How to claim your fertility tax credits
A large share of what you pay for treatment can come back to you. The federal credit is available everywhere in Canada. Most provinces add something on top, and each one has its own way of paying it out.
The federal credit
The Medical Expense Tax Credit is the foundation of every fertility claim in Canada. It has no fertility specific name and no separate application. You claim it on line 33099 of your tax return, and fertility costs are treated like any other medical expense.
It works by reducing the federal tax you owe. The credit is calculated on the portion of your expenses above a threshold, which is the lesser of 3% of your net income or roughly $2,890 for the 2026 tax year. A single cycle clears that threshold easily, so nearly all of what you paid ends up counted.
What counts
The list is broader than most people expect, and it was expanded in 2022 to cover donor and surrogacy costs.
Treatment itself: IVF, IUI, ICSI, embryo transfer, monitoring appointments, and diagnostic or lab work
Freezing and storage of eggs, sperm, or embryos, including storage fees paid during the year
Prescription medications dispensed by a pharmacy
Amounts paid to a Canadian fertility clinic or donor bank to obtain donor sperm or eggs
Eligible medical expenses you paid or reimbursed on behalf of a surrogate or a donor
Travel, if the care you needed was not available within 40 km of home. Beyond 80 km you can also claim meals and accommodation, and those of a companion where one is medically necessary
Premiums you pay yourself for a private health plan
IVF is eligible even where there is no diagnosed medical cause of infertility, so single parents by choice and same sex couples qualify on the same terms as anyone else.
What does not count: anything your insurer reimbursed, over the counter products and supplements, and non medical costs such as legal or agency fees.
How to claim it
Collect four documents. An annual statement from your clinic, your pharmacy printout, your travel log if you drove for care, and your insurer’s explanation of benefits so you can subtract anything reimbursed.
Choose your 12 month window. You are not limited to January through December. You can use any 12 month period that ends in the tax year, which matters when a cycle straddled two years.
Decide who claims. Usually the partner with the lower net income, because the 3% threshold is smaller for them. They do need enough tax owing to use the credit.
Enter the total on line 33099. Use line 33199 for expenses you paid on behalf of a dependant.
Let the provincial version follow. Every province has a parallel medical expense credit on its own form. Tax software fills it from the same number, and in Ontario you must complete it for the fertility credit to be allowed.
Check line 45200. If you have working income and a modest household income, the refundable medical expense supplement can pay you cash on the same expenses even if you owe no tax.
Keep your receipts for six years. You do not send them unless you file on paper, but the CRA can ask for them.
Tips that change the amount you get
Group your expenses. Because you pick the 12 month window, a cycle that ran from November to March can be pulled into one claim rather than split across two returns, where you would clear the threshold twice.
Claim on the lower income return, but check it. The lower threshold usually wins, unless that person has too little tax owing to absorb the credit.
Do not forget the pharmacy. Medications are often the second largest line after the cycle itself, and they are easy to leave out because the receipts arrive separately.
Log your mileage. Trips to a clinic more than 40 km away add up quickly over a monitoring cycle.
Claim only what you actually paid. Subtract anything your benefits plan covered, and keep the explanation of benefits to show the difference.
You can go back 10 years. If you paid for treatment in an earlier year and never claimed it, adjust that return through CRA My Account or with Form T1-ADJ.
Then claim your province
Provincial support arrives in one of three ways, and that determines what you have to do.
On your tax return. Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Quebec. You enter a number on a provincial form when you file.
After you file. Nova Scotia. You file first, wait for your assessment, then apply separately.
Through the health department. New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia. These are reimbursements or funded cycles with their own forms and deadlines, and two of them require approval before treatment starts.
General information, not tax advice. Amounts, forms, and deadlines change from year to year. Confirm the current rules with the CRA, your province, or a tax professional before you file.
Then claim your province
Claimed on your tax return. Two forms, filed together.
- Complete Form ON428 and enter your fertility expenses at field 58689, the Ontario medical expense credit.
- Complete Form ON479 and enter the same eligible expenses at field 61268.
- On line 1 of Form ON479, enter 25% of that amount or $5,000, whichever is less.
The Ontario fertility credit is refundable, so it is paid to you whether or not you owe tax. It covers expenses paid on or after January 1, 2025.
Where people slip up
- Only one partner can claim, and it has to be the same person on both forms.
- Whatever you enter on ON479 must also be claimed on ON428. Filing one without the other gets the credit denied.
- Only goods and services provided entirely in Canada count toward the ON479 credit, even though the federal credit is more forgiving.
- This is separate from the Ontario Fertility Program, which funds a cycle at participating clinics. You can use both.
Common questions
For the credits claimed on a return, no. You simply claim when you file. The exceptions are Prince Edward Island and British Columbia, where approval or enrolment comes before treatment, and Nova Scotia, where the application comes after your assessment.