Any tax experts out there?   Assuming yes, here's my question:

I have an exchange student from Germany living with us.  She arrived with us on Oct 31st and is leaving July 4th.  We get no financial support from the exchange student program (which is ok, we were aware of this). Usually, the financial equity comes when one of your own kids is in the same program and goes to live abroad under the same scenario.

In this case, our daughter is not going anywhere, we did this to help her.  In saying that, with tax coming, I was wondering if it's possible to list her as a "dependant" along with my kids.  I was thinking originally "yes," but the more I thnk of it, the more doubts I get.

I'll no doubt address the issue with CRA, but I thought I'd put a mention here in case one of you guys went through this before.

Rob

I've no experience with this, however...you didn't state how old she is or rather what grade she is in.  The tax rules differentiate between secondary and post-secondary education.

Also, I'm not sure what you would hope to gain by listing her as a dependent. Unless you paid for some skating lessons and want to claim that, just listing her as a dependent probably won't add up to much of anything.  If you have some tax software, give it a try, add her in and see what it does.  I'm guessing not a lot (hoping I'm wrong since I have 3 kids).

I'm no doubt using the wrong tax lingo, I'm no expert.  I know that from listing 2 dependants, I get some form of credit for that (ie: I get more back at tax time since I've had my kids then prior, so there has to be some credit at work, no?).

She's 17, about to turn 18.  High school.

I doubt this will work...

You have to provide a Canadian social security number for your dependants...

You might get away with "forgetting" that form on a paper return,
but if you get audited, you're screwed...

Steph

Having worked at CRA (in IT, not the tax side), I would never, ever try to fudge the system, this is not my intent.  I just want to know if there can be some form of compensation.  I'll call them up, will deal with it then.  Right now, my expectations are "zero" so at least I won't be disappointed when they say "ah.... no".