How does a higher income spouse claim a lower income spouses dividend income?

[TurboTax-Terry]

Simple comparison for tax theory is to enter the T5 in the name of one spouse take note of combined result, then delete and enter in the name of the other spouse and compare, Decide which result is more favorable and choose who should claim the T5.

[cranelift]

Hi, the responses here are all unsatisfactory. Why is transferring dividends to a higher income spouse so complicated? It should be possible with one press of a button. Is it available with TurboTax Premier?

My concerns are

-I am filing a return where the lower income spouse has 8 T3s and all include capital gains and interest income, in addition to the ELIGIBLE DIVIDENDS I want to transfer. So I can't just change the % allocation of the entire slip. I have to sum all 8 T3 slips' Boxes 49, 50, and 51, "zero" them out for lower income spouse, and create a new T3 for the higher income spouse with the sums above.

-However, the proposed transfer is only allowed if it increases the spousal amount that can be claimed. So it's not enough to simply move the T3s over - you would also have to check the spousal tax credit, which 99% of TurboTax users are going to get lost by this point, because the whole point of buying the software is to have it guide you along

-Is the above altering of slips even going to fly with CRA? Don't they match up slips based on recipient SIN number?

-is the dividend transfer allowed at the provincial level too? Or is this just a federal rule? Because if I move the slip 100% to the high-income spouse, then this could incorrectly give a provincial transfer if it's not allowed

Can someone please get real on this and provide an actual solution? Do I have to file with another software if I want to do a spousal dividend transfer, or pay a public accountant to do my taxes? This is ridiculous!

[TurboTaxGinette]

Because we are limited to what can be shared here in a public forum, we believe your best option is to contact our telephone support team for further assistance, as they have the option to view your screen to help resolve the issue. To contact them, please follow this link: Contact Us. When asked if you wish to receive an email say NO then say "speak to a representative" then hold the line. If a resolution is not found please ask for an escalation.

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[cranelift]

I tried calling but they didn't understand my question, and told me to pay for Assist & Review. Instead, I would consider upgrading to TurboTax Premier; can you please tell me whether spousal dividend transfers are handled by Premier?

[TurboTaxSusan]

@cranelift 

TurboTax Premier CD/Download has the same tax forms as the other versions of TurboTax CD/Download, it just has an enhanced interview. But I don't think that will change much for your situation. You will still need to enter & remove numbers to compare results and see what works best.

[SpousalDividendTaxQuestion]

The previous comments have a fair point. It is unclear why Turbo Tax refuses to help with the optimization of the spousal dividend transfer. The explanations and excuses given so far are entirely unsatisfactory. The reason that we all use tax software such as this is to have someone guide us through the process. 

[TurboTaxBrenda]

You can only transfer if this will result in a higher spousal amount.