not sure if I am doing something wrong, but for couples with pension splitting they are each getting two requests to sign, for their own return plus the pension splitting form in the spouses return. nobody understands what to do when the emails come unless I take the time to explain it. is there a better way to manage this? maybe I can exclude the pension split form from the regular print job for one of them but that seems fiddly.
what are others doing?
I have both spouses sign each others forms and I explain that in my email to them that both forms needs signing.
I wish that CRA would authorize e-signatures on ALL their forms. Makes no sense to me why they restrict the forms they will accept by e-signature. So for those clients doing everything electronically, they have to print, sign, then scan the signed paper docs and return to me. It’s extra work for everyone! It’s extremely rare that CRA will request to see these documents (I’ve never been asked), but I get my clients to sign them just in case.
It’s called a joint election. I’ve only ever had one T1032 form signed by both spouses. There was a spirited discussion of this a couple years ago and I don’t think any minds were changed.
However, where the spouses sign, the form says “By completing this form and signing below, we jointly elect and certify that the split-pension amount …” (bold facing is my edit). After reading that, I really can’t see that two signed copies would be required.
This has been a pain point in our office. Our admin get numerous phone calls on this and have decided that we’ll get them signed later if needed.
It makes sense how Tax Cycle has set this up to get both signatures, however clients are struggling and I’m not exactly sure why.
What are your clients struggling with?
Other than my enclosure letter with the tax return that tells them they need to sign, I don’t ask my clients to sign the T1032. My understanding is that if CRA wants to see the signed election, they will go after the client for it… just like the signed tuition slip for tuition transfer to parent. Am I wrong? Is this something CRA will ask the EFILER for? I have never been asked.
I would like to do this, but TaxCycle is including the e-sig fields for that form automatically and I don’t know how to disable it. I would rather just include a note in the letter advising people to print it off and keep a jointly signed copy in their files.
My view has always been to have the spouses sign the T1032. What if one of the spouses dies before you need to produce a signed copy? What if the spouses split up or have some disagreement. An unsigned agreement means they really haven’t agreed to split the pension income. I know accountants sometimes take legal forms for granted. That’s not a good habit. From a marketing standpoint it’s a good idea to reinforce to your clients that you’re doing them an important (billable) service.
Good point, but that’s with everything @kevin . We tell them to keep signed copies, we tell them to keep all receipts for 6 years, we tell them to keep a vehicle log…etc… My view is that if they don’t want to listen, it’s not really my problem. I advised them appropriately. I can’t hand hold everyone with everything. As long as it’s well documented in the enclosure letter then I feel like I’ve done my part.
We send 1 e-signature request to each client for their T183, and then one joint e-signature request containing two copies of the T1032.
We send explicit instructions on how many emails total they will get, and how many signature requests. It seems to work.
We recommend creating a separate print set just for the T1032. See our help topic here…