question about taxes

[WeeHippieElf]

i'm having problems with my taxes right now. in 2013, my husband was living in Scotland and our finances were completely separate, so i filed my 2013 taxes as a single person. my husband came to Canada as a visitor in July 2014 at which point we got married, and so i filed my 2014 taxes as a married person, but did not include any income information for him because until we married our finances were separate (and his were from the UK) and after we married he had no income because he was on visitor status in Canada. i included that information with my taxes. a few weeks ago i received a letter from Canada Revenue Agency saying i owed money back for the GST rebates i received for tax years 2013 and 2014, because my marital status had changed - even though it hadn't changed for 2013 and in 2014 he had no income in Canada. they requested my husband's income information from 2013 and 2014, which i have now provided, thinking that would straighten everything out. they've now contacted me again saying that the overpayment stands. has anyone else experienced problems like this? i am being penalized based on his income from a year and a half BEFORE we got married, which he earned in a completely different country.. does that even make sense??

 

[truesmile]

You could see a tax lawyer. But I'm betting for the amount your GST rebates are worth, it won't be worth it.

 

[WeeHippieElf]

yeah, definitely not worth it. it just aggravates me that I will have to pay it back when it doesn't seem right, especially after how much this process has cost in the first place. I can't understand why I would be penalized for a time period when we weren't married and my then-boyfriend lived in a different country.

 

[Aquakitty]

Yea that doesn't seem right at all, if you weren't married or common-law, I don't think they should be taking that money into account. Shouldn't they only count the money made after you were married and landed? That's why we have tax treaties with other countries, so we don't have to pay taxes 2x.

I went through a similar thing when I reported my marriage. They denied me GST until I sent in a form stating how much money my husband made in 2014. That was pretty easy, we just put "0" since he made nothing in Canada, and I got my backlogged GST (which went up a bit due to being married).

There must be a way to appeal this without having to go to a lawyer over it. There are a lot of options on the CRA site, maybe look into it.

 

[Aquakitty]

It might be different in her case if she out down that her husband made X amount wich, I believe in that case the Revenue agency would consider both their incomes?

That's what I was wondering. They got married in July 2014, so should CRA count the money made before July for 2014 towards GST? If they do then it would make sense to have to pay it back. They shouldn't count the 2013 money though for sure if are not married or common-law.

 

[Owl29]

We needed to let them know my earnings as well. We haven't even told them we got married, they found out themselves and called, as my husband filled taxes before our marriage as single as well and we didn't even had time to call them, they were faster We were still waiting for our marriage certificate.
So we just showed 0, as I haven't worked in Canada and I am still a visitor here and frankly I already paid my taxes in other country. My husband tried to understand the reason why they are curious how much I earned in 2014 and 2013 (we were not even a couple). We were married in 2015 summer. After talking with 5 different people it still didn't make sense. Something about that if you get married they take into account that you were in the relationship previous tax seasons as well. It just didn't make sense, so we just left as it is. Where I come from the taxing is much simple, so I am still learning all about it. The more I learn the more I don't get
Anyway, I don't even have my tax number, so they just put 0000000 something.

 

[Aquakitty]

Right, they just want to know if she is entitled to the GST, not about his tax paying. But why does it matter what he earned in 2013? I am curious as they didn't question me about this at all and I put we were married in 2013 just last year (whoops). But, he made no money so it made no difference. In fact they should owe me money technically.

 

[Owl29]

Right, they just want to know if she is entitled to the GST, not about his tax paying. But why does it matter what he earned in 2013? I am curious as they didn't question me about this at all and I put we were married in 2013 just last year (whoops). But, he made no money so it made no difference. In fact they should owe me money technically.

Good point. But you are lucky you didn't need to pay more
We actually ended up paying for some reason more, even when we showed 0, but it was around 100 CAD, so time to argue would have cost more.
I am actually curious to see this year tax form.

 

[WeeHippieElf]

Good point. But you are lucky you didn't need to pay more
We actually ended up paying for some reason more, even when we showed 0, but it was around 100 CAD, so time to argue would have cost more.
I am actually curious to see this year tax form.

you're fortunate it was only $100. being that I was a single parent of 3 children and a low-middle income, I received the maximum rebate.. adding up two years of rebates, my (ahem) 'overpayment' is in the 4-digit amount.

But, he made no money so it made no difference. In fact they should owe me money technically.

this is what I would have thought, too. I would never call them and argue for that money, but since he had no income once we were married, does that not technically make him a dependant? it makes no sense that I would have to pay back what I had been given, and especially for before we were married. our finances were completely separate, because he was living in another country and had his own household expenses - besides gifts to each other, we never exchanged money in either direction. why is his income being taken into account before our marriage?? grrrr.

 

[ayrazar]

This stuff still confuses me a ton, like how can someone's income count for you if they haven't made any income in Canada and have no status in Canada?

 

[WaitingSince2012]

It is definitely confusing. I had to pay back my GST when I got married too but it wasn't more than $200 I believe. It was back in 2011, so I don't remember much detail.

My guess is that they take into consideration the year before assuming both parties are living in a common law relationship before they get married.

 

[WeeHippieElf]

It is definitely confusing. I had to pay back my GST when I got married too but it wasn't more than $200 I believe. It was back in 2011, so I don't remember much detail.

My guess is that they take into consideration the year before assuming both parties are living in a common law relationship before they get married.

I can understand that living together before marriage is the norm these days, and would have been the case if my husband had been living in Canada, but it shouldn't be a blanket protocol. seeing as my husband can provide proof of the fact that he was living on the other side of the world, they should not make decisions based on assumptions.