Subject: Canadian Income Tax (American spouse)
Expert: taxman at centa.com
Date: Wednesday April 27, 2005
Time: 08:46 AM -0700
QUESTION:
Hello,
I am American and my husband is Canadian.
We were married last July 2, 2004. I am not
yet a permanent resident of Canada. I will
be upon the finalization of my Immigration
paperwork, probably within a month. I still
have an address in the United States and I
will move to Canada once the paperwork is
done.
Since I am not a permanent resident of
Canada yet, I do not have a SIN. Does my
husband need to put a SIN number for me on
his tax form if he wanted to claim me as a
dependant? Would he need a SIN for me if he
didn't claim me?
Thank you.
---------------------------------------
david ingram replies:
A quick and short answer:
If you did not have any income in 2004 in the USA OR Canada, your husband
can claim you as a dependant on his Canadian return. If you had income of
over $8,000 Canadian he can NOT claim you as a dependent.
On the other hand, if you had over $20,000 of income in Canada, you can use
your husband to file a US joint return and save yourself significant US tax
dollars. And if your income was less than $20,000, you could claim him as
an exemption and save about $450.00 US dollars. This would apply, even if
he had $100,000 Canadian as long as none of HIS income was paid from the
states.
In both countries, you file the returns WITHOUT the SIN or SSN. The
respective tax departments will write and demand it at which time you can go
to the Canadian office to get one for you and he can go to a US office (or
mail an application) to get an ITIN for him.
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