Allowance Act and may be the department, agency or institution that maintains the beneficiary or the public trustee or public curator of the province in which the beneficiary resides.

Qualifying educational program

This is an educational program at post-secondary school level, that lasts at least three consecutive weeks, and that requires a student to spend no less than 10 hours per week on courses or work in the program.

RRSP deduction limit

This refers to the maximum amount you can deduct from contributions you made to your RRSPs or to a spousal or common-law partner RRSP for a year. The calculation is based, in part, on your previous year earned income (excluding transfers to your RRSPs of certain types of qualifying income). Pension adjustments (PAs), past service pension adjustments (PSPAs), pension adjustment reversals (PARs), and your unused RRSP deduction room, are also used to calculate the limit.

Regular tax

This is the tax you calculate when you complete your return. It is based on your total taxable income.

Specified educational program

This is a program at post-secondary school level that lasts at least three consecutive weeks, and that requires a student to spend not less than 12 hours per month on courses in the program.

Specified plan

A specified plan is essentially a single beneficiary RESP (non-family plan) under which the beneficiary is entitled to thedisability tax credit for the beneficiary’s tax year that includes the 31st anniversary of the plan. Furthermore, aspecified plan cannot permit another individual to be designated as a beneficiary under the RESP at any time after the end of the year that includes the 35th anniversary of the plan.

In addition, no contributions (except transfers from another RESP) may be made to the plan at any time after the end of the year that includes the 35th anniversary of the opening of the plan, and the plan must be completed by the end of the year that includes the 40th anniversary of the opening of the plan.

Spousal or common-law partner RRSP

A spousal or common-law partner RRSP is:

• an RRSP to which the annuitant's spouse or common-law partner contributes;
• an RRSP that receives payments or transfers of property from RRSPs to which the annuitant's spouse or common-law partner has contributed; or
• an RRSP that receives payments or transfers of property from RRIFs to which the annuitant has transferred amounts from other spousal or common-law partner RRSPs.

Spouse

This applies only to a person to whom you are legally married.