If you are supporting your spouse in another country, you may be eligible to claim the Spousal Amount. CRA takes into consideration many factors when you make this claim and you need to be sure you do not make the claim in error. Claiming a Spousal Amount which you are not eligible for will result in a reassessment and you will need to pay back any amounts you received.
If your Non-Resident spouse has little or no income, and you are sending support payments to them, CRA may request proof of these payments before assessing the tax return and allowing the claim for the credit.
If you are eligible to claim the Spousal Amount, here's some information for claiming the credit using TurboTax.
- You report yourself as Married or Common Law. Your partner does not need to file a CRA return.
- You should specify that your spouse is a non-resident ( yes you can do this), you should prepare your own individual return separately, indicating your spouse has zero income, non-resident, and with a null SIN 000 000 000.
- You cannot claim the direct cost of any remittances made to your non-resident partner.
There are no claims for Dependants who are out of the country, so there is no need to include them on your tax return.
There is some great information in the following link on making the claim for a Non-Resident Spouse that can help you decide if you are eligible or not.
TaxTips.ca Spousal Amount Tax Credit
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