Hello,
I have purchased a home in 2021 for the sole purpose of living in it and starting a family. But due to extenuating circumstances (to provide compassionate care) I had to leave the country in 2022 and put a tenant temporary on a part of the property to get some relief meeting the mortgage commitments. My brother, who I was providing the care, did not survive the illness. Another reason for my stay outside the country was that my wife conceived and gave birth in 2022 while we were still in India. On doctor's advice, we decided to not undertake a long travel (14/15 hours flight from India to Canada). Since, my wife & I were Canadian citizens at the time of birth of our daughter, we applied for her Canadian proof of citizenship, however as per the official IRCC website it shows that it would take 17 months for her to receive the proof certificate. So, she is yet to receive her Canadian citizenship proof and once we have it, we will then apply for her Canadian passport. So, in a nutshell, we have been out of the country (most of 2022) due to some extraordinary circumstances and still cannot return until my daughter gets her Canadian passport. However, during 2022, we did not severe any residential ties with Canada nor established any with India. Our stay in India was completely temporary and forced since we were unable to return back to Canada.
To discuss this situation and to know if , I have been trying to reach CRA at 1-800-959-8281 for last 2/3 weeks but couldn't get an agent despite a long wait on the call. The tax filing dead line is coming up fast and I want to know what should I do about the rental income in view of the following?
a) Taking into account transactions from the last 6 months, I did a quick math by deducting bank interest charges, insurance, management expenses, property taxes, etc. from the rent collected and the net comes out to be negative $ value.
b) I have been outside the country due to extraordinary circumstances. My sole reason to buy a home was for personal use of my family and NEVER for rental income, etc. However, due to mounting interest rates, loss of employment income, etc. I had to protect myself from being insolvent and had put a portion of it on rent.
Since I couldn't get on the call with CRA, can any expert member suggest as to what should I do in this circumstances? Also, if you can suggest an alternate way to reach out to CRA. Any help will be great appreciated.