Personal Finance

Question about dependents on taxes

  • Last Updated:
  • Mar 7th, 2015 2:56 pm
Jr. Member
User avatar
Aug 19, 2010
153 posts
78 upvotes
Calgary, AB

Question about dependents on taxes

Hey guys,
My American girlfriend has been living with me for over a year now and we have applied for permanent residency under family status sponsorship as common-law last November. We still haven't received news if she was accepted, I think it takes 8 months from applying, or at least that's what I've read.

Now, I'm filing my taxes and just getting a rough idea playing with numbers and tweaking things in Ufile and I see that having her as my dependent with $0 income brings my tax return up $3000. Can I file with her as my dependent? Either way, if accepted for PR or not, she would still be my spouse and I could file in this manner, right? Not sure the technicalities here.

Thanks
7 replies
Deal Addict
User avatar
Nov 9, 2003
2689 posts
282 upvotes
Id phone revenue canada and ask this question
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Jan 27, 2007
5116 posts
984 upvotes
T.
I thought at one time there was a requirement that your common law partner must be a Canadian resident for tax purposes to claim this, but that may have changed.

Like poster above said, best to call cra for clarification, but do it annonomously.
[QUOTE]I know you are, but what am I.... ;) [/QUOTE]
Deal Addict
User avatar
Jan 2, 2012
4596 posts
3099 upvotes
Toronto
The PR application has nothing to do with your filing taxes. So whether or not her PR app is in progress, approved or rejected (though Americans are usually approved quite easily for PR as long as they did the application properly), you still must file taxes as common-law once you have lived with her for 1 year. So it is not really a choice for you, if you reached 12 months cohabitation with her in 2014 then you need to change your status with CRA from single to common-law for that tax year. It doesn't matter what nationality your partner is.

And yes, you can definitely claim her under the "spouse or common-law partner amount" line in your taxes. If she didn't make any income, then you would claim the maximum amount.

Note that when you change your status to common-law and do your taxes, CRA will ask for her SIN. Since she doesn't have one (until she gets PR status), you can try entering 000 000 000 in your tax return. CRA will also ask for her world income earned, which you can just say is zero if that's the case. If she earned any income in the US you would need to indicate that.
Jr. Member
Feb 18, 2010
130 posts
36 upvotes
MISSISSAUGA
residency for immigration purpose and tax purposes are different. If she established enough ties to Canada to be treated as resident of Canada for tax purposes, you should be able to treat her as common law and claim spousal tax credit.

- Allan
Deal Addict
User avatar
Jan 2, 2012
4596 posts
3099 upvotes
Toronto
allanmadan wrote: residency for immigration purpose and tax purposes are different. If she established enough ties to Canada to be treated as resident of Canada for tax purposes, you should be able to treat her as common law and claim spousal tax credit.

- Allan
Actually you can claim a spouse/common-law partner even if they are not a resident of Canada and live in some other country. If not living with you in Canada, you would need to show proof you are actually supporting them financially (so money transfers, etc) in order to claim the "spouse or common-law partner amount".
Jr. Member
User avatar
Aug 19, 2010
153 posts
78 upvotes
Calgary, AB
Thanks for the info guys. Filed with her as a dependent with $0 income.

Top

Thread Information

There is currently 1 user viewing this thread. (0 members and 1 guest)