Married and wife Not working

[Raja Ramesh]

Hi,

I recently landed in Canada in 2019 on a work visa. My wife travelled a month later and is here on a visitor visa. She is not working here and i support my family through the earnings from my work. While filing my taxes if i want to file as "Married filing jointly", there is a mandatory SIN field for her. But since she is not working, she is not eligible to get  a SIN. How to include my wife and my kid (3 years old) in my filings to get a better tax return

[TurboTaxLise]

Simply use 000 000 000 as a SIN# for your wife and put ZERO as her income and add your children as dependants on your tax return.

• How do I enter dependants in online editions of TurboTax?

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[Raja Ramesh]

Tnankyou for the response. I was told that we cannot file with SIN number as all zeros and i should be getting some sort of tax number from CRA for people on visitor visa, to include them during tax filing. 

Can you please let me know?

[TurboTaxSusan]

If your wife is not eligible for a SIN number, she may be able to get an ITN instead. This web page has a form to fill out if you need to apply for an individual tax number (ITN): https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/forms/t1261.html