Gift from overseas
 

Hi,

I'm not sure if anyone can help here, but I have a question related to a gift to my wife. My Father gave her (and inadvertently, I) a gift of money last year. He deposited it directly to my account in our home town as my wife didn't have one there. We could then wait for a more suitable exchange rate too.

We transferred it over here this year and it has helped us move forward to buy a car and settle in.

However, what I have learnt since moving to Canada is that the country here seems to deem assets between spouses as individual assets.

Now we are unsure whether to include this in my wife's T1135 - because even though the gift was to her, it went from his account to my account.

Not sure if it matters, but this question just came up now. Also I'm not sure why Canadians would see a husband and wife's assets as separate (I guess it is relevant if they divorce)

Has anyone had this experience and might know how to best approach it?

JJ

Re: Gift from overseas
 

Please wait until someone with more knowledge comes along, but I believe a gift from yourself to your wife would not be liable for tax by her (not sure about the form though).

From what I could gather from a little research:
Calling JonboyE or Aviator!!

:)

Re: Gift from overseas
 

Thank you, Siouxie, it came from one of my parents. I'll read through the links. Is Aviator and JonboyE like Batman and Robin?

Re: Gift from overseas
 

No, more like Del Boy and Rodney.

Re: Gift from overseas
 

I would keep things simple and treat it as family money. Half on your T1135 and half on hers.

It is something of a relic of the days when husbands went to work and wives stayed at home to bring up the children. A common way to reduce tax was to gift the wife income producing investments so she could use up her no tax/low tax bands instead of him paying tax at his top marginal rate.

There are still quite a few couples about with one earning all the money and the other with no income so the rules are still there. It is much less common than it used to be and there are ways around it.

Yours

A plonker.

Re: Gift from overseas
 

Thank you JonboyE, half of the infamous duo does not disappoint.

My wife doesn't work anymore, after the baby, so it seems that the laws were for couples like us.

With the gift, so we have to halve it, we can do that then if it is easier. Will they ask us to show evidence that the money was gifted? It was, but what evidence will they be satisfied with? A letter from my parent?

If this is the case, she will not need to fill in the T1135. I am filling one in myself this year but the form is very time consuming. Example, even though I have multiple accounts, I transfer internally between them but it's very hard for me to determine group balance summaries through statements - so I am erring by over-estimating. I think I will need an accountant.

Our accountant was H&R Block last year, and they told me last year to put all the interest income in my name only, which we followed (we were new and were not paying attention as we had so much going on).

We created some joint accounts and the T5s show a split, but will this be a problem with the CRA if they don't want her to get any of the interest? To be honest this whole area confuses me and it's also quite upsetting as we have also viewed our assets to be shared, and didn't always bother checking all the formal boxes like account names before we immigrated.

Thanks for being willing to help a plonker, one to one.

Re: Gift from overseas
 

PS I am thinking that if I do my best try, and submit it, can I still find an accountant in a week and get them to check everything? If anything is not right, can I then resubmit my return? Does anyone know if this is allowed in Canada?

Re: Gift from overseas
 

Yes, you can file an adjustment later.