How to use your Carbon Tax Rebate to lower your taxes (and save the planet!)

Tax season (while extended this year due to COVID-19), is mostly over. I had a lot of questions this year about the Carbon Tax Rebate. Most people have heard of it, but don't really know how/when they apply for it.

Ok, so it happens at tax time. Your tax preparer should apply for you. Make sure that they did. If you’ve already done your taxes and you didn't apply, don’t worry, you can still can apply retroactively.

You can check and see if you did by going to your tax return and looking at page 3 of your T1 General. Line 449. That's your carbon tax rebate (or if you're booed up, check you and your partners since they may have claimed it for the fam on theirs).

So, what does it mean? The number that is in line 449 is the amount of money you didn't owe in taxes this year. Aka, if you normally owed $23,000 (line 435) and your carbon rebate was worth $300 (line 449) then you'd owe $22,700 instead. That $300 works like a refund.

It's amazing. In Ontario, a family of 4 gets $448 this year (2020) and $2061 by 2022! Also amazing. You can figure out what you'd get HERE at this link. This post is a sponsored post by Fair Path Forward (the makers of the calculator) and I think the calculator is super helpful for people to get money back for a good cause.

When we were going over peoples returns this year, many people were surprised they were getting that money back. Some even had the stellar idea to take that refund on line 449 and donate it to a charity that is helping to fight climate change. Also amazing. If you got a carbon tax rebate of $300 and took that refund amount and donated it to a registered charity, you'd get a tax credit for $59 next year. That is most amazing.

Anyways, I thought I'd share this strategy with everyone! Help your bottom line, help the environment? Win-win. Don't miss out on that money!