Canadian moving to US - Filing Canadian Taxes

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anurse
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 11:32 pm

Canadian moving to US - Filing Canadian Taxes

Post by anurse »

Hey gurus, here's my situation:

0) Resident of BC up to Sept 28, 2009
1) Entered the US on a TN-1 Visa Sept 28, 2009 and severed residential ties to Canada
2) Started work at a US company on Oct 5, 2009
3) Changed to an H-1B in November
4) Had Canadian-source income PRIOR to Sept 28th
5) Had US-source income AFTER Sept 28th
6) Filed US 1040NR (did not pass substantial presence test) for US-source income in 2009

I have no major residential ties to Canada. I don't own a home in Canada, no spouse or dependents, just a bank account, a credit card, and some student loans.

I'm trying to prepare my Canadian Tax Return and I'm a little confused. I'm using QuickTax online, but not opposed to filling out forms by hand and mailing if QT can't support the kind of return I need to file.

So, here are my questions:
a) Do I file as a resident of BC or as a Non-Resident? My initial research indicated that I should file as BC resident and indicate my departure date
b) If I file as BC resident, do I have to include the US-sourced Income using a Foreign Slip, even though it is after I severed residential ties to Canada?
c) And a more trivial one: On the Foreign slip, do I enter the amounts in US dollars (since there is an exchange rate field) or do I convert to Canadian?

Thanks in advance!
-Andrew
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