Humongous Provincial Tax Credits for Student Graduates

Know any recent graduates who can use special income tax breaks worth up to $25,000?

Publisher CCH's tax newsletter for December describes these significant tax incentives for student graduates in Tax incentives for Post-secondary graduates. The article gives more detail, and links to each province's program, but here are some key points:

• applies to any college or university graduate
• takes form of tax credit or rebate of provincial income tax, so you must live in the province
• are Not tied to graduates who are originally from that province or who attended school there (not necessarily even in Canada), i.e. they are designed to entice recent graduates to live and work in a province ... call it the "brain scoop by tax" strategy
  
• pay out over several years
  
• for year 2000 graduates onwards, varying by province
• Only in Saskatchewan (up to $20,000), Manitoba ($25k max), New Brunswick ($20k max), Nova Scotia ($15k max), Quebec ($8k max)
• claim is not necessarily made (e.g. not in N.B.) through the normal income tax return; it varies by province, so graduates need to check, and perhaps apply separately, to be sure to get it. It's a good check item to add to my review list, for provinces like N.S., where the claim is made on the tax return, when I do my annual online tax software ratings.
  

Thanks to CCH for the lovely pre-Christmas gift of valuable information.