Family Tax Cut
The federal government is proposing a new Family Tax Cut in the form of a non-refundable tax credit, which would be effective for the 2014 and later taxation years. This would allow couples with children under the age of 18 to notionally split the income of the spouse with higher earnings, transferring up to $50,000 of taxable income to the lower income spouse in a taxation year. Because this is being done as a non-refundable tax credit, it does not affect the calculation of provincial or territorial income tax.
The non-refundable credit, calculated based on the change in combined income tax of the couple resulting from the transfer of a notional amount of taxable income, could be used by either spouse, and may not exceed $2,000.