General Information
1 Amounts received that can be averaged
If you received a retroactive payment, support-payment arrears (other than arrears of non-taxable support) or a repayment of support (where you deducted the support payments before 1998 or after 2002), and you are required to report that amount in your income tax return for the year in which it was received, you can ask us to determine whether it is to your advantage to have the portion of the amount applicable to previous years deducted from your taxable income, your income subject to the contribution to the health services fund, and your income used to calculate the health contribution for 2013 through 2016, as applicable, for the year in which you received the amount, so that we can apply this portion to previous years and adjust the income tax, the contribution to the health services fund, and the health contribution for 2013 through 2016, as applicable. You can make such a request only if the portion of the amount applicable to previous years is $300 or more.
If, pursuant to a court order, you received a repayment of support that you deducted after 1997 but before 2003, and you are required to report the amount in your income tax return for the year in which it was received, you can ask us to determine whether it is to your advantage to have the portion of the repayment applicable to previous years deducted from your net income, your income subject to the contribution to the health services fund, and your income used to calculate the health contribution for 2013 through 2016, as applicable, for the year in which you received the amount, so that we can apply this portion of the repayment to previous years and adjust the income tax, the contribution to the health services fund, and the health contribution for 2013 through 2016, as applicable. You can make such a request even if the portion of the repayment applicable to previous years is less than $300, except as applies to the health contribution, in which case the portion of the adjustment applicable to previous years must be at least $300.
If you received an amount as a Guaranteed Income Supplement, and you or your spouse received a retroactive payment of the Old Age Security pension or of federal supplements (Guaranteed Income Supplement or Guaranteed Income Allowance), you can ask us to determine whether it is to your advantage to have the portion of the retroactive payment applicable to previous years deducted from the income subject to the contribution to the Québec prescription drug insurance plan for the year covered by the request, so that we can make an adjustment to your contribution and, if applicable, your spouse’s contribution.
If you request the averaging of a retroactive payment, support-payment arrears or a repayment of support, please note that the total amount received during the year must be averaged.
When we determine the tax adjustment for a retroactive payment, we will also calculate the contribution to the health services fund respecting the payment, if applicable.
2 Amounts paid that must be averaged
If you paid support-payment arrears (other than arrears of non-deductible support) that relate to previous years or if, pursuant to a court order, you repaid an amount of support that was included in your income for a previous year, and the amount in question is $300 or more, we will calculate a tax adjustment.
The tax adjustment is in the form of a non-refundable tax credit on your income tax return for the year in which the amount was paid or repaid.
3 Requested carry-over
If you request the averaging of a retroactive payment, support-payment arrears or a repayment of support that you received, you can also request that noncapital losses or non-refundable tax credits be carried over to the years to which the portion of the amount applicable to previous years pertains. Consequently, if we determine that it is to your advantage to have the portion of the amount applicable to previous years deducted from your income for the year in which it was received and applied to previous years, we will make the carry-over requested and enter a tax adjustment.
You can request that the following amounts be carried over:
- non-capital losses sustained in the years preceding or in the three years following the reference year (the year to which the portion of the amount received or the repayment applies); or
- non-refundable tax credits from years preceding the reference year.
You must not have already requested that these amounts be carried over in the years following the reference year.