Thanks,
I appreciate the response.
First you are incorrect, I stated she separated in Jan 31, 2022, therefore she spent most the year separated, only 1 month together. She does not want to claim any spousal amount, the split was not amicable with a no contact order, therefore it is unknown if her ex spouse made $0, $20,000, or $100000.
I have since searched the CRA website and I also believe only part of what you are saying is accurate. She has already let the CRA know of the split and as such they had already re-calculated her eligibility for other credits such as GST for the remainder of 2022 based on her separated status which carries forward into 2023. Her eligibility for benefits in 2023 year will not be based on a combined income for her and her spouse. Her eligibility for future benefits for 2023 are based on her marital status on Dec 31st, 2022 which was separated, thus only her income is applied towards eligibility. This is part of the reason they encourage you to update the CRA of your marital status 90 days after separation, not only because they like to know every detail of your personal life but also because they will recalculate your benefits for the rest of the year in her case, or take them away if you were to say get married or become common law and are no longer eligible.
Although you are technically correct schedule 5 should be filled out with her spouse's information to file the return accurately in the end it doesn't matter because here benefits are already calculated for 2023 based on her status on Dec. 31st 2022 and she does not want to claim the spousal amount since she was separated 11 or 12 month of 2022.
The frustrating part about Turbotax software is that after importing their data from the previous year there is no easy way to opt out of the claim for basic amount for her spouse since without knowing his income which I left it blank and as such it is calculating her taxes wrong and filing for a much larger return than she is likely eligible for or even wants to claim. I guess the easier way is to just put in an amount of income for him that is above the basic personal amount to make her ineligible to claim the spousal amount even though his income would be a guess and incorrect.
Either way Turbotax should make it easier to opt out of the spousal amount claim for separated returns, the way that is currently being calculated now is incorrect and could easily lead to filing a return with an incorrect and larger tax refund that would likely get flagged by the CRA.
Thanks again for the help.
