Should my partner and I file our taxes together or separately? We have lived together since Oct 2016. During this time we moved together once. We are currently engaged.

[TurboTaxMary-Ann1 · Accepted solution]

You should both report your marital status as common law.  You can either choose to file separately or together.  If you are receiving a refund and your common law spouse has a balance owing, the Canada Revenue Agency will not take your refund and put it towards the balance owing and vice versa.

[TurboTaxMary-Ann1]

Everyone needs to file their income tax individually but when you are married, you need to report your marital status correctly on your income tax return and report eachother's net income for the calculation of certain credits and deductions.

[cfry10]

Thank you. So should we both indicate our marital status as common-law? Or leave it as single even though we have lived together for more than 12 months? And then file our income tax individually?

I am confused because when I indicate my status as common-law, Turbo Tax asks me whether or not we would like to file our taxes together or separately. Recommending that by filing together you should either get the same return as filling individually or even a better return.