Do Any of You do Income splitting ?

PeppermintPatty

🔷 💜 🔷
Do any of you do split up your retirement cheque to reduce paying taxes?
I read that both parties need to be at least 60 years old before doing this.
 

I'm not familiar with that concept, how does that work?
Instead and having one cheque for both parties you have the cheque divided in half so that you both get the tax deduction of the person in the lower tax bracket. Apparently it saves quite a bit in taxes but there are some restrictions like age requirements. We’d have to wait a couple of years since my guy isn’t 60 yet.
 

I don’t think that explanation is correct, Patty. It’s just done at tax time when you both fill out your tax forms. It lowers the tax for the higher earner and raises it for the lower one. Overall it saves money.
 
I don’t think that explanation is correct, Patty. It’s just done at tax time when you both fill out your tax forms. It lowers the tax for the higher earner and raises it for the lower one. Overall it saves money.
Thanks. And this is why I asked.
I was under the impression that it was an ongoing tax break. I guess it was too good to be true. Lol
 
Do any of you do split up your retirement cheque to reduce paying taxes?
I read that both parties need to be at least 60 years old before doing this.
I'd never heard of this. Thanks @PeppermintPatty . However as husband has died, there's not even any guarantee that I'll receive his pension as I've to wait until 66 (or 70 if it changes again) and remain single, which is very strange.

I do remember that when we both worked, we use to split income equally for income tax purposes. One year, he ended up paying as single. It fell to me (as he was working away) to contact HMRC to send proof of marriage. It was fun...
 
I'd never heard of this. Thanks @PeppermintPatty . However as husband has died, there's not even any guarantee that I'll receive his pension as I've to wait until 66 (or 70 if it changes again) and remain single, which is very strange.

I do remember that when we both worked, we use to split income equally for income tax purposes. One year, he ended up paying as single. It fell to me (as he was working away) to contact HMRC to send proof of marriage. It was fun...
That IS very strange.
My husband has assured me that if anything ever happened to him that I would get a set amount as well as our retirement fund. I hate talking about this stuff but do need to know.
I hope this works out. Have you tried calling his employer? This doesn’t seem right at all. 😱
I do remember that when we both worked, we use to split income equally for income tax purposes. One year, he ended up paying as single. It fell to me (as he was working away) to contact HMRC to send proof of marriage. It was fun...
Maybe this ^^^^ is what I read about. I shall keep researching this to be sure I get it right.
 
I'd never heard of this. Thanks @PeppermintPatty . However as husband has died, there's not even any guarantee that I'll receive his pension as I've to wait until 66 (or 70 if it changes again) and remain single, which is very strange.

I do remember that when we both worked, we use to split income equally for income tax purposes. One year, he ended up paying as single. It fell to me (as he was working away) to contact HMRC to send proof of marriage. It was fun...
I know that SS will stop paying a deceased spouse's benefit if the widow(er) remarries, so it's not hard for me to imagine that pension plans operate the same way. But of course, it's best to check it out with his employer.
 
Here is the official explanation of "Income Splitting on annual Tax returns " by the Canadian Revenue Agency. Link.https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/programs/about-canada-revenue-agency-cra/federal-government-budgets/income-sprinkling/guidance-split-income-rules-adults.html

As the OP is a Canadian, I think that this information should help her to understand the concept, and it's practical application here in Canada. My Wife has a greater annual income than I do because of the pension that she receives from the University of Toronto every year. I operate a small home based business, so I do 2 CRA returns each year, one for me as a person, and a second one for my business operation. My Wife and I split income as a married couple, on our personal CRA returns. JimB.
 
Here is the official explanation of "Income Splitting on annual Tax returns " by the Canadian Revenue Agency. Link.https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/programs/about-canada-revenue-agency-cra/federal-government-budgets/income-sprinkling/guidance-split-income-rules-adults.html

As the OP is a Canadian, I think that this information should help her to understand the concept, and it's practical application here in Canada. My Wife has a greater annual income than I do because of the pension that she receives from the University of Toronto every year. I operate a small home based business, so I do 2 CRA returns each year, one for me as a person, and a second one for my business operation. My Wife and I split income as a married couple, on our personal CRA returns. JimB.
Thanks Jim. That IS helpful. 👍
 
I know that SS will stop paying a deceased spouse's benefit if the widow(er) remarries, so it's not hard for me to imagine that pension plans operate the same way. But of course, it's best to check it out with his employer.
That is not correct. If the widow or widower is over 60, SS will keep on paying. My wife was 64 when we married, and keeps getting her husband's SS.
Also, most pensions have options:
100% that stops at death
50% at death.
100% at death
The pension amount decreases with each survivor option.
 
I don’t think that explanation is correct, Patty. It’s just done at tax time when you both fill out your tax forms. It lowers the tax for the higher earner and raises it for the lower one. Overall it saves money.
Yes it is done at tax time and makes a huge difference. We got thousands of dollars more doing income splitting. Yayyyyy! Our tax return was WAY better than we were expecting.
 
Have you considered making your maple syrup enterprise a legal "small business operation " so you can claim some of the costs associated with producing it ? JimB.
Yes, we did think about it but we actually have a business that is doing well. We’ve had it for about 6 years. That’s one of the reasons we got so much back. Another reason is that we split our income tax returns.
My husband claims me as having a mental disability which is true and due to that I get to claim thousands more than if he didn’t. Then in less than I year I’ll get my pension since I turn 65 so that will be another couple of thousand dollars a month , ( not as a tax return but as income )
 
Yes, we did think about it but we actually have a business that is doing well. We’ve had it for about 6 years. That’s one of the reasons we got so much back. Another reason is that we split our income tax returns.
My husband claims me as having a mental disability which is true and due to that I get to claim thousands more than if he didn’t. Then in less than I year I’ll get my pension since I turn 65 so that will be another couple of thousand dollars a month , ( not as a tax return but as income )
Good for you, for taking advantage of the legal deductions allowed by CRA regulations for your small business enterprise. My small business buying and selling gold can be run out of my briefcase and my desk top computer. Low overhead means I can offer better prices per gram of gold to my customers. JImB.
 
I have run the numbers both ways. The tax rate for MFS is much higher than MFJ. The only time it works is where one partner has a huge amount of deductions for medical or other deductions well over the standard deduction.
 
Good for you, for taking advantage of the legal deductions allowed by CRA regulations for your small business enterprise. My small business buying and selling gold can be run out of my briefcase and my desk top computer. Low overhead means I can offer better prices per gram of gold to my customers. JImB.
It really pays to take your taxes to an accountant. We never consider doing our taxes ourselves but do save all our receipts so we can claim them. We made too much to get a lot back from our business but the tax write offs really helped . The biggest difference was putting our claims in separately. It made a big significant difference.

I read about this somewhere and told my husband but he didn’t believe me. Today our tax accountant told him it’s true and showed him the difference. Now he believes me. 😂 Now we are going to see if we can go back and get the other 3 years we did last year. It’s worth a try.
 
It really pays to take your taxes to an accountant. We never consider doing our taxes ourselves but do save all our receipts so we can claim them. We made too much to get a lot back from our business but the tax write offs really helped . The biggest difference was putting our claims in separately. It made a big significant difference.

I read about this somewhere and told my husband but he didn’t believe me. Today our tax accountant told him it’s true and showed him the difference. Now he believes me. 😂 Now we are going to see if we can go back and get the other 3 years we did last year. It’s worth a try.
A long time ago in the mid 1980's, I was racing at local oval tracks here in Ontario. My racing team was set up as a sole proprietor business called "39 racing enterprises ". I was fully employed at the time by Metro Toronto Ambulance services. The losses that I had with the racing team, were deductible from the income taxes I paid as an employee at Metro Ambulance. As a result, I got a hefty refund of the taxes that had been deducted by my employer, the City of Toronto. I still use a book keeping service, and on the start of each month I drop off a big envelope of bills and paperwork. They maintain a spread sheet, and file my returns to CRA for an annual fee. JimB.
 
I still use a book keeping service, and on the start of each month I drop off a big envelope of bills and paperwork. They maintain a spread sheet, and file my returns to CRA for an annual fee. JimB.
We do our own spread sheet and have a big folder for each year that we take to our accountant. We let them do the rest. It costs about $200 to get each year done by H & R Block. Doing turbo tax cost $140 per year but then you have to do it yourself. For an extra $60 I’d rather pay a qualified accountant to do it. They gave us a lot of info we didn’t know about to help increase our tax claim, which to us was well worth it.
 


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