Filing with my spouse, net income.

[Chadwick83]

I am currently filing my taxes, because I have a spouse now, it asks me to enter her information. When I get to the second page it asks "Net income from "spouses" 2021 federal tax return (Line 23600)...how can I have that information when neither of us have filed our 2021 returns because we are doing so now. We each only have our T4's. So how can I answer that question and proceed with filing my taxes and including her information when neither of us have filed so far. 

And im still so confused if we still file separately and include each others information or we have to file one tax return together. Everywhere ive read says we each file our own tax returns. Then im reading on turbo tax help "When you are married and living together, you can only file a tax return as either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately.  You would want to file as MFJ even if one spouse has little or no income." How do I know which way to file? Are there benefits or downfalls to one or the other? She earns a bit less than me and for 2.5 months in 2021 she did not work.

[Sam_Tax · Accepted solution]

In online versions of TurboTax, you can prepare your spouse or common law partner's tax return at the same time as yours. This is called a spousal/coupled return. If you’ve already started your return but haven’t indicated that you want to prepare together, you'll need to start a new return and indicate that you want to prepare your spouse or common-law partner’s return together with yours.

 A ‘coupled’ return, which means you enter the information for you and your spouse together but you file separately once you have completed your tax return. By using this method, the software maximizes the benefits for the couple as a whole while still generating two separate returns. If your spouse claims credits, such as the CCB, or GST/HST, or if they owe any payments, you must report that as well.

When you don’t know your spouse’s income and can’t find out through reasonable means, the CRA recommends that you enter your best estimate.

A basic calculation for Net Income from a T4 is to subtract from Box 14 any amounts included in Boxes 20 and Box 44. This is not exact for tax purposes of Line 236 as it will not include other income (T5, T3) or deductions (RRSP etc) but it will give you a basis to start from.

TurboTax FAQ on how to file a coupled return: How do I prepare a spousal or coupled return in TurboTax Online? 

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