Shared Information

The information from the following forms is shared during coupling:

• Identification - Identification and Other Client Information (Jump Code: ID);
• Family Profile (Jump Code: FAM);
• Child care expenses;
• Dependant transfers;
• Medical expenses.

Also, data in the following forms will be transferred from one spouse to the other if the spouse’s held percentage is indicated in the form:

• T3 slips, Statement of Trust Income;
• T5 slips, Statement of Investment Income;
• T5008 slips, Statement of Securities Transactions;
• T5013 slips, Statement of Partnership Income;
• Statements with respect to income from self-employment (T1163, T2042, T1273, T2121 and T2125);
• T776, Statement of Real Estate Rentals;
• Summary of Disposition of Section 3, (Jump Code: 3 SHARES).

Schedule 2, Federal Amounts Transferred from Your Spouse or Common-law Partner, (Jump Code: 2) will also be automatically completed. The information that appears in this schedule will not be identical for both returns, because each Schedule 2 will reflect data from the other spouse’s return.

Personal Taxprep optimizes all deductions and/or credits, which prevents both spouses from claiming deductions or credits related to shared information. Also, certain forms include cells showing the percentage or amount of the deductions actually claimed by the taxpayer.

Charitable donation details can be entered in either the taxpayer or the spouse's return, or both.

If the information is entered in both returns and you want to combine all of the donations in one of the returns (for example, to optimize donations exceeding $200), proceed as follows:

1. Display the Charitable Donations form (Jump Code: DONATIONS) in the return of the taxpayer who is claiming all of the charitable donations.
2. At the top of Form Charitable Donations - Federal, select the Combine the donations made by the taxpayer and those made by the spouse to optimize the credit for donations check box. Personal Taxprep will then optimize the amounts of donations claimed in the taxpayer's return and that of the spouse.

Personal Taxprep does not automatically determine which spouse should claim the various credits (if eligible), including the GST/HST credits, donation credits, and several provincial credits. If you want to claim these credits, you must answer "Yes" to the appropriate question in each of the applicable forms.

The Coupling Worksheet (Jump Code: CPL) shows a comparison table of the key amounts in the returns.

For a more detailed comparison of the taxpayer and spouse’s returns, access the Taxpayer and Spouse Summary - Federal form (Jump Code: CPL SUM).