But readers may not realize that the ability for one spouse or partner to claim the METC for expenses that the other paid is purely an administrative concession by theand is not actually based in law. Unlike the rule for charitable donations, which was amended in 2016 to explicitly allow a spouse or partner to claim charitable donations made by the other spouse or partner, no such rule technically exists for medical expenses paid by the other spouse when it comes to the METC.
In late 2019, the CRA reassessed the taxpayer’s 2018 tax return, disallowing all the medical expenses he had claimed for his mother-in-law. It later allowed $607 of those expenses and denied the balance. The taxpayer objected and took the matter to Tax Court.At the trial, both the taxpayer and the CRA agreed that all the necessary conditions to allow the taxpayer’s METC were satisfied save one: whether the taxpayer actually paid the medical expenses himself.
The CRA disagreed, pointing to the specific words in the Income Tax Act that require the taxpayer, himself, to have paid the expenses claimed for a relative. The CRA said these expenses “were paid from a bank account over which the had no authority, ownership or other right.”