Taxpayers who are required to file 2022 Income Tax and are married often have questions about whether or not to file jointly or separately. The option is up to the couple and there is, today, no rule that obliges the two to declare together, however, it may be that the joint declaration does not pay off.
The first step before deciding what to do is to know if the two are obliged to declare (see the rules here). In this case, each of the taxpayers must report to the Federal Revenue separately until April 29, otherwise they pay a minimum fine of R$ 165.74, which can reach 20% of the tax due.
The joint IR declaration is nothing more than a document in which one of the taxpayers appears as the holder and the other, as a dependent. In this case, there is a right to a deduction in the amount of BRL 2,275.08 per dependent included.
However, when including dependents, it is necessary to declare the income he has, in addition to assets and rights, amounts in bank accounts above R$ 140 on December 31, 2021, investments, debts and other information, such as inheritance and donation received. , if applicable.
In general, it pays to declare a dependent who has no income. An example is the case of a husband or wife who was unemployed last year and did not receive, in 2021, taxable income above R$ 28,559.70.
Even if the partner’s or partner’s income is low, from a minimum wage, for example, it needs to be declared, it will be added to the other income from the declaration, which can reduce the refund to be received or increase the tax to be paid.
To find out what is best, the ideal, according to experts, is to do the simulation within the IR program itself, including the dependent and its data and excluding it to see what pays off more. Sandro Rodrigues, accounting economist and founder of Attend Assessoria Consultoria e Auditoria, says that the joint declaration is financially more advantageous when the spouse who is included as a dependent has more deductible expenses than taxable income.
To carry out the simulations, it is necessary to have the documentation of the taxpayer who will enter as a holder and who will be a dependent. If one of them is studying, there is a deduction, if you have a lot of health expenses, it can also be a way to offset the joint declaration, if you have income. There are also other deductions that help to reduce the base on which the IR will be calculated.
How to declare the common goods in the IR?
This year, there is a novelty about the declaration of who includes a dependent. It is necessary to inform whether the dependent lives in the same house and indicate, in the “Assets and Rights” form, whether the asset being declared belongs to the holder or the dependent.
When dealing with the common good, it is not necessary to say, in the joint declaration, that it belongs to the dependent. However, experts indicate that, in the case of discrimination, the holder informs that it is something that belongs to the couple.
Anyone who is married in a partial community of property regime and is listed as a dependent in the declaration of the other must also have the assets prior to the marriage listed in the declaration.
For couples who are going to make the separate declaration, the common assets must be informed in only one of the Income Tax documents. “Common assets must be declared only in a declaration, by the husband or wife. Usually it is the one with the most income, but it is not the rule”, says Rodrigues.
In these cases, when declaring the house, apartment, car and the couple’s rights, the taxpayer who is listing the assets in his declaration must make it clear, in the “Discrimination” field, that it is a good that belongs to both.
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