Clay Jarvis
Beth Buczynski
With April 30 drawing near, tax season 2025 is just about over. Homeowners who haven’t yet filed their 2024 income taxes still have time to reduce their tax bills (or boost their refunds) by claiming relevant credits and deductions.
Some credits are meant specifically for first-time buyers. Most, however, have niche applications and may not be on most homeowners’ radars.
Whatever category they fall into, it pays to be aware of all possible credits and deductions, especially if you’re filing your own taxes.
Home buyers’ amount
If you, or your spouse or common-law partner, were a first-time home buyer in 2024, your household should be eligible for the home buyers’ amount.
To be considered a first-time home buyer, you can not have lived in a home that you owned, either inside or outside of Canada, in the year you acquired your new home, or in any of the preceding four years. Exceptions apply if you’re a person with a disability.
To be eligible for the home buyers’ amount, you must intend to use your new home as your principal residence within 12 months of acquiring it.
How to claim it: Enter $10,000 on line 31270 of your tax return. This will result in a maximum tax credit of $1,500. You can split the credit with your spouse or common-law partner, but only if they also qualify as a first-time home buyer.
GST/HST new housing rebate
The GST/HST new housing rebate can help you recoup some of the sales tax you paid when purchasing a new home from a builder or building/renovating a home yourself. You may also be eligible for the rebate if you bought shares in a new cooperative housing complex or substantially renovated a co-op unit you own.
As with most tax credits, some conditions apply. The home in question must be your primary residence. If you’re claiming the credit for a home you or a contractor worked on, the fair market value of the home can’t be worth more than $450,000, post-construction.
How to claim it: To get a rebate of the GST or the federal portion of the HST you paid, you’ll need to fill out the following forms:
- If you purchased from a builder: Form GST190.
- If you did the work yourself (or used a contractor): Form GST191 and Form GST191-WS, a construction summary worksheet.
If you live in Ontario, you can recover the provincial part of the HST by filling out:
- Form RC7190-ON, the GST 190 Ontario Rebate Schedule, if you bought from a builder.
- Form RC7191-ON, the GST 191 Ontario Rebate Schedule, if you or a contractor built or renovated your home.
Tax credits for upgraded homes
Home accessibility tax credit (HATC)
The HATC allows certain Canadians to claim as much as $20,000 in eligible home renovation expenses, which can translate to a credit worth up to $3,000.
Renovations must be permanent and for the purpose of improving access, mobility or safety for an eligible resident, such as a walk-in bathtub or wheelchair ramp. Other eligible expenses include permits, building materials and equipment rentals.
How to claim it: You must be either a qualifying individual or an eligible individual.
- Qualifying individual: 65 years or older at the end of the tax year, or eligible for the disability tax credit
- Eligible individual: A qualifying individual’s spouse, common-law partner or close relative, or someone who is claiming the amount for an eligible dependant.
If you meet the criteria, complete the chart for line 31285 using your Federal Worksheet and enter the result on line 31285 of your return.
Multigenerational home renovation tax credit (MHRTC)
Claiming the MHRTC could be an option if you created a self-contained living space to house a relative who’s 65 or older or eligible for the disability tax credit.
For a renovation to qualify, the home involved must be located in Canada and owned either by the qualifying individual or an eligible relation, both of whom must live in the home within 12 months of the renovation period.
You can claim up to $50,000 in expenses, but the credit maxes out at $7,500.
How to claim it: Fill out a 5000-S12 Schedule 12 and enter the appropriate information on line 45355 of your tax return.
Other expenses homeowners can claim
There are a few other scenarios that might translate into deductible expenses, including:
- Housing-related medical expenses. Things like air conditioners and purifiers, bathroom aids and improved driveway access can be claimed if they are medical necessities required for yourself, your spouse/common-law partner or your dependants (Lines 33099 and 33199).
- Expenses for landlords. If you are earning rental income, you may be able to claim deductions for expenses like advertising, insurance, utilities, property taxes and interest charges (Forms T4036 and T776).
- Moving expenses. If you moved for work or to run a business, and your new home is at least 40 kilometres closer to your new work location, you can deduct eligible moving expenses (Form T1-M, Line 21900).
Don’t be afraid to DIY your tax return
Claiming these credits and deductions might seem daunting — checking numbers, wrangling a stack of forms — but there’s no reason to be intimidated.
George Dube, a CPA and partner at tax firm BDO Canada, feels the work involved is generally manageable for homeowners with fairly simple tax situations.
“The average individual…can get by quite fine with common tax preparation software solutions available or inexpensive personal tax shops,” Dube said in an email.
And if an extra few hours of tax-related toil makes homeownership a little less expensive this year, it’ll be well worth it.
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