With that in mind, here are some of the deductions and credits that you should check to see if you are eligible to claim this year—along with their potential tax savings—to make sure you don’t end up leaving money on the table. (Note that these are all federal claims; in some cases there may be similar claims you can make on your provincial/territorial taxes.)

Is there a medical expense tax credit?

If you or an immediate family member had a whack of uninsured medical costs in 2021, and/or your income was lower than usual (perhaps due to COVID-19), it’s worth it to tally up those expenses to see if you have enough to claim this non-refundable tax credit. 

The Medical Expenses Tax Credit allows you to claim a whole slew of eligible costs, including prescriptions, private or semi-private hospital care, tests, dental care, health plans (premiums and/or co-pays), travel expenses (when your only option for treatment was at least 40 kilometres away), and many other medical services and devices. The catch is, you must have shelled out enough during the year to reach the minimum claim threshold—either 3% of net income or $2,421 for 2021, whichever is less. Keep in mind you don’t have to use the calendar year for your accounting—you can use any 12-month period ending in 2021 (say, May 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021) if it gets you past the threshold—but you can’t include any expenses you already claimed on last year’s return.

Who’s eligible: Any taxpayer who paid medical costs for themself, a spouse, and/or dependents is eligible, as long as they were not reimbursed for the amounts by insurance, an employer or any other source.

How much you could save: The credit can reduce your federal taxes by 15% of your claim amount. For reference, a claim of $2,421 could save you up to $360.

How to claim medical expenses: Enter the amount of the eligible medical expenses for yourself, your spouse and dependent children on line 33099 of your tax return (use line 33199 for other dependents).

Read more about the medical expenses tax credit.

CRA-approved home office expenses 

If you’re among the millions of Canadians worked from home in 2021, you may be able to claim this now-simplified deduction for home-office expenses. 

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