Do you consider somebody who is widowed to be "still married"

[ken0042]

Serious question- even with my play on recent threads.

I have quite a few friends who are ESL, and they sometimes ask for help when having to write official letters, etc. A common one that comes up is for GST credits, they have to provide their world income in the year they moved to Canada.

So here's my WTF moment with Revenue Canada; they have asked a friend to provide:

- Her spouse's name and SIN number. (Not really odd yet.)
- A written document, signed by both her and her partner, confirming the marriage and the date of the union.

Now every on of her returns in Canada has been filed with her status as "Widowed", and her late husband passed away in the 80's. So when somebody becomes a widow in Canada, do they also have to do something to disolve the marriage?

I'm just wondering if there is some crazy Revenue Canada loophole where they consider somebody to be legally married when their spouse dies. Partly this bugs me- had her husband only died a few years ago it may be a bit of a sore spot.

[SebC]

I thinking they're asking for confirmation that she WAS married.

[Drury18]

No. It is not still married and according to widowed grandparents, there is nothing formal to dissolve a marriage.

I am not a tax or Canada Revenue expert, but I had similar issues with a Divorce. I was considered married when I wasn't and had written divorced for two years and needed to send them a copy of my Certificate of Divorce so show I was no longer married to stop their requests. My response to this request would be to mail them a copy of the Certificate of Death. Obviously someone wasn't reading when they came across this request and put it into the system as Married when its not or your friend got one of their "random" requests for additional information to ensure that people aren't lying to them. When they see the Death Certificate dated from the 80's, that should answer their questions.

There is a form, http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/rc65/rc65-11e.pdf That you are supposed to fill out and send in upon change of marital status. Maybe include this as well so Revenue Canada has their paperwork filled out with the information they need.

[Super Nintendo Chalmers]

Originally Posted by ken0042

So when somebody becomes a widow in Canada, do they also have to do something to disolve the marriage?

I don't know about doing something to dissolve the marriage but it's not unusual that you have to provide documentation of a change in status when that change has an effect on your legal obligations.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Try to find a person in the CRA to talk too...having a real contact in that organization can be invaluable in untangling issues like this.

[troutman]

Is OJ still married?

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Super Nintendo Chalmers

I don't know about doing something to dissolve the marriage but it's not unusual that you have to provide documentation of a change in status when that change has an effect on your legal obligations.

That's the thing- there is no "change" in status. For over 20 years prior to coming to Canada; she has been widowed.

What I think is the odd thing is they aren't asking for a copy of the death certificate; they are asking for a document signed by him- proving that they are married.

The response I have crafted basically says "As indicated by my stataus I am widowed. Husband died on X-date. His name was Mr. Y and he never visted Canada and never had a SIN.

I'm hoping this was just somebody at CCRA who was looking at two files and clicked on the wrong "request this info" buttons.

[Locke]

Ken, this happens, I've done at least 10 of them in the last 6 months. Widows being asked for documentation to prove they still have 'custody' of their children for GST and CTB purposes despite the fact that they're widows.

Honestly, CRA have asked my clients for some of the strangest crap lately it is stunning. I dont know how they've changed or who they've hired but its like that organization has lost its mind overnight.

I had CRA do a document review for a client over his medical expenses from 5 years ago despite the fact that they already did it 3 years ago. Nothing has changed.

Its very strange. Unfortunately for a nameless and faceless entity like them all you can do is send in the documents with a clear letter explaining the situation and hope that the person who receives it on the other end isnt Cletus the Slackjawed Yokel.

Originally Posted by Fozzie_DeBear

Try to find a person in the CRA to talk too...having a real contact in that organization can be invaluable in untangling issues like this.

This is absolutely impossible. They hire complete imbecils for frontline phone answering duties and getting someone who knows what they're doing or talking about is almost impossible. Getting the same knowledgeable person again is absolutely impossible. If someone has managed it I'd be grateful to have a current CRA contact who can help in these sorts of situations.

Its like they amplified the paperwork tenfold so that they dont actually have to do anything anymore.