com-law sponsoring: Declaring your taxes together "necessary"?

[ronypete]

Hi,

We handed in a sponsor app last year and we are about to do our taxes.
In our application we stated that we haven't filed any tax returns together. But will they ask if we filed our taxes together this year as we have been living in Canada for more than a year? Maybe that would be good to do if they have further questions?!?

I think our application is pretty good except that we didn't get the "statutory declaration of common law" which is not mandatory.

 

[scylla]

Legally you have to file your returns as common law if you meet the common law definition below (which you do):

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/prsnl-nf/mrtl-eng.html

 

[steerpike]

You should make sure you are listed as "common-law" not as "single" on your taxes.

 

[little_apple]

I agree. The embassy sent me a message 10 months after applying asking for proof that we filed taxes as common-law.

We did and our refund was so much smaller than filing taxes as a single person.

 

[Rob_TO]

Legally you are actually supposed to inform CRA that you have changed from "single" to "common-law", asap after you reach official common-law status (so right after you finish the 12th month of living together).

Some tax benefits (like GST/HST credits, Trillium benefits, etc) are paid out in monthly payments based on family income, so if one becomes common-law or married in the middle of a tax year, their family income may change and be effective as of the date their status changed. So this could have an immediate effect on benefit payments. If you wait until the next years taxes to tell them, then you may end up owing money back for any benefits that were mistakenly paid as single when you were in fact common-law.

 

[little_apple]

Legally you are actually supposed to inform CRA that you have changed from "single" to "common-law", asap after you reach official common-law status (so right after you finish the 12th month of living together).

Some tax benefits (like GST/HST credits, Trillium benefits, etc) are paid out in monthly payments based on family income, so if one becomes common-law or married in the middle of a tax year, their family income may change and be effective as of the date their status changed. So this could have an immediate effect on benefit payments. If you wait until the next years taxes to tell them, then you may end up owing money back for any benefits that were mistakenly paid as single when you were in fact common-law.

Yep, we changed our status with CRA exactly after 12 months of living together. Included this proof in our application as well.
After this date we didn't receive the GST/HST credits anymore.

 

[Rob_TO]

Yep, we changed our status with CRA exactly after 12 months of living together. Included this proof in our application as well.
After this date we didn't receive the GST/HST credits anymore.

Ya in our case the government was a bit slow and still continued to pay my wife the credits for several more months. Around 4-5 months later, then then went back and gave us a bill to pay all of them back effective the date we became common-law.

 

[little_apple]

Ya in our case the government was a bit slow and still continued to pay my wife the credits for several more months. Around 4-5 months later, then then went back and gave us a bill to pay all of them back effective the date we became common-law.

CRA is sometimes weird. In the end of 2013 they gave my partner a huge refund for the tax year 2010. The same amount they asked him to pay in 2011. This refund paid us a vacation ;D

 

[screech339]

In my case, I didn't report my marriage status until I filed the annual income filing. At the time I listed myself as non-resident of Canada thus didn't have any effect on my income tax as I didn't get any refund anyway. I know that you don't have to file canada income tax if you didn't work/resident in Canada but I wanted to keep filing my taxes to keep record of continuing to report RRSP contributions. These RRSP's were then allocated as "unused" RRSP.

When I eventually filed as a resident of Canada, I was able to claim the unused RRSP towards income deduction creating a windfall of refund.

 

[cmathslu]

If you are living together for 9 months consecutive then by law you are common law and you should have filling your tax together, Another proof for you sponsorship.

 

[Rob_TO]

If you are living together for 9 months consecutive then by law you are common law and you should have filling your tax together, Another proof for you sponsorship.

No it's 12 months, not 9.

 

[cmathslu]

No it's 12 months, not 9.

Sorry, yah 12 consecutive months...