If you were married or in a common law relationship during the tax year, you can claim the Spouse or Common Law Partner Amount if your spouses’ income was less than $10,320.
Any net income your spouse reported on Line 236 of their tax return will reduce the credit amount dollar-for-dollar and fully eliminates this credit when your spouses’ income exceeds $10,320.
Canadian Dividend Income
If you cannot claim this credit because your spouse had too much income, you may still be able to claim the credit if your spouse had dividend income from Canadian corporations. Simply report your spouses’ dividend income on your tax return. This lowers his or her net income and may allow you to claim this credit.
Were You Separated From Your Spouse?
If can still claim the Spousal credit if you were married or common law at any time during the year. However, you reduce the credit by the amount of your spouses’ net income before the separation.
If you were paying spousal support (not child support) you have a choice to make. You can either the deduct spousal support you paid on Line 220 or the Spousal or Common Law Amount credit on Line 303.
Related Articles
- Line 301: Age Amount Tax Credit
- Spouse or Common Law Partner
- Line 300: Basic Personal Amount
- Tax Credit Amount vs. The Actual Tax Credit
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Hello tax guy. My spouse makes taxable employment income, I make tax exempt employment income over $10320. Can my spouse still make a claim for me on line 303? My net income on line 236 is zero.
As long as your income is nil on line 236 your spouse can claim you!
Hello! My husband is American (living and working in USA) and electing me (Canadian citizen living in Canada) to be treated as a US resident in order to file his taxes with the IRS as married filing jointly. My income is then considered exempt from US taxes if it’s under a certain amount. Does this affect how I file in Canada as a married woman?
I am currently working on filing my Canadian taxes and am confused for many reasons. I cannot find a section that allows me to elect whether I’m filing joint or married and separate. My husband also never lived at any point in Canada nor made a Canadian income. Do I report his net US income in place of line 236 when doing my taxes? (his US net income is over the threshold). btw, We married in Feb 2010 and lived apart all year. We rarely share expenses or send money. I’m assuming I cannot claim the spousal amount??? Are their any credits I can claim, or are we basically “screwed” on both ends this tax year?
Thank you!
In Canada you file your T1 and report your own income (do not include your husbands because Canada does not allow joint filing).
Report your husbands gross income on the front of your tax return in the spot provided.
There are no credits unless your husband earned less than $10,000CDN. As far as taxes go, you both pay tax in your respective countries.
Hi. Thank you for your advice.
My wife has been studying in the US for more than a year but is not a resident there. She is not a Canadian resident either (but has lived 4 months with me in Canada in 2010). She has no income and is supported mainly by her parents. I would like to know if I can make a claim on line 303, and also on line 326 of Schedule 1 (study amounts transferred from spouse).
Thanks you.
If you are a resident of Canada, your wife is a resident of Canada.
You can claim her on line 303. You can take the tuition amount if the amounts qualify. See line 326 and line 323 in the guide.
My sister was “separated” at Dec. 31/09. He returned to the household in April/10, and left permanently Oct. 26/10. He has no income. Is my sister able to claim the CommonLaw Partner Tax Credit in 2010?
If I have already maxed out my RRSP contribution for 2010, does it make any sense to claim the spousal amount on line 303 (my spouse had $0 income in 2010)?
Tnx
Absolutely! Claim all credits your can first. Then claim deductions and your RRSP deduction last. Only use enough of the RRSP deduction to reduce your taxes to NIL and carry forward the rest.
My husband lived and worked in the US until June 2010. He then moved to Canada and we were married. He is filing for Permanent Resident status but it is still in progress and does not have a SIN. He has never worked in Canada and did not collect any income in the latter half of 2010 (I supported him). I assume that I can claim the spousal amount on line 303. My question is do I enter his income as zero since he has not filed a Canadian Tax Return? He has already filed for both State and Federal taxes in the US for the income he earned there in 2010.
You report the gross income from his US tax return.
Hi ,i am a canadian citizen and i went and married june 2010 an Africa woman whom she never been here in canada .she lives in Africa and i have been supporting her. she has no income .shall i claim her for the tax credit , please help???
Hi . As of oct 1st my son and I moved in with my sons father . Wich means we are now in a common law relationship . Do I still file. My taxes or does he just do it ? Or would we do it together . How does it work if we have been common law since oct
You are still separate taxpayers. You never combine tax returns.
my wife and I live in Ontario, Canada, and have 2 children. I have always filed as a married couple using turbo tax (it prepares separate returns at the same time for each of us). my wife is a stay at home mom and has no income other than the baby bonus, can we file as single to get a bigger return? and if so who claims the baby bonus and the kids?
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