Tax Trouble - Notice of Assessment

[GreyWolf88]

Canadian here, who has been living in Korea for the past 4+ years, applying to sponsor my Korean wife under the Family class.

One of the Supporting Documents required is my last Notice of Assessment (for the most recent taxation year).

I haven't filed my taxes in Canada since 2011. I just got off the phone with my accountant, and he said, since I don't have any ties to Canada (house, land,etc.) it may not be necessary for me to file them. It may no even be possible, since I don't have a Canadian address. Furthermore, by not filing them, I could potentially save myself $1400-1800 per tax year.

Clearly, I'd rather not file them if could cost me a great deal of money to do so. But the Sponsorship Application requires that I include my last Notice of Assessment, or include an explanation on a separate sheet of paper.

Does anyone have experience in writing such an explanation, especially if they were in a similar situation of applying while living outside Canada?

Also, according to section 19 of the document checklist, if I do not include my last NoA then I "must meet the minimum necessary income requirement."

What is the minimum necessary income requirement? How much in Canadian dollars?

 

[zardoz]

You need to read the question 19 correctly. "If you must meet the minimum necessary income requirement"... There is no MNI for a spousal sponsorship. We have been through this with no NOA or Option C. It's not an issue.

 

[cheng9999]

Canadian here, who has been living in Korea for the past 4+ years, applying to sponsor my Korean wife under the Family class.

One of the Supporting Documents required is my last Notice of Assessment (for the most recent taxation year).

I haven't filed my taxes in Canada since 2011. I just got off the phone with my accountant, and he said, since I don't have any ties to Canada (house, land,etc.) it may not be necessary for me to file them. It may no even be possible, since I don't have a Canadian address. Furthermore, by not filing them, I could potentially save myself $1400-1800 per tax year.

Clearly, I'd rather not file them if could cost me a great deal of money to do so. But the Sponsorship Application requires that I include my last Notice of Assessment, or include an explanation on a separate sheet of paper.

Does anyone have experience in writing such an explanation, especially if they were in a similar situation of applying while living outside Canada?

Also, according to section 19 of the document checklist, if I do not include my last NoA then I "must meet the minimum necessary income requirement."

What is the minimum necessary income requirement? How much in Canadian dollars?

You have nothing to file as you were not a resident for tax purposes (I assume that's have you have been managing the situation while you were abroad). If this is the case, then to put it bluntly, your accountant is completely unprofessional and doesn't know what he is talking about, except perhaps he wants some work from you and bill you some hours.

You need to write up an explanation that you have not been a Canadian resident for tax purposes for a few years, and therefore do not have a Canadian tax filing to show.

If you want to be safe, you can then show your filing outside Canada for the past year. This may or may not be necessary as another poster pointed out. In our case, I included this piece of information in case the officer comes back asking for more info.