# Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit



## Money4life (May 17, 2012)

I am currently renting a 2-bedroom apartment with my wife and two low-income senior citizens (her parents). We have been splitting the rent payments by four but technically, my wife and I have been providing the cheques to the superintendent (in our names). Since our combined income is too high to claim the tax credit, we are considering getting the superintendent to address the tax receipts to my wife's parents. Technically, they are legally living with us at that address (their details are up to date with the CRA). Are we able to get my wife's parents to claim the tax credits even though they technically didn't sign the rent cheques?


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## Zeeshanbmerchant (Jan 4, 2014)

Money4life said:


> I am currently renting a 2-bedroom apartment with my wife and two low-income senior citizens (her parents). We have been splitting the rent payments by four but technically, my wife and I have been providing the cheques to the superintendent (in our names). Since our combined income is too high to claim the tax credit, we are considering getting the superintendent to address the tax receipts to my wife's parents. Technically, they are legally living with us at that address (their details are up to date with the CRA). Are we able to get my wife's parents to claim the tax credits even though they technically didn't sign the rent cheques?


No, They can claim their half, which is paid by you for them. Claiming the other half is borderline evasion, your landlord agreeing to this is also a guilty party as he is releasing faulty tax receipts.

They can claim one half, and you can ask your landlord to split the receipts. 

Practically would anyone care if you did, probably not.


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## lb71 (Apr 3, 2009)

Going forward, you may want to adjust how the home expenses are handled. For example, your in laws could pay all the rent, and you can pay for all the other expenses (meals, hydro, etc).


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## Money4life (May 17, 2012)

Zeeshanbmerchant said:


> No, They can claim their half, which is paid by you for them. Claiming the other half is borderline evasion, your landlord agreeing to this is also a guilty party as he is releasing faulty tax receipts.
> 
> They can claim one half, and you can ask your landlord to split the receipts.
> 
> Practically would anyone care if you did, probably not.


I am slightly confused by this response. How are the seniors able to claim their half when there was no proof that they made payments?


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## joncnca (Jul 12, 2009)

Your explanation of events or testimony is a kind of proof, try to get other lines of evidence to show where the money came from like bank statements from your parents bank account, copy of a cheque, whatever. It's not so good as a cheque written from them to the landlord, but you can try to somehow show the money came from them, even if it passed through you first. Just need to be more creative with the proof. Your situation is harder to prove, but not impossible 

Hence the suggestion above to spilt your expenses differently to make the paper work more obvious. It's easier to show where the money came from when there's no middle man. 

If your parents just give you cash, that's much harder to prove, so avoid if possible.


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## Money4life (May 17, 2012)

Thanks for the replies. I have another wrinkle to add to this. Technically, my wife and I are the tenants on the lease and the in-laws are the co-inhabitants. Does this make any difference for claiming taxes?


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