PR - Tax obligation while out of country

[quasar81]

Me and my wife landed as PR in June 2011. Since then we have stayed in Canada for 10 days only, and we do realize we will have to move there by June 2014 and stay for 2 years to meet Residency requirements and renew our PR cards.

Question: We have not worked in Canada and had no wages there, So paid no taxes and filed no tax return. We worked in US all this time, paid taxes here and filed tax return in US. Is it a problem? Were we supposed to file any Canadian tax return when we did not stay/earned in Canada? If so, Can I back file taxes without causing any issues in our future citizenship application? We are planning to move to Canada in next few months.

Just to mention, our TD saving accounts in Canada did earn us around $15 in interest over all these years....

 

[Leon]

You don't have to file if you are not living in Canada. If you move in 2014, you can file in early 2015 for the first time. You will not have a problem.

 

[keesio]

Note that if you plan on filing for Citizenship, there is a new proposed Citizenship bill that will require permanent residents to file taxes every year. To be safe, you may want to file.

 

[sammy_2401]

Hi,

Note that if you plan on filing for Citizenship, there is a new proposed Citizenship bill that will require permanent residents to file taxes every year. To be safe, you may want to file.

Hi, For the new rules of citizenship (Draft yet, not finalized), you have to file taxes if you reside in Canada for more than 182 days and ALSO you are required to reside every year more than 182 days. That may be a CIC requirement. CRA requirement is if you reside for more than 180 days, you are a resident for 'tax purpose' and are required to file taxes. Just think of, simply filing taxes without residing would not help anyway for citizenship.

Sammy

 

[keesio]

Hi,
Hi, For the new rules of citizenship (Draft yet, not finalized), you have to file taxes if you reside in Canada for more than 182 days and ALSO you are required to reside every year more than 182 days. That may be a CIC requirement. CRA requirement is if you reside for more than 180 days, you are a resident for 'tax purpose' and are required to file taxes. Just think of, simply filing taxes without residing would not help anyway for citizenship.

Sammy

Thanks for clearing that up

 

[Leon]

Right, according to the new proposed law, he will need to show tax returns if/when he applies for citizenship but he can not use the years of 2011, 2012 and 2013 for citizenship because he did not stay in Canada for more than 183 days in any of those years. If he files taxes for the year 2014 and has spent 183 days in Canada during that year, that would be the first out of the 4 years he needs for his citizenship eligibility.

 

[rg2012]

Slightly off topic BUT...

Just so everyone is aware, you will need to have your CRA tax assessments for renewal of your PR Card should you have to. No other option based on what I see on the website.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5445ETOC.asp#5445E4


Additional documents of proof of residence in Canada in the past five (5) years

Include the following with your application:

Photocopies of all pages of all passports you held in the past five (5) years (if your stamps are not in English or French, please have them translated, see section on Translation of documents), and

A copy of one of the following:

Other Income Tax assessments issued by Canada Revenue Agency within the past five (5) years, or
transcripts from a recognized post-secondary institution in Canada verifying attendance within the past five (5) years, or
for all school-aged children, written records verifying attendance within the past five (5) years.