Another Common-Law Sponsor Question

[Carlaganda23]

Ok so today we'll open a joint bank account, and add her name to the lease. She likely has some bank statements from CIBC that are addressed to our place. I think her T4's from the last two years will show where she lived, but I likely didn't claim her as a dependent on mine. So I don't know how that will look ?
Looking back I see there is a lot of stuff we should have done differently in the last 2 years, cause I'm starting to think we don't have a whole lot of evidence to show that she has been my common law partner.

What are a few more things we can show to prove we were common law ?

change your CRA account to Common-Law officially after a year that she moved in with you too.

 

[Rob_TO]

Well I guess we would have been considered common law a year after we came back into Canada from our trip to Spain, which would be January of 2012.
When we did our taxes we just weren't sure how to do it because she was living here on a temporary work visa, and it had to be extended every 6 months or so.
I guess we never "Officially" became common law. It just happened naturally with how our relationship progressed.

If you traveled to Spain together, then that time counts towards your common-law qualifying. Any time spent in person together, counts towards qualifying time.

So you really need to confirm the specific month you reached 12 months of continuous cohabitation together, regardless of where in the world you happened to be living.

You indeed "officially" became common-law after 12 continuous months of living together. This is fact based, and based on Canadian law. It it not your decision if you can choose to become common-law, it simply happens based on the dates. So if you became common-law in 2012, but filed taxes as 2 single people, that is clear tax fraud.

Also if you submit old option C printouts for 2012 or 2013 and they clearly say single, but you are saying to CIC you were actually common-law... that may be a problem. You should really go back and re-do all your old taxes. You may need to pay back any benefits/credits you were getting that you weren't supposed to as a common-law couple, if applicable. You may need an accountant to do all this.

 

[YD1984]

WOW..... What a nightmare this is becoming, I really didn't think it would be this painfull. As for tax fraud, it's more a matter of ignorance than anything.

 

[Carlaganda23]

If you traveled to Spain together, then that time counts towards your common-law qualifying. Any time spent in person together, counts towards qualifying time.

So you really need to confirm the specific month you reached 12 months of continuous cohabitation together, regardless of where in the world you happened to be living.

You indeed "officially" became common-law after 12 continuous months of living together. This is fact based, and based on Canadian law. It it not your decision if you can choose to become common-law, it simply happens based on the dates. So if you became common-law in 2012, but filed taxes as 2 single people, that is clear tax fraud.

Also if you submit old option C printouts for 2012 or 2013 and they clearly say single, but you are saying to CIC you were actually common-law... that may be a problem. You should really go back and re-do all your old taxes. You may need to pay back any benefits/credits you were getting that you weren't supposed to as a common-law couple, if applicable. You may need an accountant to do all this.

I agree with Rob_To.
As for me, we are officially Common-Law last June 2013 but the Print-Out C for the tax year Jan. 2012-Dec. 2012 he was single. It shouldnt be a problem since We are not 1 year during that time yet. But we are filing tax together for 2013 tax year.

 

[Rob_TO]

As for tax fraud, it's more a matter of ignorance than anything.

That may be true as many people don't quite understand the rules surrounding common-law, but if CRA decides to audit you they won't care if it was ignorance or not.
Were either of you claiming the GST credit or other credits by filing as single? This is the only real area you would need to worry about if you need to switch old taxes from single to common-law.

If neither of you was claiming this, then you may actually find by claiming common-law and being able to claim spouse as dependent, you could be entitled to further tax refund.