Completing residency requirements before filing the taxes for 3rd year
- Thread starter H776
- Start date
No you need not wait. Just say Required to file as Yes and Taxes filed as No about 2024 tax filing question. You authorize CRA to provide details of your tax filing information to IRCC. With that they will know when you file for 2024.
The things mentioned above are from the citizenship form. When you fill out the form and refer to the answer provided, you'll understand.
The tax-filing requirement for citizenship is actually a requirement to comply with CRA tax filing obligations, and all that is required is complying with the tax filing obligations for just three of the preceding five tax years. So any of the five years for which no return is required will count as a year complying with CRA regardless whether a return is filed or not.
The five tax years that are relevant for a citizenship application made in 2025 are 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. If you were not obligated to file a return for 2020 or 2021, that will be two years that count toward the three years of compliance required (filling in the chart [No] and [No], as in not required to file and did not file). Then for 2022 and 2023, [Yes] and [Yes] (required to file and did file) for each year respectively will count as two more years of compliance.
Does not matter, then, how you fill in the chart for 2024. Since there is no obligation to file before April 30 of the year, some applying earlier than that in the year answer [No], not required to file (based on not required to file as of the date the application is made), so that year can count as well. Many others (probably most) check [Yes] required to file anyway, based on knowing they are required to file by April 30 (though for some even later, such as those like me who are self-employed), and check [No] did not file, not concerned about showing that as a year not in compliance (as yet anyway) since they meet the three years of compliance without needing to count the most recent tax year.
Were you able to find any information on this? I am also in the same situation and concerned about applying for the citizenship.