Can the lower income spouse claim all the income from rental property?

[smrty2001]

We rent out part of our property to a farmer. The land is in both of our names.

[TurboTaxKim · Accepted solution]

If both of you own the property 50/50 - it should be split 50/50. You cannot change the percentages just to lower one spouse's tax liability (IE: report all the income on the lower income earner). If you BOTH own it and change the ownership percentage this could cause a red flag with CRA.

Here's an excerpt from the CRA Rental Guide:

Who reports the rental income or loss?   

The person who owns  the rental property has to report the rental income or loss. If you are a co-owner of the rental property, your share of the rental income or loss will depend on your share of ownership.

Report the rental income the same way for each year you own that rental property. In other words, you cannot change the percentage of the rental income or loss you report each year unless the percentage of your ownership in the property changes.  

There is a wealth of info in the CRA Rental Guide. Here is the link: https://bit.ly/2JwR5pH

[alexgarin]

The link provided is now broken: https://bit.ly/2JwR5pH

Can you please update the link? Ideally use direct link to CRA, not the 3rd party shorteners...