Tax receipts for dance classes in Quebec

For its regular classes, a dance studio has no official slip to file. What it gives is a receipt: parents use it to claim Quebec's tax credit for children's activities, and must be able to provide it to Revenu Québec on request.

This refundable credit still exists. For the 2025 taxation year, it is worth 20% of eligible fees, up to $500 in fees per child ($100 of credit), with a higher limit for an eligible child with a disability. It covers children born between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2019, in a family whose income does not exceed $168,470.

The class must be part of a program lasting at least eight consecutive weeks — or at least five consecutive days for a vacation camp — that is not part of a school's curriculum. A ten-week dance session qualifies; a one-Saturday workshop does not.

Revenu Québec requires a receipt showing, among other things, the registration or membership fees, without prescribing a template. In practice, a receipt that avoids questions names the child, the activity and its period, the amount paid and the studio.

• Session classes: a receipt in the child's name, for the tax credit for children's activities.
• Child-care day camp: an RL-24 slip in Quebec, and a receipt for the federal child care expense deduction (line 21400).
• Official donation receipt: only if your studio, or its foundation, is a registered charity (or another qualified donee).

The RL-24 slip reports child care expenses. Anyone who provides paid child care services in Quebec must file it, and that slip — not a receipt — is what parents use for the tax credit for childcare expenses.

Registration fees for recreational activities, such as a weekly dance class, do not qualify for this credit. For a parent who paid only such fees, Revenu Québec's guide states that no RL-24 slip is required.

A day camp whose main purpose is to supervise children does qualify. A studio that runs a spring-break or summer camp must therefore file an RL-24 slip for each person who paid for it, with that person's social insurance number and the studio's identification number — in most cases its Quebec enterprise number (NEQ).

Starting with the 2026 taxation year, the child must be under 14 rather than under 16, unless the child has an infirmity. Federally, the child care expense deduction (line 21400) also covers day camps whose primary goal is child care, but excludes leisure activities such as lessons.

• Deadline: no later than the last day of February of the following year, to Revenu Québec (with the RL-24 summary) and to parents.
• Format: the prescribed RL-24 slip, produced with software authorized by Revenu Québec, its fillable PDF or the paper form.
• More than 50 slips: filing over the Internet is mandatory, using authorized software.

The federal children's fitness and children's arts tax credits were cut in half for 2016, then eliminated starting with the 2017 taxation year. A receipt that mentions them has no federal use anymore.

They are often confused with Quebec's tax credit for children's activities, which still exists. When a parent asks for "the receipt for the sports credit" in Quebec, that is the one they mean.

A studio run as a business and registered for GST and QST generally collects both taxes on its classes. Two situations change that.

Small suppliers: as long as taxable supplies do not exceed $30,000 in a calendar quarter and over the four preceding calendar quarters, the studio does not have to register. A different threshold applies to public service bodies.

A public service body — a non-profit organization, a charity, a municipality — that offers recreational programs primarily for children 14 or under supplies them tax-exempt. Revenu Québec lists dance as an example. The fees become taxable if a significant part of the program involves overnight supervision.

Most child care services are also exempt. For a day camp run by a business, the line between child care and a taxable activity is drawn case by case: have it confirmed before the first invoice.

Cadanse keeps the amounts paid by family and by child; the documents below come from them, with no spreadsheet on the side. What is not automated yet is stated plainly.

• A PDF receipt for every payment, in the student's name, with GST and QST broken down and your registration numbers when your studio is registered. Parents download it from their portal.
• A yearly statement per family, totalling the amounts paid during the year for each child. Parents download it; you can send it one by one or in bulk.
• Classes, camps, periods and products marked non-taxable, for an exempt studio or a small supplier, and a report of taxes collected by period.
• RL-24 (Gala plan, Quebec): each family's data box by box, co-parent shares, encrypted SIN collection and a preview for parents. Official filing then happens in Revenu Québec's PDF or authorized software: Cadanse does not transmit slips yet.
• Federal child care receipt for camps (Gala plan).
• Official donation receipts (Gala plan) for studios and foundations registered as charities, with voiding and replacement.

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