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I was dismayed to find that in my case, in UFile Online for 2022, MaxBack was not choosing the optimal value for federal pension income splitting which maximizes the total refund for the couple. Without splitting, the situation is Spouse 1 is in bracket 1 and Spouse 2 is in bracket 2. With MaxBack splitting, Spouse 1 was moved solidly, ie by several thousand dollars, into bracket 2. Yes, the couple refund was better, but I was suspicious because the theory is that Spouse 1 should only move up to the edge of bracket 2. So I manually set the splitting amount such that Spouse 1 moves exactly to the beginning of bracket 2 and the couple refund indeed improved further. Additionally, changing the new splitting amount by just $10 in either direction makes the refund worse, so this truly seems to be the maximum. Your mileage may vary, of course, but testing appears warranted.

When filing a return for a dependent as part of the same Windows UFile file (Family Head, Spouse, Dependent), where the dependent has no income but does have tuition fees on a T2202 for the 2021 tax year, I initially chose "Let MaxBack decide" when asked on the dependent's return as part of the "Transfer of current year unused amounts" the "Treatment of current year unused tuition amount - federal" question. All appeared to be fine (as the TOTAL refund for Family Head and the Spouse TOGETHER increased in total when the tuition was added and "Let MaxBack decide was selected) but when when I chose "Transfer to family head" instead of "Let MaxBack decide" the TOTAL refund for Family Head and Spouse TOGETHER was GREATER than if I chose "Let MaxBack decide". This does not seems correct as, of course, less of a refund is not the "Max" outcome. Has anyone come across this issue? In our situation the refund was almost $300 less choosing "Let MaxBack decide" versus "Transfer to family head"! MaxBack Tuition.pdf