Every January, parents start asking camps for tax receipts. Day camp fees often count as child care expenses on line 21400 of a Canadian tax return, and a parent who claims them needs a receipt from you for each child. Here is what qualifies, what parents can claim, and what your receipt should show.
Which camps count as child care
The CRA lists day camps and day sports schools among the places parents can claim child care expenses for, along with overnight camps, including overnight sports schools, which come with a weekly limit.
What matters is that the camp is looking after children. The CRA's guidance treats sports day camps for young children as child care, while ongoing programs for older children, taught by qualified instructors and aimed at a goal, are treated as education or training instead. A week-long summer day camp usually qualifies. A weekly skills class for teenagers may not. If you're unsure about a program, ask an accountant.
Only the child care counts. Clothing, transportation, education costs and medical expenses don't. The full rules are in the CRA's Income Tax Folio S1-F3-C1.
Who can claim, and how much
Parents can claim for a child who was under 16 at any time in the year, or older with an impairment, when someone was paid to look after the child so that a parent could work, run a business, go to school or do research. Usually the parent with the lower net income makes the claim.
| Child | Per year | Overnight camp, per week |
|---|---|---|
| 6 or younger at the end of the year | $8,000 | $200 |
| 7 to 16 | $5,000 | $125 |
| Eligible for the disability amount | $11,000 | $275 |
The total claim also can't be more than two-thirds of the parent's earned income. Parents claim on line 21400 using Form T778, and keep your receipts in case the CRA asks to see them.
What your receipt should show
The CRA's guidance on issuing child care receipts asks for:
- the name of the parent who paid
- the child's name, with a separate receipt for each child
- the amount paid, and the dates of care it covers
- your name and address
The form parents fill in asks for the name of the child care organization, or the name and social insurance number of an individual provider. So a camp run by one person as a sole proprietor should show their SIN, and a registered business usually shows its business number.
Count what each family actually paid you in the calendar year, less any refunds. Parents need receipts before they file in the spring, so have them ready early in the new year.
How Kineo handles it
Kineo builds the receipts from your registrations, so you don't make them by hand.
- Turn on child care receipts in Settings → Tax receipts, and enter your legal name, mailing address, and your business number or SIN. After you save a SIN, your dashboard only ever shows its last three digits.
- Kineo makes one receipt per child, per year, from what each family paid you that year less refunds, with the dates of each session.
- Families print or save their receipts from My bookings whenever they need them, so you don't email anyone a PDF.