Spouse was on mat leave most of 2016, back at work in Dec. Her EI, UCCB, and regular income put her $500 over the personal amount. Now I can't claim & CRA wants $3,000.

[elandrimatt]

Basic personal amount is $11,474 and because her income landed at $11,900 with EI, UCCB, and one month salary, now I can't claim the spouse or common-law partner amount. That puts us out $11,474 in deductions on my income. Also, TurboTax initially gave us a refund in this scenario, and now six months later CRA is doing a re-assessment and saying we owe them $3,000 since I can't claim spouse amount.

[Delphision]

Was there income adjusted from one return o another when CRA reassessed?

[TurboTaxJeffrey]

The spousal credit is calculated by subtracting your spouse's net income from $11,474 for the federal credit, and a similiar calculation for the provincial credit.  Based on what you have stated here, you definitely are not entitled to a federal spousal credit based on your wife's income, and depending on your province you may not be entitled to the provincial credit, or only a portion.  If you claimed spousal credits on your return, once CRA matches up the returns they will discover that you were not entitled and will reassess, causing the tax liability to increase.  There will also be interest assessed.

[elandrimatt]

Thanks for that. I've also been doing some digging and I've learned that Schedule 5 is where the spousal amount is calculated--so you're right, there wouldn't be a tax credit from my spouse in this situation. The question remains is, why did TurboTax give me the full $11,474 credit?

[TurboTaxJeffrey]

were the returns prepared as two separate files, or jointly?