11 August 1987 Income Tax Severed Letter 7-1846 - [Education Deductions]

Please note that the following document, although believed to be correct at the time of issue, may not represent the current position of the CRA.
Prenez note que ce document, bien qu'exact au moment émis, peut ne pas représenter la position actuelle de l'ARC.

Revenue Canada Taxation Head Office

Small Business and General-Division R. Langevin 957-2138

AUG 11 1981

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Re: Education Deduction

This is in reply to your letter dated May 20, 1987, addressed to the attention of Ms Nancy Kelly, concerning the eligibility of students to claim the education deduction in respect of distance education or courses taken by correspondence. Your letter has been referred to this Directorate for our consideration and reply.

As you know, in order to be eligible to claim the education deduction a student must be in full-time attendance at a designated educational institution and be enrolled in a qualifying educational program. For the purposes of this reply, we assume that the latter two criteria would be met in any given scenario.

In respect of the requirement for full-time attendance, it is our view, supported by jurisprudence, that a distinction is to be made between undergraduate programs where it is plain that regular physical attendance is required, and a doctoral program, where the requirements for attendance may be minimal.

In the case of MNR v. Ritchie 71 DTC 5503, the Court noted that it is an accepted principle of interpretation that the statutory intention which appears to be most in accord with reason, justice and legal principles should in all cases of doubtful significance prevail. If a statute is directed to dealing with matters affecting everyone generally, the words used would have the meaning attached to them in the common and ordinary use of language. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines the act of "attending" to mean the act of being "present ... at a meeting, etc., in order to participate in the proceedings". It is this common meaning that the Courts have adopted in respect of the full-time attendance criterion in holding that physical attendance is necessary in satisfying this requirement.

In our view, the proposed amendment to IT-224R3 which you have referred to would not alter the requirement for physical attendance at a qualifying educational institution inasmuch as neither the Income Tax Act nor jurisprudence would permit such an interpretation.

We hope our comments have been helpful.

Yours truly,

for Director Small Business and General Division Specialty Rulings Directorate Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Branch