Words and Phrases - "student"
Huang v. The Queen, 2012 DTC 1120 [at at 3103], 2012 TCC 81 (Informal Procedure)
The taxpayers were postdoctoral students. Woods J. found that amounts received in 2009 under a research fellowship from Parkinson Society Canada ("PSC") were indeed "fellowships" within the meaning of s. 56(1)(n).
Woods J. then found that the taxpayers were entitled to the s. 56(3) fellowship exemption. She focused on three legislative requirements:
- The taxpayers were enrolled in a qualifying educational program at the University of Ottawa. Under the postdoctoral program, which was designed to train the taxpayers to be professors, they were required to do "full-time research for the purposes of advancing their education" (para. 34).
- The funding was received in connection with the enrolment. It was clear that "PSC did not provide the funding to the appellants in a vacuum" (para. 35).
- The taxpayers were full-time students at the University. The Oxford definition of "student" is "a person who is engaged in or addicted to study," and the legislation does not indicate a more specialized meaning (para. 40).
(The definition of "qualifying educational program" in s. 118.6(1) has since been amended to exclude programs that do not confer a degree.)
| Locations of other summaries | Wordcount | |
|---|---|---|
| Tax Topics - Income Tax Act - Section 56 - Subsection 56(1) - Paragraph 56(1)(n) | 113 | |
| Tax Topics - Income Tax Act - Section 56 - Subsection 56(1) - Paragraph 56(1)(o) | 17 |
Lahlou v. The Queen, 2014 DTC 1010 [at at 2540], 2014 TCC 16
Before going on to follow Huang in finding that post-doctoral fellowships received by the taxpayer (prior to 2010 amendments to the definition of "qualifying educational program") from McGill University qualified for the s. 56(3) scholarship exemption, Boyle J stated (at para. 19) "that in this case it appears clear that the purpose and structure of the post-doctoral fellow program was the continued training and education of the fellows within a fixed period of time following the receipt of their doctoral degree."