How to file income taxes?

[shykitten]

I'm a Canadian citizen living in Ontario, Canada and my husband is a UK citizen living in the UK...we were married July 21, 2010. We filed our immigration application January 19, 2011 for him to immigrate to Canada. Now I'm going to be filing my income taxes for 2010 and not sure how to file ...Ive been told file married, Ive been told to file single ...Ive been told that i have to claim his income yet he is not a Canadian citizen, he doesn't live in Canada and he doesn't work for a Canadian company. Does anybody have any experience with this and have any advice for me ...I have talked to the Canada Revenue Service and they cant give me any straight answers because all the answers they have on their papers only apply to Canadian citizens ..I have talked to H & R Block and they are just a bunch of deadbolts ...

 

[Baloo]

My wife notified CRA that we are a married couple, my income was stated as $0.
We had a brief exchange with CRA and everything was fine.

 

[shykitten]

You said your income was stated as $0 but did you actually have an income or was your income actually $0 ...my husband is working in the UK ...i have no idea what his total yearly income is ...and when it comes down to putting married it asks me for a SIN for him ...Im doing my taxes myself and i think i may have bitten off more than i can chew ...i do owe the government for an overpayment and I refuse to pay somebody to do my taxes when its only going to end up in the governments hands anyways ...also, when i file as married the government wants to give me GST/HST payments for both of us and i dont want to end up having to owe that as an overpayment as well ...

 

[patiently_waiting]

You said your income was stated as $0 but did you actually have an income or was your income actually $0 ...my husband is working in the UK ...i have no idea what his total yearly income is ...and when it comes down to putting married it asks me for a SIN for him ...Im doing my taxes myself and i think i may have bitten off more than i can chew ...i do owe the government for an overpayment and I refuse to pay somebody to do my taxes when its only going to end up in the governments hands anyways ...also, when i file as married the government wants to give me GST/HST payments for both of us and i dont want to end up having to owe that as an overpayment as well ...

Hi Skykitten, Your husband is paying taxes already on his income in the UK. He would have no income in Canada therefore you would enter $0.

 

[shykitten]

Thank you for clearing that part up for me ...so i file married but how do i address the issue of a SIN number for him?

Canada Revenue had told me to take what income he makes in the UK and convert it to Canadian dollars ...I asked her if that applies to a Canadian living in another country or if it applies to a non citizen and she stopped dead in her tracks ..she didnt know how to answer my question ...

 

[shykitten]

I don't want to get anything for him in regards to the GST/HST or anything ...he doesn't live in this country, therefor i am not entitled to anything for him ...its like the government just wants to give it to me and i am not willing to accept it if it means i have to repay it back ...i just want to claim it for me ..i don't want this all coming to bite me in the backside later ...

 

[Love_Young]

robrod, How were you allowed to just put 000-000-000 in for the SIN box? We did the same last year filing at H&R Block but incurred problems. They made us pay back the GST/HST check he had been paid and made us declare that I hadn't made any income. We waited an additional 4 months for them to find other problems and still not give us the money he deserves. So we mailed what was needed off again and still nothing. A whole year without the money he deserved to have all because CRA didn't want to accept that I didn't have a SIN. That is why for this year I am applying to get an ITN (Individual Tax Number) so it makes it easier for us and he will get to keep the money he deserves. The ITN you can apply for if you need a tax number but don't qualify for a SIN yet. It works just the same as a SIN for tax purposes. But be aware it takes 4-6 weeks to obtain but is as easy as filling out a form and notarizing a copy of your passport in. Really solves a lot of complications I hear. Just be careful that before you get either a temporary SIN or permanent SIN that you call and let Service Canada know that you want to cancel your ITN because you are getting a SIN otherwise come tax time again, it will cause unneeded problems.

 

[Love_Young]

Yeah I assumed that they put that in there for you. That is what they did for us too but it only came back to bite us in the behind. Boo!
Thanks for reminding me the wait is worth it. And maybe you should call to cancel the other two numbers because it could cause problems down the road with them having to shuffle things between 3 numbers. Just don't want you to end up in a fickle.

 

[MandiF]

My husband has been requested Canada Revenue (or whatever they're called) to either provide a SIN for me, or provide a total amount of money I earned in any other country I'm from and convert it to Canadian dollars and provide them with that information.

Not sure why, or how, or anything, but seems all very complicated to be honest.

 

[shykitten]

My husband has been requested Canada Revenue (or whatever they're called) to either provide a SIN for me, or provide a total amount of money I earned in any other country I'm from and convert it to Canadian dollars and provide them with that information.

Not sure why, or how, or anything, but seems all very complicated to be honest.

It IS very complicated and i was told this too ..i believe it only applies to Canadians working outside of Canada ...even Canada Revenue couldnt answer my question when i asked her this ...

 

[shykitten]

I appreciate all the different answers and points of view but am I getting the advice from couples that are doing their taxes together because they are together in Canada ..forgive me if im wrong in my assumption but my husband and i ARE NOT living together so this in turn makes it a completely different situation ...From what i understand an ITN can only be applied for IF you are in Canada but havent been given a SIN yet

 

[serenifly]

robrod, How were you allowed to just put 000-000-000 in for the SIN box? We did the same last year filing at H&R Block but incurred problems. They made us pay back the GST/HST check he had been paid and made us declare that I hadn't made any income. We waited an additional 4 months for them to find other problems and still not give us the money he deserves. So we mailed what was needed off again and still nothing. A whole year without the money he deserved to have all because CRA didn't want to accept that I didn't have a SIN. That is why for this year I am applying to get an ITN (Individual Tax Number) so it makes it easier for us and he will get to keep the money he deserves. The ITN you can apply for if you need a tax number but don't qualify for a SIN yet. It works just the same as a SIN for tax purposes. But be aware it takes 4-6 weeks to obtain but is as easy as filling out a form and notarizing a copy of your passport in. Really solves a lot of complications I hear. Just be careful that before you get either a temporary SIN or permanent SIN that you call and let Service Canada know that you want to cancel your ITN because you are getting a SIN otherwise come tax time again, it will cause unneeded problems.

I found this interesting. My husband is living with me in Canada, as we applied inland and just keeps renewing his visitors visa ... So when I file this year, I'm putting Married - and his income as Zero (as he has no income, hes living off his life savings) ... Do you think I should get the ITN for him ? To not have issues with CRA? We don't expect him to get a SIN or 100 % approval until sometime in 2012 - as we just submitted our application in November of 2010 ?

 

[Tiggilicious]

My spouse was given an ITN number to replace the SIN part. But hes here in Canada doing OUTLAND so that may be a why

 

[tulamoon]

I'm trying to figure this out too.....

My husband lives with me and is a student. He gets monthly housing allowance from Veteran Affairs in the states, which is a non taxable benefit. He worked in the states until August in 2010 and made around $13000... BUT the tax return asks for the amount in line blah blah of his federal tax return, and well he doesn't have a federal tax return. So I have no clue what to put. If I put zero I get an awesome refund, if I put that he made some money then I get nothing... Its very confusing and the CRA is useless when I ask them questions.

 

[tulamoon]

My gosh. I've been on the phone with the CRA for like 1/2 hour trying to get answers, and I'm just gettin more and more confused. SO frusturating!