Income Tax

[dair2dv8103100]

I married on January 21, 2011.

My husband is still not in Canada and therefore has no SIN.

Do I need to apply as married or do I apply as still single as he is not here and has obviously nothing to claim?

If someone from here knows can you please help me or lead me in the direction I should be looking.

Thank you

 

[agga]

I don't know if I can be of much help, but I am more or less in the same situation: while waiting for my sponsorship process, I came under a student visa and therefore do not apply as a resident (neither in 2011 or 2012 for now).

I was going through the income tax documentation available at the CRA website and I noticed that it was possible to declare yourself as a married person and at the same time declare that your husband has not yet arrived to Canada (which was my case in 2011). However, you should pay attention to the fact that they ask about your husband's income (but obviously they have no right to tax it yet) in order to calculate some advantages.

If you will prepare your declaration yourself, I suggest you read their documentation carefully. Also, beware of tax preparation softwares, as you will not necessarily find this function where you can declare your husband is not here yet (I was using "UFile" and ended up deciding to prepare my husband's declaration manually because of this detail and of a moving credit he is allowed to claim that is not in the software either). If not, your tax advisor is probably used to facing this kind of situation.

Hope this info was of help.

 

[bundoo]

I married on January 21, 2011.

My husband is still not in Canada and therefore has no SIN.

Do I need to apply as married or do I apply as still single as he is not here and has obviously nothing to claim?

If someone from here knows can you please help me or lead me in the direction I should be looking.

Thank you

If you are married ,you have to mention in all form exactly

 

[CharlieD10]

File as married. My husband does, although I am not in Canada yet. He submits my income under his "world income" and I provide him with a scanned copy of the annual certificate I get from my employer detailing my income and tax deducted, with a cover letter stating the year-end conversion rate for our currency and what the figures are in Canadian dollars. CRA has had no issues with him doing that.

Agga is also right in saying they will ask for his income information going back at least a year before your marriage, they asked us for that as well.

 

[dair2dv8103100]

Thanks.... looks like I will have to get some help filing this year. I usually do it my self on UFile but I am not sure that will work.

Also I am not even sure I will be able to get the info they require about his income as he is not able to tell them he is married to a Canadian... it would put his job in jeopardy. So I am not exactly sure what I am going to be able to do.

Sigh.. looks like it is more complicated than I thought.

 

[Mrslwsn]

It's actually not that difficult. You need to just do a couple things. I have done this now for 2 plus years with no issues. First send a letter to your tax office stating the following: your name, date of birth and sin#...state you are married and your spouse is a non resident and his income is xxx Canadian dollars (if its zero that's ok too) you will need to tell them what his 2011, 2010, and 2009 income was as well the first time you write this letter. Sign it and date it. I would mail it and fax it. This is to declare your "spouses world income". Then when u file your return, just put your spouse as a non resident, use 000-000-000 as his sin#, you can list his address and name. It will be fine. You can also put his world income there, but you still need to send in the letter. Hope this helps!

 

[dair2dv8103100]

It's actually not that difficult. You need to just do a couple things. I have done this now for 2 plus years with no issues. First send a letter to your tax office stating the following: your name, date of birth and sin#...state you are married and your spouse is a non resident and his income is xxx Canadian dollars (if its zero that's ok too) you will need to tell them what his 2011, 2010, and 2009 income was as well the first time you write this letter. Sign it and date it. I would mail it and fax it. This is to declare your "spouses world income". Then when u file your return, just put your spouse as a non resident, use 000-000-000 as his sin#, you can list his address and name. It will be fine. You can also put his world income there, but you still need to send in the letter. Hope this helps!

Thanks... that makes a little more sense... just a couple of questions.

Do I need to give them his income in his countries currency as well? Or do I stick with Canadian currency?

He is working but he is not contributing anything to my household is this going to affect my rate of tax?

 

[Mrslwsn]

put the equivalent in CND dollars. And I am not sure about that. My husband works as well but his income is lower than mine, and it hasnt affected me. However that being said, I am low income already. So I hope someone else could help you answer that question. But adding his world income did not affect my refund, my credits/benefits such as gst and child tax benefit ( I have 4 children)

 

[dair2dv8103100]

put the equivalent in CND dollars. And I am not sure about that. My husband works as well but his income is lower than mine, and it hasnt affected me. However that being said, I am low income already. So I hope someone else could help you answer that question. But adding his world income did not affect my refund, my credits/benefits such as gst and child tax benefit ( I have 4 children)

This is part of what I am concerned about. I have a child and while I am not low low income.. I certainly am not middle class... but the last thing I need is this to affect my Child Tax benefit and such as this is an integral part of my monthly budget.

If he was contributing something I could understand but he barely makes the equivalent of $250 CAD a month. He has to pay all his own bills for his home there plus transportation to his work and food etc etc....

I take care of everything here of course ... and I will be supporting him on the same income when he arrives here and looking for work or going to school so I really rely on gst credit and such to help.

I guess I will take it to someone and have them look it over for me.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions... going to be interesting since I have never done this marriage thing before...lol

 

[FatimZahra]

Hi Dair...I've the same concerns. I was married Feb.01.11 and not sure what to do. I did ask the accountant at work and he said that since my hubby doesn't live here that I should list myself as single. I have an uneasy feeling about that. I'm going to dig some more. When you find out can you keep us up to date. Thx a bunch! xo

 

[dair2dv8103100]

Hi Dair...I've the same concerns. I was married Feb.01.11 and not sure what to do. I did ask the accountant at work and he said that since my hubby doesn't live here that I should list myself as single. I have an uneasy feeling about that. I'm going to dig some more. When you find out can you keep us up to date. Thx a bunch! xo

I was told the same thing and that is why I decided to try and get some help here. I had the same feeling.

I will certainly keep you up to date as I find out. I am not sure how soon I can get to an accountant to ask them. I unfortunately cannot speak with the accountant here as she is always behind a closed locked door.

 

[FatimZahra]

When I find out I'll update here also. I'm going to email the accountant to ask him to check into it a little more.

 

[parker24]

Thankfully I have an accountant, but the letter thing makes sense. The problem is, my husband doesn't recall his income from 2009, I'm guessing he's going to have to search for that little tidbit by getting ahold of IRS? Ohhhh how I'm so thankful I never became an accountant! I hate numbers!!!

 

[FatimZahra]

Did he not do taxes in 2009 to have some kind of paperwork with his income? It's prob a silly question but I don't know how it works with the IRS.

 

[parker24]

Did he not do taxes in 2009 to have some kind of paperwork with his income? It's prob a silly question but I don't know how it works with the IRS.

He did, but all online. And he's here with me in Canada, all his stuff is at his friend's place, who has no idea where the paper is (nor does my husband for that matter) Hm.