2011 income tax question - I have to pay

[Cos]

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[kenny]

She'll get a refund because of CPP/EI overpayments from having multiple employers.

Try entering the numbers separately as if you are filing individually. Probably just your employer not withholding enough?

[Mibz]

I cashed in huge this year due to having two employers and the resulting CPP/EI contributions. But yeah, if you're a full-time employee, and have been all year, I'd guess that your employer just isn't taking enough off.

[Cos]

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[Mibz]

Originally posted by Cos
So if I wasnt paying enough how come when I only enter myself I almost am zero and then when I enter her is when I start to have to pay. That was my first thought too though.

The CPP/EI makes sense.

If you start a joint return and do just your stuff then it assumes your spouse didn't make any money and includes that in the calculations.

My return was $5,000 higher before I entered my wife, despite both of us getting money back.

[Cos]

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[masoncgy]

It's the same for me. Once I got all the numbers in properly, my $2K refund turned into a $447 balance owing.

Damn rental property!

[The_Rural_Juror]

I think there's a spousal credit for low income spouses.

[davidI]

Originally posted by Cos
Thanks Mibz, I just tried a REAL separate return and I owe $3400.00 . I guess that my work isnt taking off enough tax. Gay bastards.

If someone can close/delete the thread I dont think I will need it anymore.

From a financial planning perspective, it's better to owe money than to receive money, as you can gain interest, dividends, or capital gains while the funds are in your possession.

If the government owes you, then you've essentially done a poor job of planning.

[triplep]

If your wife has lots of tuition credits, and she paid 2grand in taxes, then I would assume that she would get more then 500$ back.

It depends on her tuition credits.... she will be entitled to the basic personal amount, plus the employment credit, plus any CCP EI she paid (chances are she over paid as stated before)...
Now lets say that federally, if she had close to 8000$ in tuition credits, then she wouldn't owe any money federally, and if she had about 3k in provincial (alberta) tuition, she wouldn't have to pay anything. Hence, why the return should be more then 500.

Now is this the first year that she isn't in school? Was she in school in 2009? If so, it is very possible that the person who did your taxes transferred some of that tuition credit to you, since only the current year tuition credits can be transferred over. If she didn't go to school in 2010, whatever carry amount she had is only for her, and you can't use any of it. Also, if she made less then 10k in 2009, then you would probably have received some spousal amount credits.

As far as you you owing money, there are some transfer amounts that spouses are able to take advantage off, probably if you didn't enter her info, they would have been transferring the full spousal amount etc to you.

Also taxes in canada are PER person, beyond the transfer credits. So you wouldn't get punished if your wife didn't pay enough taxes.

As far as your taxes are concerned, as was stated above your employer is probably not deducting enough. You would basically be eligible for the personal basic amount, NO spousal amount (since your wife made more then 10,800), canadian employment amount, CPP and EI to the max amounts, and probably any medical expenses that you paid for yourself and your spouse above and beyond the lesser of 3% of your income or 2,052 (might be a little off on that second number). However, it is strange that if you only do your own taxes that you owe 3400$ and when you do it together you owe $2000.... THAT MAKES absolutely no sense at all, since from the sounds of it you aren't eligible for any transfer credits.

[Cos]

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[triplep]

Originally posted by Cos

To be fair all I did was income when I did it on my own. I have about $1400 from my PMP courses at Mt Royal that I was using. Either way I think I will be having a conversation with my work. I wonder if they assume that I will be getting the spousal amount?

Its very possible, when you started working for them you would have filled out a TD7 form (I believe) this is what your employer bases their income tax deduction calculation off. If it was done a few years ago, you might have filled out that you were receiving the spousal amount, and also tuition tax credits etc. So I would make ask them to fill out another one and just say you are claiming the basic personal amount.

At 100k your employer should have deducted around 16k in income taxes from you (If they did then there is something wrong with the calculations).

As far as the Transfer amount, it would be on line 326 on Schedule 1, and on line 5864 on AB428. If you don't have amounts on there, then you didn't get any transfer credit.

[Mar]

I was in the same position as your wife for a few years after university, barely made any money, barely paid any tax. Usually when I did my taxes I got back about $6500 per year because of tax deductible interest paid on my student loan.

Originally posted by Mibz
My return was $5,000 higher before I entered my wife

[SmAcKpOo]

Mar,

Are student loan interest credits dollar-for dollar, meaning if I paid 2000$ of interest on a government inssued loan do I receive a 2000$ tax credit?

[Cos]

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[ExtraSlow]

Definitely refile those years. It'll be very worth your while.

Glad you figured it out, and look at it this way, now you'll be getting a large lump sum payment. use it to pay down debt, buy something fun, or contribute further to your RRSP.

[Cos]

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[Z_Fan]

You need to re-file for each year.

Basically ammend each tax year appropriately.

Enjoy.

That said, if this in fact is true, you'll be getting about $30,000.00 back from the government.

[Cos]

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[Z_Fan]

It will be a bitch for you to re-file all the previous years. Hopefully you have kept excellent tax records.

Obviously you're going to need all your receipts for your RRSP contributions. So, this isn't set up as a pension adjustment on your T4 from your company ... like going in to a DCP or something ... but an actual RRSP?

Government isn't going to like having to fork over $30k to you. Hahahha. Fuckers.