Undeclared Common-law when me and my partner became PR independently

[unique_name_]

Hi Everyone,

TLDR;
Did not know that In canada living under one roof makes us common-law and have been doing CRA/CIC application as Single Status. Me and my Boyfriend have been living together since December 2021 and according to what I read now, we have entered common-law since Decmeber 2022. However, our IRCC applications are as below:
My application -> Became PR December 2023(FSW Inland & Marital Status unknowingly declared single)
My Boyfriend -> Became PR January 2023 (CEC Inland & Marital Status unknowingly declared single)

Long Version:

We were about to file the taxes, the accountant told that we need to file taxes as common-law as we are living under same address. However, we always filed our taxes single. Moreover, this also created a doubt that is explained below:

Me and my boyfriend started living together in December 2021. He applied for PR(CEC) in March 2022 and received the ITA in August and became PR in January 2023. He did this application by declaring his marital status as single. I also applied for PR separately in FSW Inland Stream and received the ITA in April 2023 and unknowingly about the common-law, I also declared my marital status as single and my PR got approved in December 2023.
We didn't know about that that in Canada common-law is triggered automatically after living for 12 continous months. However, we want to make everything right now. So, I was wondering if any of you guys could provide some guidance. We would really appreciate it. What we should do now?

 

[unique_name_]

@scylla @canuck78 @k.h.p. any help please

 

[armoured]

We didn't know about that that in Canada common-law is triggered automatically after living for 12 continous months. However, we want to make everything right now. So, I was wondering if any of you guys could provide some guidance. We would really appreciate it. What we should do now?

-You'll have to work out your taxes separately, leaving that issue aside.

-The most common 'consequence' of not declaring one's (common-law or married) spouse is that the other can never be sponsored.

-Obviously that's not an issue in your case, as you've both already become PRs. (I suppose in future if either of you lost your PR status the one couldn't sponsor the other).

-Hypothetically, IRCC could accuse one or the both of you of misrepresentation and the consequences could be worse. But I think the best anyone can say is that is quite unlikely. (The reason is that it's ... a situation where it would take a long time to play out and probably end up dismissed as a mistake, and an immaterial one, with no consequences in the end).

In other words, you got lucky. Probably. I don't know that there's any way to fix the error nor any upside in doing so at this point.

 

[unique_name_]

-You'll have to work out your taxes separately, leaving that issue aside.

-The most common 'consequence' of not declaring one's (common-law or married) spouse is that the other can never be sponsored.

-Obviously that's not an issue in your case, as you've both already become PRs. (I suppose in future if either of you lost your PR status the one couldn't sponsor the other).

-Hypothetically, IRCC could accuse one or the both of you of misrepresentation and the consequences could be worse. But I think the best anyone can say is that is quite unlikely. (The reason is that it's ... a situation where it would take a long time to play out and probably end up dismissed as a mistake, and an immaterial one, with no consequences in the end).

In other words, you got lucky. Probably. I don't know that there's any way to fix the error nor any upside in doing so at this point.

Thank you for taking your time to reply. What happens if we get married. Do we need to inform IRCC. And, suppose we get married and while citizenship application would IRCC look into it again? Both of us have same address on the files for last 2 years.

 

[armoured]

Thank you for taking your time to reply. What happens if we get married. Do we need to inform IRCC. And, suppose we get married and while citizenship application would IRCC look into it again? Both of us have same address on the files for last 2 years.

You don't need to inform them, no. It doesn't normally come up in PR renewal apart from indicating marital status.

As far as I'm aware that's true for the citizenship application as well. While you both would submit that doc with address history, I don't believe they are looking for people who got married to figure out exactly when (or indeed if) they became common law prior to that.

I'm not encouraging you to lie. If it comes up, I'd admit openly to this and not knowing or believing you were common law at the time.

But as far as I'm aware it doesn't come up and isn't specifically looked for.

But I'd encourage you to look at the files and forms yourself.

 

[canuck78]

Hi Everyone,

TLDR;
Did not know that In canada living under one roof makes us common-law and have been doing CRA/CIC application as Single Status. Me and my Boyfriend have been living together since December 2021 and according to what I read now, we have entered common-law since Decmeber 2022. However, our IRCC applications are as below:
My application -> Became PR December 2023(FSW Inland & Marital Status unknowingly declared single)
My Boyfriend -> Became PR January 2023 (CEC Inland & Marital Status unknowingly declared single)

Long Version:

We were about to file the taxes, the accountant told that we need to file taxes as common-law as we are living under same address. However, we always filed our taxes single. Moreover, this also created a doubt that is explained below:

Me and my boyfriend started living together in December 2021. He applied for PR(CEC) in March 2022 and received the ITA in August and became PR in January 2023. He did this application by declaring his marital status as single. I also applied for PR separately in FSW Inland Stream and received the ITA in April 2023 and unknowingly about the common-law, I also declared my marital status as single and my PR got approved in December 2023.
We didn't know about that that in Canada common-law is triggered automatically after living for 12 continous months. However, we want to make everything right now. So, I was wondering if any of you guys could provide some guidance. We would really appreciate it. What we should do now?

Contact CRA to inform them when you became common law. You can also each send IRCC a webform indicating that you became aware of common law status and did not realize that you were considered common law and not single as of December X 2022 and you’d like to apologize for the error. Don’t believe this step is necessary and luckily you both qualified for PR on your own but if you want to be extra cautious and clarify the error a simple short webform should be fine.

 

[carbolight]

File your 2023 taxes separately. If you are still living together but not legally married before the end of 2024, file your 2024 taxes as common-law partners. You need to contact neither IRCC nor CRA. Until now, there has been no paper trace of you being in a common-law relationship. You are good.

 

[canuck78]

File your 2023 taxes separately. If you are still living together but not legally married before the end of 2024, file your 2024 taxes as common-law partners. You need to contact neither IRCC nor CRA. Until now, there has been no paper trace of you being in a common-law relationship. You are good.

Same address for multiple years before declaring being common law could be used proof of common law so there is evidence. Also lying to CRA is never a good idea. Tax fraud in general is not a good idea. With minimal money and time involved it doesn’t make sense to risk having problems with CRA which could be significantly more time consuming and expensive.

 

[carbolight]

Same address for multiple years before declaring being common law could be used proof of common law so there is evidence. Also lying to CRA is never a good idea. Tax fraud in general is not a good idea. With minimal money and time involved it doesn’t make sense to risk having problems with CRA which could be significantly more time consuming and expensive.

Can you please explain more how this is a tax fraud? How one can benefit from filing a tax separate from their partner? Also, filling under the same address is not a proof of common law. Using the same logic, do you means thousands of roommates are common law partners?

 

[abff08f4813c]

Also, filling under the same address is not a proof of common law. Using the same logic, do you means thousands of roommates are common law partners?

Of course not. Common law requires the two elements - the romantic relationship and the cohabitation. Roommates obviously only meet one of them and thus don't qualify.

Now it can get blurry - I personally know someone who was in a mixed-gender roommate situation with multiple roommates. So the two of them started out as strangers, and now they're married with children. (They've also long since moved into their own place.)

I am not familiar with how CRA and IRCC handle this but at a guess, you'd just submit affidavits from yourselves and folks who know about the situation stating when you became roommates, when you met if different (if you were platonic friends before becoming roommates I guess), and finally when you fell in love together.

The point is, as long as one is honest, I don't see IRCC or CRA giving a hard time about when you became common-law (versus the earlier non-romantic roommates only phase).

File your 2023 taxes separately. If you are still living together but not legally married before the end of 2024

The problem is that OP admits to being common-law since 2022. OP didn't say but I'm guessing it's the typical situation of becoming a serious boyfriend/girlfriend pair and then moving in together (so the romantic relationship comes first followed by the cohabitation to meet common law status, rather that the reverse like my acquaintance).

How one can benefit from filing a tax separate from their partner?

In the US this question makes more sense - you can file a joint return as a married couple, or you can be married filing separate (thus filing two returns but still telling the IRS that you are married). With the CRA it's different - you always file separately, it's just important to tell the status accurately.

So I guess the question here is more along the lines of, "Can I benefit by lying about being single when I'm common-law" ? The answer is yes - there are some benefits and credits that, if claimed, in some circumstances pay out higher to single folks, like the GST/HST credit.

Can you please explain more how this is a tax fraud?

It's technically a misrepresentation - I believe it's a legal obligation to report this status correctly and accurately. That being said, my general understanding is that if you aren't claiming higher credits and things, but just reported an inaccurate status without any kind of monetary gain, then the CRA won't bother - they only care if they overpaid you or something. (But see https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/fca/do...18:35:35:054/659a098d8541499aa02333ada0681721 Sanford v. R., 2002 FCA 381 for an example of what happens if they do think you got overpaid over this "common-law vs not" issue.)

Now, that's just the CRA. If IRCC were to have occasion to look at those documents for some reason, and notice that they said "single" but were for the same address....

Until now, there has been no paper trace of you being in a common-law relationship. You are good.

Umm... interesting. So if OP could honestly state that they were just roommates and only became a couple after both got PR, then there's no misrepresentation, and they actually should be able to sponsor each other in the future should the need ever arise.

However, the main thing here is being honest with government agencies. If they never ask then you don't have to say anything I guess, but if someone asked you are required to answer honestly. The other thing is that OP didn't mention about tax advice, they're probably good since they worked with an accountant, but I wouldn't be surprised if particularly during COVID they did claim credits and got overpayments. The accountant will help them fix it (my guess is that they have to refile and then pay back the overpayment amounts to the CRA), but usually it looks better if you admit the mistake yourself first rather than getting caught.