385 – Interest paid on a student loan
You can claim an amount if you (or a person related to you) paid interest after 1997 on a student loan that was granted to you under the Act respecting financial assistance for education expenses, the Canada Student Loans Act, the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act, the Apprentice Loans Act (federal statute) or a law of a province other than Québec governing the granting of financial assistance to post-secondary students. However, you cannot claim an amount for interest paid on any other type of loan (such as a line of credit), or on a student loan that was combined with another type of loan, or for interest paid further to a court decision concerning your default on a student loan.
To claim or carry forward an amount, complete Schedule M and file it with your return. You are the only person who can claim an amount for the interest paid on a student loan granted to you.
Even if you are not claiming an amount for 2023, it is to your advantage to complete Schedule M to determine the cumulative amount of interest that you can carry forward. File the schedule with your return.
Unused portion of the interest paid on a student loan (line 46 of Schedule M)
Enter, on line 46 of Schedule M, the amount from line 62 of your Schedule M for 2022 or the amount shown on your notice of assessment or reassessment for 2022.
If you paid interest on a student loan after 1997 but in 2022 you did not calculate the amount that could be carried forward, enter the result of the following calculation on line 46 of Schedule M: the interest paid for 1998 through 2022, minus the interest already used to calculate a credit for interest paid on a student loan for previous years.
Carry-forward of interest paid on a student loan
You can carry to a future year the interest paid on a student loan from 1998 through 2023, provided you have not already claimed it on a previous return. To calculate the amount that can be carried forward, complete Schedule M and file it with your return.