Pension splitting

cajr888 — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 19:27:39 GMT

When I use turbotax to calculate our pension splitting, it comes up with one set of refund/owing for both my spouse and me. When I run it again a second later WITHOUT CHANGING ANYTHING it comes up with a different set of refund/owing?

We ran into this last year. When I submitted our taxes together, I used one set of pension splitting numbers. When I then had to make a small correction to one of our returns (not changing numbers), Turbo tax used the OTHER set of numbers and I failed to notice. This created a huge mess with CRA.

Re: Pension splitting

TurboTaxAniqua — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 17:31:28 GMT

I believe you prepared a joint return? Between the two times you saw different numbers, did you add or change anything else in the return? even something small like a $5 donation, a medical receipt, or a transit claim?"

Even tiny changes in total deductions can cause the "Optimizer" to recalculate the ideal split from scratch, which often shifts the refund/owing balance.

On the Pension Splitting page, is the 'Optimizer' currently set to 'Maximize Refund,' or have you manually selected a specific amount to split?"

If it's set to "Maximize Refund," the software will constantly search for the best penny-perfect split. Only setting it to "Manual" or "I want to choose my split" will lock the numbers.

When this happened last year, did the CRA say the amounts on your return didn't match the amounts on your spouse's return (Form T1032)?

topic Pension splitting in Troubleshooting

Pension splitting

Re: Pension splitting