non-resident spouse

My_question_is: Applicable to Another Jurisdiction or Multi-jurisdictions
Subject: non-resident spouse
Expert: [email protected]
Date: Thursday March 22, 2007
Time: 09:51 PM -0500

QUESTION:

Hello,
My spouse does not reside with me in Canada, he is a New Zealand resident. We both takes turns visiting each other.
In preparing my tax return I entered that I was married, however it asks for my spouses income. Since he is not Canadian and does not reside with me in Canada am I obligated to provide this information? I personally do not know his exact income. I am self-supporting in Canada and do not rely on his income.
How do I enter this information?
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david ingram replies:

You need to put in some income to make sure that you do not receive any tax credits that you are not entitled to when you are married and their are two incomes in the family if you are married and living together in heart and spirit and a month or two a year physically.

If you are really actually separated and are not living together because you do not get along in close quarters for more than a couple of weeks at a time, than you should put separated on the return and his income would not be relative.

I have a good friend who did not live with his wife for at least ten years, dated other people but used to take vacations with his wife. Then suddenly, after ten years or
so, they started living together and had two children and are still together fifteen years later.

Love is a strange commodity that waxes and wanes for years and years..

And in another aside which has nothing to do with your question, I talked to one lady client today who had come from her lawyer with whom she is re-opening her property settlement from thirty years ago. You would recognize the names so I have to be careful with what I say. However, the second wife has now gone to the first wife to tell her how much the mutual ex-husband did-in the first wife.

I had the same thing happen several years ago with another highly recognizable figure and was a dangerous ploy for the third wife. In this case, wife number three dragged wife number two in to get her help in saying what a cad their mutual ex husband was. The second wife did manage to get a bundle but she received it as part of the third wife's settlement because the third wife had actively participated in the hiding of assets AND money from the second wife. But the female judge awarded half to the husband and the two exes split the other half much to the chagrin of wife number two who ended up getting less than a third (after $150,000 of legal fees) of what the husband had offered in an amicable settlement at the start. A female judge too who did not like either wife because it turned out that wife number two had helped hide assets from wife number one who was no longer around.

Yep love moves in mysterious ways.

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CEN-TA Cross Border Services - Tax, Visas, Immigration
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