transferring funds to spouse

This is our main tax information forum which deals with topics concerning Canadians living and working in the U.S., U.S. citizens contemplating working in Canada, and all aspects of Canadian and U.S. income tax and related adminstrative issues.

Moderator: Mark T Serbinski CA CPA

Post Reply
alexf
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri May 04, 2012 10:10 pm

transferring funds to spouse

Post by alexf »

Hi, sorry in advance if the answer to this question is blindingly obvious. I am a dual US/Canadian citizen; my wife is a Canadian citizen. My wife just withdrew a bunch of money from a non-registered account and a TFSA to purchase a cottage property. In retrospect, I probably should have just paid for it, but the easily-accessible money seemed to be in these accounts at the time, and so, that's what we did. However, now we'd like to begin back-filling those accounts. Am I able to transfer her money from my accounts that she can use to back-fill her accounts (both the non-registered and the TFSA), without generating extra tax liabilities for either of us. I'm specifically worried here about generating tax liabilities for me on the US side since I do not have any non-registered accounts, or a TFSA, because of the administrative hassle they create.

Thanks!
nirvana_1959
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2016 9:17 am

Re: transferring funds to spouse

Post by nirvana_1959 »

I think you should be able to "gift" ~$150K / year to your non-citizen spouse without incurring any tax.
nirvana_1959
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2016 9:17 am

Re: transferring funds to spouse

Post by nirvana_1959 »

The above statement holds true from IRS perspective.

For CRA: I don't think it should be a problem (as long as you have record of withdrawals from her accounts). For TFSA you will have to wait till Jan 1 if you don't have room now. Note: withdrawal does create room right away.
Post Reply