[Franky Jr]

I am unsure so I will ask, my wife made like $2500 in '09. So can I claim her basic personal amount, or get some sort of other benefit at least from my bread winning. You should know I was planning on giving her all of our interest and dividend earnings but that raised another question of whether she really even needs her taxes done at all?
Any help...

 

[Berubeland]

Yes you can claim her amount. I claim my husband even thought he is not Canadian I still get a $8000 deduction for him.

 

[Four Pillars]

You can claim the spousal amount. The amount is pro-rated so your spouse can make some income and still qualify for the credit.

I can't remember the exact number but once the spouse makes around $10k? then the spousal amount will go to zero.

 

[MoneyGal]

Should you file a tax return for a spouse who has no taxable income (i.e., income less than the basic personal exemption)? The answer is yes, for two reasons:

To ensure you are claiming the spousal credit accurately. As noted above, the amount is pro-rated based on your spouse's income.

Secondly, if you have any kids, or are eligible for the GST credit, those credits are calculated on household net income, not your income alone. In order to qualify, both spouses must file returns.

Hope that's helpful. I love tax season. It gets people thinking about their finances!

 

[OptsyEagle]

"I claim my husband even thought he is not Canadian "

Why does everyone seem to prefer imports? lol

 

[Berubeland]

I am so weird I had to go far to find a match

I had to go south to get out of the cold

and finally everything's bigger in Texas (even the spiders know it)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14094404

 

[OhGreatGuru]

I am unsure so I will ask, my wife made like $2500 in '09. So can I claim her basic personal amount, or get some sort of other benefit at least from my bread winning. You should know I was planning on giving her all of our interest and dividend earnings but that raised another question of whether she really even needs her taxes done at all?
Any help...

Yes, you can claim your spouse. The amount you can claim is the Spousal Amount less her net income. But you will still be money ahead.

Trying to attribute all your interest and dividend earnings to her could be inviting an audit. Theoretically the earnings should be attributed in proportion to each spouse's contributions. In practice, however, since CRA cannot control your family budget, you are generally safe to split income from joint accounts equally, unless her earnings are so low that she could not possibly have contributed 50% of the capital.

 

[Franky Jr]

Trying to attribute all your interest and dividend earnings to her could be inviting an audit. Theoretically the earnings should be attributed in proportion to each spouse's contributions. In practice, however, since CRA cannot control your family budget, you are generally safe to split income from joint accounts equally, unless her earnings are so low that she could not possibly have contributed 50% of the capital.

I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I would be a little unhappy if I would lose that audit. We are a family and we choose to have only one of us work, blah blah blah you know what I mean.

 

[OhGreatGuru]

You have my sympathy. Unfortunately CRA does not treat a family as a single economic unit, even though nearly all family law does. Don't get me started on the need for tax reform as it applies to family incomes.

(Why is it that only pension income can be split for example? Even though I'm a pensioner I think any spouses should be able to split all earned income. But maybe the pension provision will set a precedent for future tax reform.)

 

[ghostryder]

You have my sympathy. Unfortunately CRA does not treat a family as a single economic unit,

You mean the income tax act as written by Parliament, and precedent set by courts, not the CRA.

 

[OhGreatGuru]

You mean the income tax act as written by Parliament, and precedent set by courts, not the CRA.

Agreed. One tends to loosely blame CRA for policy/legislation, when they are just the administrators.