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mlb27
New Member

Optimizing joint spousal tax returns

I have encountered what appear to be a few flaws with the Turbo Tax software.  It claims that donations cannot (or should not) be split between spouses, despite the fact that there is no CRA rule that prohibits doing so, and despite the fact that not being able to do so has left me with excess non-refundable tax credits in one spouse's return, and non-refundable tax credit 'room' to use in the other spouse's tax return.   As a result, Turbo Tax's claim that it will maximize your return is false.  If you look at their HELP information, you will find the following:  If you are preparing your return together with your spouse, you cannot split charitable donations between you".  I don't believe this is prohibited by the CRA, so why would Turbo Tax make it impossible, or so difficult?  Other Software (e.g. Simple Tax by Wealth Simple) permits you to do this.  

1 Reply

Optimizing joint spousal tax returns

Our TurboTax software does allow for this as I have reproduced this maximizing of donations by changing the amount in each spouse's return and changing it again so I could make sure it did work. 
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