Can you split long-term disability payments with your spouse, just as you can split the pension amounts you get? No.
In 2009, Mr. Cantin got about $16,000 from Hydro-Quebec’s long-term disability insurer. He tried to split that amount with his wife, to reduce income. He relied on ITA s. 60.03 which allows you to reduce your taxable income for a year by splitting your “eligible pension income” with your spouse. But the eligible “pension income”, defined in s. 118(7) wouldn’t include long-term disability payments. So Mr. Cantin wasn’t entitled to split that amount with his wife.
Justice Masse said it didn’t matter that the insurer changed its description of the payments, when Mr. Cantin reached age 65, to “pension supplements”. They were still for long-term disability. (See para. 17.)