I am currently trying to figure out this puzzle in relation to the CIHR DRA/DFSA awards (mine is a DFSA since I'm studying in the US). The website appears to give some contradictory info:
"Training awards, whether held inside or outside Canada, are taxed as income by the Canadian government.
Training award recipients receiving payments through Canadian institutions must be issued T4 or T4A slips by the institution rather than by CIHR. CIHR issues T4A slips in February to all training award recipients paid outside of Canada during the previous calendar year, regardless of whether the payments were made directly to the training award recipients or to a non-Canadian institution.
Since no deductions are made at source by CIHR, training award recipients are responsible for determining the amount of tax they must pay, and for forwarding this amount to the Canada Revenue Agency. For information, call toll-free 1-800-959-5525 for services in English or 1-800-959-7775 for services in French.
The Federal government has recently announced that for 2006 and subsequent taxation years, the amounts received in the year by an individual on account of scholarships, fellowships, and bursaries may be excluded from income.
In 2007 CIHR reviewed the primary purpose of its training awards and changed the primary purpose to education and training rather than research. This determination makes the income of CIHR Training Awards taxable under Paragraph Section 56(1)(n) of the Canadian Income Tax Act. In some cases training award recipients may be eligible for a tax exemption on this income if they are registered in a full-time qualifying education program at a qualified institution. Contact the Canada Revenue Agency directly for further information."
Now, I called the CRA and they said that I should call CIHR (of course). So I am trying to get in touch with someone there who can tell me how the awards are classified - the CRA agent basically said that, if they are classified as a scholarship, fellowship or bursary, they are tax-exempt, but not if they are a grant. So I'm hoping that I can get the info from the horse's mouth, but it would be great to know if anyone else has already figured this out! It seems like it should be obvious, but in fact the impression I've been given is that the rules may not be the same for all granting agencies (e.g. NSERC and SSHRC may be different from CIHR...??)
The other question tax-wise that I'm a little unclear about is whether you can claim tuition paid by the university as a tax credit - i.e. I think I am getting a scholarship from the university to cover my tuition, since CIHR doesn't cover that (and 35,000 doesn't stretch nearly as far if it has to cover 25,000 tuition and 3,500 in health insurance and mandatory fees...) Anyone know the answer to this one?
