A qualifying subscription expense is the amount a subscriber paid in the year for a digital news subscription with a QCJO that does not hold a license as defined in subsection 2(1) of the Broadcasting Act. To qualify for the credit, a digital news subscription must entitle an individual to access content in digital form that is primarily original written news.

A list of organizations that offer eligible qualifying subscriptions is posted on Canada.ca.

The maximum credit will be calculated by:

• multiplying the lowest personal income tax rate (15%) by the total of all amounts paid by the individual for qualifying subscription expenses in the year up to $500.

Only the individual(s) who entered into the agreement can claim the credit:

• if more than one individual is entitled to claim the qualifying subscription expense for a year (i.e. spouses, roommates, etc.), the total amount can be split between them provided that the total amount claimed is not more than the maximum amount that would be allowed if only one of them made the claim.

If the qualifying subscription is eligible and provides access to content in non-digital form or content other than content of the QCJO:

• only the cost of a stand-alone digital subscription to the content of the QCJO will be an eligible expense; and
• if there is no stand-alone subscription, the amount is limited to the cost of a comparable stand-alone digital subscription that provides access to content of a QCJO. If there is no comparable digital news subscription then only one half of the amount paid is an eligible expense.