Identification and marital status
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Name, address, and date of birth
Always review the individual’s name, address and date of birth before you complete the tax return. Entering inconsistent information could either produce an error message when you send the tax return electronically, or change the information the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has on file for the individual.
The address you enter on the tax return must be the individual’s mailing address on the day you submit the tax return.
An individual's province or territory of residence is:
- the province or territory where they lived on December 31 of the tax year or
- the province or territory of which they were considered to have the most residential ties to on December 31 of the tax year
For more information, refer to Your province or territory of residence.
Marital status
You must indicate the marital status of the individual on December 31 of the tax year you are preparing, regardless if it changed during the same year or soon after.
The following definitions will help you to determine an individual's marital status.
- Married
- Someone legally married to a person.
- Common-law
- Someone who lives in a marriage-like relationship with another person
but is not legally married to that person, and at least one of the
following situations applies:
- the individual and their partner have lived together in a marriage-like relationship for at least 12 months in a row (including any time they were separated for less than 90 days because of a breakdown in the relationship)
- the individual has a child with their partner by birth or adoption
- the individual's partner has custody and control of the individual's child (or had custody and control immediately before the child turned 19 years of age), and the child depends entirely on the individual's common-law partner for support
- Separated
-
Someone living apart from their spouse or common-law partner because of a breakdown in their relationship for a period of at least 90 consecutive days. Once an individual has been separated for more than 90 days, the effective day of the separated status is the day they started living apart.
Preparing a return before the 90 day separation period is over?
If you file a return for an individual before their 90-day separation period is over and that period includes December 31, enter the marital status as married or living common-law, as applicable. Should the individual continue to live separate and apart from their spouse or common-law partner for the 90 consecutive days, the individual must then complete Form RC65, Marital Status Change, using the date they started living apart as their date of separation. They will also have to file an amended return to adjust their entitlement for any credits claimed or to apply for credits that they may not have been entitled to when they were married or living common-law.
Note
An individual is still considered to have a spouse or common-law partner if they were separated involuntarily. An involuntary separation could happen when one spouse or common-law partner is living in a different country, away for work, school, health reasons or is incarcerated.
- Widowed
- Someone whose spouse or common-law partner is deceased and who has not entered into a new union.
- Divorced
- Someone who is legally divorced from their former spouse and is not in a new union.
- Single
- This can be chosen when none of the other marital status options apply.
Individuals must update their new marital status by the end of the month following their marital status change. For more information, refer to Update your CRA information: Change your marital status.
Information about a spouse or common-law partner
In cases where you won’t be preparing the spouse or common-law partner’s tax return, the individual will be required to provide the following information about their spouse or common-law partner:
- first name
- SIN
- net income
- if applicable:
- confirmation that they were self-employed during the year
- Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) amount shown on line 11700 of their tax return
- UCCB reimbursement amount indicated on line 21300 of their tax return
If a spouse is absent, for more information on preparing their tax return, refer to Screening and identifying the individual in the Procedures for tax preparation section.
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