Kwan – Tax Court of Canada rejects a contention that child care expense cannot have an educational aspect

The taxpayer (whose wife also worked full time) successfully made child care expense claims for the costs of after-school programs (e.g., chess programs, math tutoring classes and Chinese language classes) for his 10 and 12-year old children, who finished school at 3:00 pm. Pizzitelli J found that it did not matter that these activities had a significant educational component. In addition, he rejected a Crown submission that it was inappropriate for the taxpayer to pay bilingual university students to mind the children at $5 more per hour than high school students would cost, stating that this was an appropriate exercise of “parental discretion.”

Neal Armstrong. Summary of Kwan v. The Queen, 2018 TCC 184 under s. 63(3) – child care expense.