# Adjusted Family Net Income



## alphazip (Aug 30, 2011)

My question has to do with a tax return, specifically the section having to do with Ontario credits. On Form ON-BEN it asks for "adjusted family net income" for (column 1) me, and (column 2) my spouse. Well, while I live in Canada, my spouse is a citizen & resident of the U.S. (We're not separated, he just hasn't moved here yet.) I already gave my spouse's name & income at the top of the CRA return. Do I list the income again on ON-BEN? I'm trying out Studio Tax, and while it carries various figures onto other forms, it left this amount as zero. Should I leave it alone, or override it? It says it should be the information from line 236. Well, line 236 is my income (which happens to be zero), not his. Can anyone explain this to me? Thanks!


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## Guban (Jul 5, 2011)

I've never used Studio Tax, but here's my guess as to what is happening.

You may have told the program that you are not living with your husband, so the program is not including his income in the ON-BEN form. This would be the case if you two were separated due to "involuntary" reasons such as him being in the hospital for an extended period of time. It sounds like this is not the case, so you would need to include his income here as well as on other areas of the tax return such as the spouse's income on Schedule 1.

The line on ON-BEN refering to line 236 should be filled out twice, since you and your husband may be filing tax returns. I'm not sure if your husband is a resident for Canadian tax purposes, in addition to being a US resident, so he may have to file a Canadian tax return too.


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

Download a copy of ON-BEN from CRA.

Read and complete the back of the form, where it tells you how to calculate adjusted family net income.

From ON-BEN: _Complete the Adjusted family net income and the Declaration on the back of this form._


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## alphazip (Aug 30, 2011)

Thanks. I have seen the form, including the back, but I'm used to programs that carry data to the relevant sections of forms, and since this program enters zero in that area, I'm wondering weather to change it. I was hoping a tax preparer would write and say something like, "yes, defintely add your spouse's income in, even though he is not a resident of Canada."


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## alphazip (Aug 30, 2011)

I figured out what the problem was. The program asked if my spouse was a resident of Canada. I said no, so the program ignored his income. However, the instructions say to ignore a non-resident spouse's income only if he is living away for specific reasons. So, I unchecked non-resident box and all is fine.


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## Guban (Jul 5, 2011)

Since you are still a resident of Canada, you need to make sure that your husband is not a deemed resident of Canada.
See: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/cmmn/rsdncy-eng.html


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