T2202 slips for private career colleges: a practical guide

Who has to issue a T2202

Every designated educational institution (DEI) in Canada issues a T2202 Tuition and Enrolment Certificate to each qualifying student and files a matching information return with the CRA. Many private career colleges are DEIs because they are certified by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) to offer courses that build or improve skills in an occupation.

For those occupational-skills courses the student has to be at least 16 by the end of the year, and the fees paid to the institution for the year have to be more than $100 for the student to claim them.

Full-time and part-time months

The CRA counts a month as full-time when the student is in a qualifying educational program: one that lasts at least three consecutive weeks and requires at least 10 hours of instruction or work each week (study time doesn't count). A month is part-time when the program lasts at least three consecutive weeks and gives the student at least 12 hours of instruction in the month.

A program is not qualifying if the student gets a grant, reimbursement or allowance for it from someone they deal with at arm's length — for example, an employer paying the fees.

What goes on the slip

The certificate has a small number of boxes, and most of the work is in the session rows:

• Box 11 — school type. An institution certified by ESDC uses indicator 4.
• Box 13 — the name of the program or course; box 14 — the student number.
• Box 15 — the filer account: the college's business number with its RZ (information returns) program account. The CRA asks colleges not to print it on the copies given to students.
• Box 17 — the student's SIN. Colleges must make a reasonable effort to get it and keep a record of that effort.
• Boxes 19–23 — up to four sessions, each with its start and end month, part-time or full-time months, and eligible tuition. Part-time and full-time sessions are reported separately.
• Boxes 24–26 — the totals of part-time months, full-time months and eligible tuition.

Deadlines and penalties

Students must receive their certificates, and the information return must be filed electronically with the CRA, on or before the last day of February following the tax year. Filing opens in January; the CRA accepts Web Forms (up to 100 certificates) or an XML file transfer, not paper.

Late certificates to students can cost $25 a day per certificate (minimum $100, maximum $2,500), and a late return is penalised per certificate per day. Filing on paper instead of electronically carries its own penalty once there are more than five certificates.

Colleges can give students their certificates through a secure portal where the student can print them; email needs the student's written consent. Otherwise the student gets two paper copies.

Where it usually goes wrong

Most errors come from assembling the slip by hand at year end: tuition that includes non-eligible charges, months counted from the contract rather than the dates the student actually studied, refunds that weren't netted off, a program that started in one year and ended in the next split incorrectly, and the college's account number printed on the student's copy.

How Cohort prepares T2202 slips

Cohort builds each student's T2202 from what is already in their record — the program dates on the enrollment and the eligible tuition they paid in that tax year, net of refunds — and lays it out like the CRA certificate, with the part-time and full-time months and session rows filled in. Staff can review and print each slip, and the college's RZ account is kept for filing but left off the students' copies.

Cohort helps you prepare accurate slips; your college remains responsible for what it files, so review the figures with your accountant, especially for students with unusual start dates, withdrawals or third-party funding.

How to do it in Cohort

• T2202 tuition tax certificates
• Set your PCC registration number on receipts
• Record a payment (mark as paid)

Sources

• CRA — Designated Educational Institutions: Filing the T2202, Tuition and Enrolment Certificate and Summary
• CRA — Eligible tuition fees

General information, not tax or legal advice. Rules change — check the sources above and your accountant or advisor before relying on this for your college.