Your child care receipt for your tax return
Where to find the receipt your centre issues for the Child Care Expenses Deduction, what it shows, and what to do if it's missing or wrong.
What it is
If your child's centre is in Canada, it can issue you a child care receipt for each tax year, for the Child Care Expenses Deduction (CRA Form T778). There's one receipt for each child, made out to the person who paid, and it's issued in your centre's name.
Your centre makes the receipts when it's ready, usually after the year ends. RoundUp doesn't email them; you download them yourself.
Finding your receipts
In the app: open Payments, then the Settings tab, and scroll to Child care receipts. Each receipt shows the year and your child's name, the amount paid and the period of care, and who it's issued to. Tap Download PDF to open it.
On the web: sign in to the family portal (my.roundupece.com, unless your centre gave you another address), open Payments & receipts and scroll to Tax receipts. Click Download PDF next to the receipt.
A receipt marked Not ready yet in the app, or Being prepared on the web, can't be downloaded yet. Check back later.
If there's nothing there
- Your centre hasn't made them yet. Ask your centre when they will.
- The receipt is made out to someone else. You only see receipts made out to you. For ordinary invoices, receipts are made out to your family's main contact, so another parent or guardian signing in with their own account won't see them. If your family's charges are split between two payers, each payer sees only their own.
What's on it
- your centre's name, address and contact details, and its CRA Business Number if your centre has added it,
- the person who paid, your child's name, and the period of care,
- the total your centre received for your child's care that year, and each payment and refund with its date,
- a receipt number, and lines for a signature and the date signed.
If your centre is run by an individual rather than a business, the receipt has a blank line for the provider's Social Insurance Number, which they fill in by hand and sign. Ask your centre for that completed copy.
What's counted
- Payments count in the year you made them, not the month the care was for. December's tuition paid in January is on the next year's receipt.
- Refunds are taken off.
- Government subsidies aren't included, and neither is a share paid by an employer or an agency.
- If one invoice covered several children, the amount is divided between them, and each child's receipt says so.
If something looks wrong
Ask your centre. If a payment is missing, a refund isn't reflected or the wrong person is named, your centre can correct its records and make the receipts again. The new receipt replaces the old one in your list.
At tax time
The receipt says it's for CRA Form T778, line 21400. Keep it with your tax records; the receipt says not to send it with your return unless the Canada Revenue Agency asks for it. For what you can claim, check the CRA's guidance or ask a tax professional. Your centre and RoundUp can't advise you on that.
If you live in Quebec, the RL-24 slip for the provincial credit is separate, and doesn't come from RoundUp.
More: All family guides