I'm citizen, wife lived with me last year as visitor just got CoPR-how to do tax

[Chii]

I submitted my outland spousal sponsorship application last July. My wife came here to live with me last September (in Toronto). We got the confirmation of permanent residency a couple of weeks ago and have mailed out her passport to Ottawa.

I've always used the same website for online tax return. So this year I was planning on adding a spouse to the profile. However it shows that the SIN number of my spouse is a mandatory field.

So should I just pretend I'm single? I mean, that would technically be lying, especially since we got married in Toronto. Or should I file our tax return together leaving her SIN number blank?

She did not work or have income since coming here last year.

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Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Rob_TO]

There is no such thing as filing a tax return "together". Every Canadian must file their own tax return.

Your wife would not need to file a tax return.

However on your own return, you need to change your marital status from single to married. You may also be able to claim the "Spouse or common-law partner amount" since you were living with your wife in Canada as of Dec 31. In order to assess how much credit you are entitled to, CRA would ask for her world wide income in 2016 earned before coming to Canada.

You can try entering in 000 000 000 or 999 999 999 for her SIN, as many tax programs recognize that as indication of a non-resident. If the tax program won't let you do it you must find a new tax program, or print out the return, write by hand something like "No SIN / Non-resident" in the space for her SIN, and mail it in.