I’ve been married since 2019 and haven’t updated my marriage status to CRA because in my culture, the marriage isn’t complete until the bride moves in with the groom. I thought when my spouse becomes Permanent Resident and immigrates, then I will update. In 2022 my spouse immigrated to Canada and we were united again. So for us the marriage was officially complete in 2022.
But I realize now that it seems like a more serious thing than I expected since CRA is probably looking for the marriage certificate date and not some cultural date.
So what’s the best route here? Update status date from 2019 or the immigration date in 2022?
That is a complex philosophical and political question - what is “best” in what way? Cheapest? Fastest? Least likely to be questioned by CRA?
If the “date of marriage” in your culture is not the date on the marriage certificate, perhaps it would be “best” to lobby the politicians in Ottawa, and spend the next few years of your life working to ensure Canada’s tax laws get changed to accommodate cultures such as yours.
Alternatively, it might be “best” to lobby the government in your bride’s country and get them to issue marriage certificates that reflect the date that is considered “marriage complete” in your culture.
You’re right about “best” being subjective. Perhaps the way that would give me the least financial and legal trouble while maintaining honesty.
My tax situation has been simple over the last few years. Just being a full time university student and working a part time job so not much income (~10K/year). In terms of being cheap, I probably wouldn’t owe anything to CRA since my spouse was unemployed. Would tax fraud be something to be scared of here if I was decided to be honest to them over the phone?
Tax fraud is when you have income and don’t report it to CRA (i.e. you paid less tax than you should have because you lied about your income).
If you phone CRA and explain the situation they will try to help you. You will not get in trouble for a simple mistake. However, note that many CRA telephone agents don’t have much training or experience, and may not know what to tell you - you may be on the phone for an hour while the agent searches the CRA website for an answer (i.e. you could do this yourself).
Most likely, CRA will expect you to be able to “prove” the marriage date with some kind of document, like the marriage certificate you mentioned. If you use that as the “correct” marriage date, you may have to file a tax adjustment for each of the prior years that you filed as “single”. That is, you would have to fill out the form yourself, or hire an accountant to file it for you. However, if you are on the phone with CRA, you can ask them if they would “please” update your prior year taxes for you.
