Cowtown

What is it with you and tax! You just cannt keep it simple can you?

Are you aware that after living with this lady for 12 months she became (will become) your second 'spouse' for tax purposes? That assumes there are no children.

dbd

It is actually all far more complicated than stated. My partner is actually the third person with whom I have established a bigamistic common law status (serially, not all at once); the previous two eventually tired of the arrangement and left. I'm still in contact with one of them which is good as, for tax reasons, the house is in her name (otherwise I'd be liable for CGT on either the house I live in or the one where my wife does).

I must say that I'm most eager to avoid the current one buggering off which is why I've spent about twenty grand this year on trying to advance a divorce.

I still claim the write off for the original wife so there's no advantage there. There might be a benefit in being able to deduct her tuition but, for that, I'd think she'd have to be resident in Canada.