Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Child Tax Credit and Spousal Credit in shared custody

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Child Tax Credit and Spousal Credit in shared custody

    Jeff had written ...

    "Claiming the Canada Child Tax Benefit
    The person who is mainly responsible for the care and upbringing of a child is able to claim the Canada Child Tax Benefit. In cases of shared custody, each parent is normally entitled to receive the benefit for 6 months of the year.

    Claiming the Equivalent to Spouse Credit
    You may be able to claim an equivalent to spouse credit for one of your children, if you were responsible for supporting the child."

    Child tax benefit is then claimable by BOTH parties for a period of 6 months each I take it?

    The spousal credit, what if BOTH parents are responsible for supporting the children in a shared custody regime?

    Hubby

  • #2
    Hubby,

    I receive the ctb 6 months of the year and my sons mother the remainder 6 months. We negotiate every year who will claim the equivalent to spouse amount for our child as we do have equal 50-50 time sharing.

    LV

    Comment


    • #3
      LV ... thanks, something to consider with my spouse.

      Hubby

      Comment


      • #4
        Ok, so my divorce is not final yet...and for the past year my son is in my spouses custody but I pay full child support and his medical care is under my work health insurance. Do I get to claim him as a dependant? Do we both get to do this?

        I'm so bad at this tax stuff....definitly not my forte!
        Thanks
        GDGM

        Comment


        • #5
          Good Dad,

          The child tax credit can be split between spouses for the year from what I take and the spousal equivalent is something that can be shared from year to year but not both spouses can claim at the same time in the same year for spousal credit.

          This is why it is so important to research this stuff and get it into the seperation agreement.

          Hubby

          Comment


          • #6
            From what I know....

            You can only share the tax credit if you have shared custody. They split it 6 months on - 6 months off.

            Only one person can claim the dependant- the one the child lives with in sole custody situations

            Comment


            • #7
              Just spoke with a lady at CRA..

              I was just talking with a nice lady at the CRA concerning who can claim child on taxes as dependant or equivelent to spouse.

              The rule is that only one of the parents can make a claim for the child on their taxes in a given tax year.

              If both claim, both are denied the claim.

              The common arrangement is to alternate years, or the one with the higher income uses the claim and splits it with their former spouse (not likely going to happen)

              My spouse refuses to cooperate and therefore we will both be claiming and will therefore both be denied the claim. (That's life)

              Hope this clears up some points of confusion.

              Duped

              Comment


              • #8
                Duped and LV,

                1. CTB split 6 months for one spouse, 6 months for another.

                2. Equivalent to spouse per child is claimable by only ONE spouse in a given year ... if both claim, credit is denied. BUT what about this statement that "A parent who is paying child support for a child cannot claim that child under that deduction"???

                3. Daycare expenses claimable by person paying the daycare expense ... (Not the payor) but the person actually paying the daycare facility???

                This correct?

                Thanks all, things are moving quick and I'm trying to ensure all bases are covered in the seperation agreement!

                Hubby
                Last edited by hubby; 03-29-2006, 04:16 PM.

                Comment


                • #9
                  If you look at the following link:

                  http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/individ...uations-e.html

                  It seems to indicate that a person can't make a claim for an eligible dependant if support payments are made to another person for that dependant.

                  If I have equal/shared custody of two kids, can I make a claim for an eligible dependant for one of the girls? I did that last year and it went through. I also made the claim this year. I pay child support based on guideline amounts.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    If the cliam went through and you received a final assessment it must be alright.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Duped
                      I was just talking with a nice lady at the CRA concerning who can claim child on taxes as dependant or equivelent to spouse.

                      The rule is that only one of the parents can make a claim for the child on their taxes in a given tax year.

                      If both claim, both are denied the claim.

                      Duped
                      I'm no accountant, but my understanding is that denying the claim for both spouses is just the CRA's way to handle this administratively. One of the spouses is going to be entitled to the claim, and if it's you, you can get this re-assessed.
                      Ottawa Divorce

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Child Tax Benefit & Eligible Dependent Credit

                        In short, the child tax benefit is paid to the parent who has primary residence. Where there's shared custody, the parties need to agree between themselves how the child tax benefit is to be shared. If there's no agreement, the CRA decides which parent receives the CTB.


                        You can claim the eligible dependent credit (formerly equivalent to spouse credit) if you're single and supporting a child who is living with you. The child support recipient is the one who claims this (payors can't claim it). In situations where no child support is being paid, usually each parent can claim a separate child.
                        Ottawa Divorce

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by DadofTwoGirls
                          If you look at the following link:

                          http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/individ...uations-e.html

                          It seems to indicate that a person can't make a claim for an eligible dependant if support payments are made to another person for that dependant.

                          If I have equal/shared custody of two kids, can I make a claim for an eligible dependant for one of the girls? I did that last year and it went through. I also made the claim this year. I pay child support based on guideline amounts.
                          The only reason I can see for them allowing it to go through is that the 'marital' status may not have been reflected properly at CRA? Need to fill RC65 form ... that can be the only reason I can think of why CRA would allow it.

                          Hubby
                          Last edited by hubby; 03-30-2006, 11:31 AM.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Child Tax Credit - Spousal Support and Daycare expenses ...

                            Originally posted by hubby
                            Jeff had written ...

                            "Claiming the Canada Child Tax Benefit
                            The person who is mainly responsible for the care and upbringing of a child is able to claim the Canada Child Tax Benefit. In cases of shared custody, each parent is normally entitled to receive the benefit for 6 months of the year.

                            Claiming the Equivalent to Spouse Credit
                            You may be able to claim an equivalent to spouse credit for one of your children, if you were responsible for supporting the child."
                            Apparently, if one spouse gets in the seperation agreement that they have 'soul' custody of one of two or more children, they can

                            1. Claim that child as a dependant and as such claim the spousal credit of 7000.

                            2. They are able to also claim a % of the Daycare expenses.

                            3. They are also albe to claim the CTB for that child as well.

                            Many times spouses are reluctent to this cause they are in essance loosing out the money that would go to them if they had soul or shared custody of ALL children.

                            What you can do is offer to give a little more support to offset their lose and in essance gives you entitlement to spousal and child credits.

                            This is how my friend explained it to me ...

                            Hubby

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Jeff is correct. If you pay support, you must not claim the eligible dependent (formerly known as equivalent to spouse), even with 50-50. This one really p*sses me off. One law says you must pay support, and another law says you do not get the deduction because you pay support. Joseph Heller would have a field day with this. To get the deduction, you must prove you have children. To prove you have children, you pay support. But paying support negates the deduction. The deduction gives you a refund to help pay support. No refund, no support, therefore no children. Therefore you get the deduction. Repeat.

                              Also, you may not make the claim if you re-marry or common-law. There are more rules on this on the CRA web site. There is also a little yes/no wizard that can guide you through the process.

                              Comment

                              Our Divorce Forums
                              Forums dedicated to helping people all across Canada get through the separation and divorce process, with discussions about legal issues, parenting issues, financial issues and more.
                              Working...
                              X