Back dating non residency

[trentfrog]

I don't agree with my accountant and need some advice on the date to apply for non residency. I left Canada in 2006. At the time I had no home in Canada, husband or dependents. I didn't know whether the move was permanent so I didn`t sever any ties with Canada. I kept my Ontario health card, DL, credit card, bank accounts. I also filed tax returns while I had Canadian income form interest in bank account. Stopped filing in 2009.

I now want to apply for non residency. I figured the smartest thing would be to file a departure return for 2015. Especially since I kept and used my health card a few times when I was in Canada until 2012. (looking back this was a stupid idea I know).

My accountant said since I didn't have any primary ties with Canada when I left I should amend my 2006 return and file that as my departure return and cancel my Ontario health card now.

The problem I have is using 2006 as my departure date for my departure return and therefore this date has to be used when cancelling my health card. Won't this look like health care fraud? Saying my effective date of cancellation is 2006 but having used it after this date?

Wouldn't it just be easier to use this year as my departure date on my return and cancel my health card using this year as effective date of cancellation?

[nelsona]

Your OHIP card is really not a big deal, taxwise. You used it fraudulently, but cancelling it means nohing, and fixes nothing. It is past.

I would simply amend the return in which you left (if I would even bother) and get back any taxes that were overpaid. the only proff you would need to submit (if they ask) would be your spanish tax retunr for 2006 and 2007.

Subsequent years you should not have even filed in canada, so amend tose and get any tax back.

Your OHIP card isn't any good, so send it or not it doesn't matter. It doesn't change your right under the Spain/Canada treaty to be treated as a Cdn non-resident from 2006 onward. As soon as you moved to Spain, that was it, it didn't matter what ties you had in canada-- that is the beuty of tax treaties.

If you say 2015 is your departure, then you are on the hook for any taxes in the last 10 years that you didn't file.

OHIP doesn't talk to CRA. In fact, you could have contacted OHIP in 20106 and they would have given you five years out-of-the-country grace period. Cancelling OHIP is NOT a condition of Cdn tax non-residency, if you have no other ties, and live in a tax treaty country.

[trentfrog]

Thanks so much for your advice Nelsona. I am confident that my departure filing for 2006 will be accepted. My worry was cancelling my health card with a departure date of 2006 having renewed the card and using it after 2006.

I contacted ServiceOntario and this is what they said.

[b]You would need to use the correct date, anything else would be fraudulent. It is certainly unfortunate that you used your health card six years after you departed Ontario and that it was accepted by your physician’s office. The card was validated at that time so I doubt you would be billed back for the visit after so much time has passed.[/b]

So, from this response I guess I have to use the 2006 date to cancel my card. I just thought it would be easier to cancel the card now in 2015 since they can see I used it until 2012. (six years after I left)

[nelsona]

Yes. If you bother to cancel your card (again, it is NEVER required to cancel, you could just let it die, just like your DL dies as soon as you move and don't inform MOT) then you should say what date you left -- 2006.