The spouse amount and the amount for an eligible dependant

If you support a spouse or common-law partner who has little income, or you’re single and support a child or another relative who lives with you, two federal credits can lower your tax: the spouse or common-law partner amount and the amount for an eligible dependant. You can claim one or the other in a year, not both.

How the amounts are worked out

Both credits are calculated the same way:

1. Start with your own basic personal amount, the one you claim on your return. For 2025 it’s $16,129 if your net income is $177,882 or less. Above that it shrinks gradually, down to $14,538 once your net income is more than $253,414.
2. Add the Canada caregiver amount if the person depends on you because of a mental or physical infirmity. (For your own or your spouse’s infirm child under 18, the caregiver amount is claimed separately instead; see below.)
3. Subtract the person’s net income for the year (line 23600 of their return, or an estimate if they don’t file).

If their net income is as high as that total, there’s nothing to claim. As with the other personal credits, the amount you claim is multiplied by the lowest federal tax rate to give the tax saving. For 2025 that rate is 14.5%: the CRA explains the lowest rate was cut partway through the year, on July 1. Schedule 5 of the federal return does the arithmetic. Outside Quebec, you also claim a provincial or territorial version on your Form 428, and the amount varies by province or territory; Quebec residents follow Revenu Québec’s rules for their provincial return. Basic personal amounts are in our personal credits table.

The spouse or common-law partner amount

You can generally claim it if you supported your spouse or common-law partner at any time in the year, and their net income was less than your basic personal amount (plus the caregiver amount, if they depend on you because of an infirmity). Support means paying toward their living expenses or other needs, such as housing, food, transportation and day-to-day costs. Only one of you can claim it in a year.

In the year your situation changes:

• You married, became common-law or reconciled, and lived together on December 31: use your partner’s net income for the whole year.
• You separated because your relationship broke down and weren’t back together on December 31: reduce your claim only by their net income from before the separation.
• You paid support to them after separating in the year: claim either the deductible support or the spouse amount, whichever is better for you.

See marriage, common-law and separation for when you count as common-law and when to tell the CRA.

A tip from the CRA: if dividends your partner received from taxable Canadian corporations reduce or wipe out your claim, you may be able to report all of those dividends on your own return instead. The CRA’s technical guidance on these credits says this is allowed only if it increases your spouse amount.

The amount for an eligible dependant

This is the claim for single people supporting a relative at home. You can generally claim it for one person if all of these apply:

• You didn’t have a spouse or common-law partner, or you had one but weren’t living with them, supporting them or being supported by them.
• You don’t claim the spouse or common-law partner amount.
• At some time in the year, you supported the dependant and lived with them in a home you maintained (usually in Canada). Someone who was only visiting doesn’t count.
• The dependant is related to you by blood, marriage, common-law partnership or adoption, and is your parent or grandparent; your child, grandchild, brother or sister under 18; or your child, grandchild, brother or sister 18 or older with a mental or physical infirmity.
• Their net income was less than your basic personal amount (plus the caregiver amount, if they depend on you because of an infirmity).

A dependant who’s away at school still counts as living with you if they normally live with you when they’re not in school. A child doesn’t have to live in Canada, but must have lived with you.

One claim per person, and per household

• One dependant per return. You can claim the eligible dependant amount for only one person in a year.
• One claim per household. Only one person in a household can claim this amount, even if more than one dependant lives there.
• No splitting. Only one person can claim a particular dependant. If two of you qualify and can’t agree, for example in shared custody, neither of you can claim.
• Not if someone claims the spouse amount for them. You can’t claim a person as your eligible dependant if someone else is claiming the spouse amount for them.
• Separating partway through the year. You might qualify for the spouse amount for the months before and the eligible dependant amount for a child afterwards. You can only claim one, so choose whichever saves more.

If you paid child support for a child, you generally can’t claim the eligible dependant amount for that child. There are two exceptions: you were separated for part of the year because of a breakdown, in which case you choose between this amount and deducting the support; or both parents paid support for the child and agree which of you claims. When separated parents share custody of two or more children, each may be able to claim a different child, if each meets all the rules.

If the person has an infirmity

When the person you support depends on you because of a mental or physical infirmity, the Canada caregiver amount can raise your claim:

• An extra amount is added in the calculation of the spouse amount or the eligible dependant amount.
• For a spouse or partner, or an eligible dependant 18 or older, you may also be able to claim line 30425 when their net income falls in a set range.
• For other relatives 18 or older (yours or your spouse’s) who depend on you and aren’t claimed under either amount, there’s a separate claim on line 30450. If more than one person supports them, you can split it, up to the maximum for that person.
• For each of your (or your spouse’s) children under 18 with an infirmity, there’s a set amount on line 30500. If that child is also your eligible dependant, you claim the caregiver amount on line 30500, not in the eligible dependant amount.

The CRA’s Canada caregiver credit page lists the current dollar amounts, and its pages for lines 30425 and 30450 give the income limits. The CRA may ask for a signed statement from a medical practitioner, unless it already has an approved disability tax credit certificate for the person for that period. Our guide to credits for caregivers covers who qualifies and the paperwork.

Using your spouse’s unused credits

Separately from the spouse amount, if you had a spouse or partner at the end of the year and they don’t need all of certain credits to bring their own federal tax to zero, you can claim the unused part on Schedule 2. These are the age amount, the pension income amount, their own disability amount, the current year’s tuition amount (not amounts carried forward from earlier years), and the caregiver amount for infirm children under 18. You can’t do this if you were living apart because of a breakdown in your relationship for 90 days or more, including December 31.

What to do

1. Work out who you supported during the year and whether you lived with a spouse or partner on December 31.
2. Get each person’s net income, from their return or an estimate.
3. If more than one person could claim someone, agree on who claims before you file.
4. Complete Schedule 5 (and Schedule 2 for transfers from a spouse), plus the matching lines on your provincial or territorial form (in Quebec, your Revenu Québec return).
5. Keep any medical statements in case the CRA asks. For family benefits paid during the year, see the Canada child benefit.