Canadian Nurses working in US, question
Moderator: Mark T Serbinski CA CPA
Canadian Nurses working in US, question
My wife and I are canadian citizens working for a US travel nurse company for last 5 years. We own a home in canada which we do not rent out. Because we own property we claim tax free subsidy alowences here in the US. We return home to canada for visits but reside wholely in the US. We have filed only in the US for the last 4 years. I have been under the impression that we are deemed non-residents and have not filed in canada. We are planning to return home to canada for good at the start of the 2007 tax year. We would like some advice on how to best unscrew our situation as I fear we may be in trouble comming home.
Did you file a 'depature return' when you left canada?
This would have been the first step.
You are in fact deemed non-residents, but this genearlly requires approval from CRA, and the filing of departure paperwork. see the "Emigrants" guide for details. There are hefty penalties (for last couple of years, not in 2001)for failure to file your 'departure asstes' list, for the very situation you are in: the CRA doesn't like unilateral decisions to declare one-self treaty non-resident, and wants to decide for themselves if you have 'departed' or not, and should have done this 5 years ago.
i'm unclear what you mean by: "Because we own property we claim tax free subsidy alowences here in the US"
This would have been the first step.
You are in fact deemed non-residents, but this genearlly requires approval from CRA, and the filing of departure paperwork. see the "Emigrants" guide for details. There are hefty penalties (for last couple of years, not in 2001)for failure to file your 'departure asstes' list, for the very situation you are in: the CRA doesn't like unilateral decisions to declare one-self treaty non-resident, and wants to decide for themselves if you have 'departed' or not, and should have done this 5 years ago.
i'm unclear what you mean by: "Because we own property we claim tax free subsidy alowences here in the US"
After 20 years, I am severely cutting back on responses. Do not ask specifically for my help. There are a few others on this board that can answer most questions. All the best
Well, you can't claim a tax home in canada without filing taxes in Canada, no?
Looks like you were trying to play boith sides of the fence.
If you filed a 1040NR for all these yearts in US, then yopu cannot have been a non-resident of canada for all these years.
Looks like you were trying to play boith sides of the fence.
If you filed a 1040NR for all these yearts in US, then yopu cannot have been a non-resident of canada for all these years.
After 20 years, I am severely cutting back on responses. Do not ask specifically for my help. There are a few others on this board that can answer most questions. All the best
Just wanting to know what it is we can do. I really didn't expect to get taunted on this forum. We never tried to purposly play anything, we honestly just never knew all the rules. We thought we were following the law at the time. When your an accountant this may all be plain english, but to us its completely german. If you have a helpful suggestion other then critisism I would appreciate it.
If you were sophisticated enough to try to claim a foreign tax home when you were not filing taxes at this home then you are sophisticated enough to take some rather mild criticism.
I would suggest going back through all the years that you did not file in canada, and do so, using your US tax as a credit.
Conversely, you could go back throiugh all your US tax returns that you presumably filed, and correct them to US resident returns.
You can be resident in both countries for tax purposes, but you cannot be non-resident in both countries.
As you have likley said on many occasions: "This is going to hurt a little"
I would suggest going back through all the years that you did not file in canada, and do so, using your US tax as a credit.
Conversely, you could go back throiugh all your US tax returns that you presumably filed, and correct them to US resident returns.
You can be resident in both countries for tax purposes, but you cannot be non-resident in both countries.
As you have likley said on many occasions: "This is going to hurt a little"
After 20 years, I am severely cutting back on responses. Do not ask specifically for my help. There are a few others on this board that can answer most questions. All the best
As far as this tax home goes....I didn't do any research on the issue. My company informed us that if we pay rent, or a mortgage in either the US or Canada than we can deduct all duplicate living allowances. We file a form every three months that says we own a home and pay all utilitys and upkeep fees. We follow the rules we were told which were not to stay in the same place for more than 1 year and return home every 2 years for a month to look for work. We were never told that we had to pay taxes in this home just that we payed mortgage or rent. You may think that we are playing the system but as we really are not.
Hey, you don't have to convince me...
The fact that I was able to sniff out that there was something wrong outr of one sentence in your post, shoudl tell you something about how the authorities will view you.
Being able to deduct something, and not filing your taxes are 2 separate issues.
The fact that I was able to sniff out that there was something wrong outr of one sentence in your post, shoudl tell you something about how the authorities will view you.
Being able to deduct something, and not filing your taxes are 2 separate issues.
After 20 years, I am severely cutting back on responses. Do not ask specifically for my help. There are a few others on this board that can answer most questions. All the best