“All my friends got way bigger refunds than me…”

Hardly a week goes by when someone doesn’t question their refund and think it should be much larger. For most people, it’s more related to how much tax was deducted from their paychecks. If you don’t have much tax deducted, your refund is minimized. Most times, your refund is in fact, simply a return of taxes you’ve overpaid.

Many deductions are in fact “non-refundable credits”; meaning that no matter how much you spent on bus passes, or medical expenses, or tuition (to name a few…) these deductions can only refund you taxes you paid.

To be fair, there are a couple “refundable credits”, such as the MB Rent credit, Cost of Living credit or Caregiver credit, as well as the soon-to-be-departed Fitness credit, but these are few and far between…

Why isn’t my tax refund bigger?