To claim US per diem on Cdn taxes?

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dolaris
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2019 3:21 am

To claim US per diem on Cdn taxes?

Post by dolaris »

The short, tl;dr version: I was paid a normal wage and "per diem" by a US company in California to work a temporary job away from my home in Alberta. I believe this qualifies as a "special work site." I don't seem to need to report this per diem to the IRS, but I am concerned I need to report it to the CRA since my company has not and will not fill out a Form TD4. Do I need this form, if the company is not Canadian and the allowance meets the criteria for "board and lodging at a special site?"

More detail:
I am a US citizen. I moved to Canada in August 2014 and made frequent, sometimes long trips to the US but always maintained my residence with my common-law partner in Canada. I have claimed Canadian residency all this time, "landed" as a PR in 2017. In October 2018, I took a temporary job with a US company in California. There was a normal wage and also "per diem," which the company did not include on our W2s. They say it is nontaxable, and I've read enough that I feel I understand their argument about that and will not claim the per diem on my US taxes.

I have read the relevant portions of CRA's T4130. The per diem pay meets all the criteria to be considered an allowance for board and lodging at a special site. However, I am concerned for it to be nontaxable, my employer would need to fill out Form TD4, Declaration of Exemption – Employment at a Special Work Site. Since they're not a Canadian company, do they need to? Do I need to report this travel allowance to the CRA if I don't, as far as I can tell, need to report it to the IRS?

They laid me off, along with probably 80% of my coworkers, by the end of January. Since they're no longer my employer, they have even less interest in being helpful.

Thanks for any advice, I've been going around in circles for weeks!
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