Ontario Focused Flow-Through Share Tax Credit
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Can you claim this credit?
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Eligibility & Details
What this program funds and who can apply
Program Description
Refundable personal income tax credit of 5% for Ontario-resident individuals who invest in eligible flow-through shares from mining exploration companies conducting qualifying exploration in Ontario. The credit stacks with the federal 15% Mineral Exploration Tax Credit and a full income deduction, making Ontario-based mineral exploration investment significantly tax-advantaged.
Eligibility Requirements
- Individual (not a corporation or partnership) who is a resident of Ontario on the last day of the taxation year. Trusts generally cannot claim, but an ESTATE may claim the credit on the final return of a deceased taxpayer.
- Must be subject to Ontario income tax for the year the credit is claimed
- Must purchase eligible flow-through shares in accordance with section 66 of the federal Income Tax Act
- Flow-through share corporation must have its principal business in mineral exploration and maintain a permanent establishment in Ontario at the time the eligible expenses are incurred
- Eligible expenses must be Ontario-based mining exploration activities (prospecting, geological/geophysical surveys, drilling for the purpose of determining the existence, location, extent, or quality of a mineral resource)
- Cannot be bankrupt during the tax year
- Expenses from producing mines, development costs, oil and gas wells, and seismic data purchases are ineligible
Quick Assessment
Funding Details
- Amount
- 5% refundable tax credit on eligible Ontario mining exploration expenses renounced via flow-through shares
- Type
- Tax Credit
- Level
- Provincial
- Credit rate
- Up to 5% of eligible costs
- Deadline
- Ongoing — claimed annually on individual T1 personal income tax return
Program Scorecard
Competition, effort, and approval at a glance
Moderate — standard application process
Low competition — good odds of approval
Easy — minimal documentation
How to claim
Insider tips, common pitfalls, and what successful applicants look like
Insider TipThe Ontario credit is refundable — even investors with no Ontario tax owing receive the 5% as a cash refund.
Rejection Pitfalls 6
- Claimant is a corporation, trust, or partnership — only individuals qualify
Success Profile
Evaluation Criteria
How the Government of Ontario judges your application
What the reviewer scores, what gets applications rejected, and what to write.
Distilled from 2 source documents on ontario.ca, condensed into one brief. Sources as of 2026-09-07.
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The form
There is no application to write: the credit is claimed by filing your personal income tax return with the ON479 and T1221 forms.◦
Judged against
- 1
Can you claim the credit at all?
Show them Show you lived in Ontario on the last day of the tax year and bought eligible flow-through shares from a qualifying Ontario mining exploration company.◦
In the funder’s words · 1
- Claimant and share eligibility
- 2
Are the renounced expenses and the 5% right?
What to show, and the funder’s 1 criterion behind it in Premium
- 3
Is the claim filed completely and correctly?
What to show, and the funder’s 3 criteria behind it in Premium
- 4
Do partnership, estate or bankruptcy rules change this?
What to show, and the funder’s 3 criteria behind it in Premium
3 questions the reviewer answers about you, in Premium.
Where applicants fail
“Returns for a calendar year are not eligible if the individual was bankrupt at any time in the year”
Premium · the rest of this brief
See all 6 rules that can reject you and every criterion you are judged on. Premium opens every programme you match.
4 more rules that can reject you · 7 more criteria
Do you pass?
Each one can rule you out. Tick the ones you meet.
You
Ontario resident at year end
You lived in Ontario on the last day of the tax year
Not a trust, corporation or corporate partner
Trusts, corporations, and corporate partners, cannot claim the credit.
Documents to attach
Ticks are kept on this device.
The money
Mineral exploration rate5% of eligible Ontario exploration expenses
5% of eligible Ontario mineral mining exploration expenses
Critical mineral rate5% of eligible critical mineral expenses
5% of eligible Ontario critical mineral mining exploration expenses
Excess refundedRemainder paid as refund after assessment
If your credit is more than the amount of tax you owe, the remainder will be paid to you as a tax refund after your return is assessed.
StackingOn top of federal deduction and personal credits
It is in addition to the federal deduction of exploration and development expenses and the personal federal tax credits related to mineral exploration.
From application to money
- Buy shares in yearBuy shares during the year
- Collect T101 or T5013Collect T101/T5013 and file return
- File return and formsFile return with ON479 and T1221
- Credit assessedRefund paid after return assessed
- Following tax yearCEE pool reduced following year
In the funder’s words · 5
- Buy shares in year
- Shares must be purchased during the year for which eligibility is assessed.
- Collect T101 or T5013
- Obtain the company-issued T101 or partnership T5013 information, complete the linked tax forms, and file the personal return.
- File return and forms
- Personal Income Tax and Benefit Return with ON479 and T1221; paper filers attach certification documents and electronic filers retain them.
- Credit assessed
- Any credit above the tax you owe is paid to you as a refund after your return is assessed.
- Following tax year
- The credit will reduce the balance in your cumulative Canadian Exploration Expense (CEE) pool in the following tax year.
Quoted lines are word for word from the source documents; lines marked ◦ are our reading of them.
Everything you need to claim Ontario Focused Flow-Through Share Tax Credit
Not a marketing summary. The actual checklist, intel, and stack strategy reviewers look for.
- 6 rejection pitfalls reviewers flag — so you catch them first
- 6-document checklist with what each reviewer is actually checking
- Your Application Game Plan — the print-ready PDF the preview below describes
- 4-step application timeline with prep hours per step
- Insider tip from program officers on what separates winners
- 2-program stacking strategy to combine with compatible funding
- Success profile + evaluation criteria — exactly what the program administrators check
Application Playbook
Step-by-step process, required documents, and expenses
Application Steps
Required Documents 6
Eligible Expenses 7
Ineligible Expenses 6
Claim timing
Deadline Notes
Ineligible Organizations
Funding Stack Strategy
Compatible programs, clawback risk, and combined funding potential
Compatible Programs
Clawback Risk
Low RiskHow Ontario Focused Flow-Through Share Tax Credit Compares
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Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the questions founders most often ask about Ontario Focused Flow-Through Share Tax Credit