no, if he does his canada taxes, and get a return, it will not automatically pay for his us taxes because they are different countries and different entities are responsible for each country (ie: CRA vs. IRS). they do not share information or do the work for us. it is our responsibility to file in both countries.
he has to do his canadian taxes first then file his us. it is simply filing paperwor, so if he is comfortable doing it himself and he has a simple filing, then he can just fill out the forms and mail them to the irs. he may be able to do it online through a tax service too. I haven't looked into the online thing though. if he did not have income in the us, all he is doing is reporting his worldwide income and only needs to file federal taxes. the forms are 1040, the foreign income tax form (has a 25 in it) and a health form? If you have any accounts over 10,000, then you also need to file a FBAR form. you can google these forms for copies or go to the irs website. there are probably instructions for people who are residents in other countries. From what i understand if there is no income in the us, then there is no return given and no tax owed (assuming you are under the threshold for income tax credits which i believe is $100,000). All that is necessary is the filing.
If he had us income then he needs to file both federal and state taxes which can be a bit more complicated.
I have been told by an accountant that because i am a non resident of the us, then we automatically get an extension until june.
