Gay couple considering marriage in Ontario Canada..Tax Advice ?

We have been together for over 20 years. We jointly own our (mortgaged) home...have no dependents....each work full time at an hourly rate but one of us pulls in more income from gratuities and is usually the higher income earner (negligible). We have been filing separate income tax returns to allow the lower income earner to claim deductions on property tax, capital gains etc. We are now considering marriage, but as we are committed to one another in every way, we wonder what possible advantage this could have economically. We are thinking of marriage as ';the right thing to do'; to validate our union, and as a romantic gesture to compliment one another on our respect for it. However, if the tax burden increases as a result we'd like to know beforehand. Any advice ? Thank you for your attention and hope someone can clear this up !Gay couple considering marriage in Ontario Canada..Tax Advice ?
In Canada, you file personal tax returns no matter what your marital status. The only impact of being married (and that status is not based on a piece of paper, it's based on your living circumstances, and is NOT optional) is your right to certain tax credits.





Unless you are each collecting GST credits, being married will make no difference tax wise.Gay couple considering marriage in Ontario Canada..Tax Advice ?
I was married last August.





This tax year we both did our taxes seperately exactly as we would have done them before we were married, as if we were single. Everything was correct and the returns looked normal.





We then clicked the married button, and added in each others income as directed by Quicktax. My wife's refund dropped by over $3,000 and after adding in my wifes income to mine, it decreased over $2,500.





I am pretty sure I have done everything correctly. Overall the tax burden increased by almost $6,000.
The best, and most accurate way, to determine the tax impact would be to collect your last three years of tax documents, download the old forms or otherwise obtain copies, and fill them out as you normally do, then again as if you were married at that time. If the average of those three years shows a significant difference one way or another, you will have a good idea of what future impact will be.

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