CRA Assessment

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TOTB
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:53 pm

CRA Assessment

Post by TOTB »

I hope some will find this interesting. I am posting this because I don't have answers, and so anyone with advice or comments as to what's going on here is greatly appreciated. I have tried calling the CRA 1 800 number, when the recorded voice asks me to put in my SIN number I do so then the voice says “we are too busy to take your call” and I am cut off.
I've been doing my own personal return by hand for about 30 years. My 2019 return included income from Canada as well as the US. I lived and worked in the US for 45 days in 2019. I did my return and the result was that I owed 419$. I subsequently received an assessment in which the result was that I made mistakes and I was owed 727$. I am currently trying do my 2020 return in which I have income in both Canada and US. I was in the US for 83 days in 2020. The problem is, I can not for the life of me figure out what exact changes the RCA made in their (2019) assessment.

I will quote a few lines from my 2019 assessment:
“We changed your Ontario Tax from 1799$ to 2444$, which includes a change to your total Ontario non-refundable tax credit.”
“We changed you total income tax deducted to 7078 to agree with the amounts on your information slips or the information we have.”
“We recalculated your federal non-refundable tax credit and changed your total on line 35000 to 786$”
“We recalculated you Ontario non-refundable tax credit and changed your total to 186$”
“Since you were a resident of Canada for only part of 2019, we changed your federal and Ontario personal to the maximum allowed. We calculated these amounts based on the number of days you were a resident in Canada during the year.”

I only claimed 4 amounts in Part A Federal non-refundable tax credits: Basic personal Amount 12069, Base CPP 942, EI premiums 365 and Canada employment amount 1222. How did the CRA change it from 2190 to 786?

They did the same with the Ontario non-refundable tax credit. From 600 to 186

They claim they change my basic personal amount to it's maximum. I claimed 12069 on the federal and 10852 for Ontario. Isn't that the max already? I still have the 2019 guide. No where does it give instruction on how to adjust the BPA and neither does the return. ??

Also, I claimed taxes on line 43700 “total income tax deducted (amounts from all Canadian slips)
The CRA changed it from from 5537$ to 7078$. What's going on here? The only way this makes sense is if they included the tax withheld from my income in the US. But it says only “amounts from all Canadian slip” , plus the amount doesn't add up even if so.

Thanks
nelsona
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Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
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Re: CRA Assessment

Post by nelsona »

One of the issues seems to be that you claimed you were non-resident of Canada when you were in the US. Simply being in the US doesn;t make you lose Cdn tax status. By saying you were "gone" from Canada, it reduced your personal exemption by the ratio of days you said you were out.

Did you relly leave Canada in 2019 (or in 2020), or did you just go down to US to work for a few days?
nelsona non grata. Non pro. Please Search previous posts, no situation is unique as you might think. Happy Browsing :D
TOTB
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:53 pm

Re: CRA Assessment

Post by TOTB »

I left Ontario on November 17th 2019 and Traveled to Pennsylvania for work. I lived in an extended stay motel until December 22 , came back to Canada for Christmas from 22 to 28th, when I returned to PA I started living in an apartment (on Dec29th). Stayed in Pennsylvania until March 23rd 2020, when the job shut down due to covid. I have not returned.
nelsona
Posts: 18314
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Re: CRA Assessment

Post by nelsona »

So, since you never really established US residency, what residence did you have in Canada to return to?
nelsona non grata. Non pro. Please Search previous posts, no situation is unique as you might think. Happy Browsing :D
TOTB
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:53 pm

Re: CRA Assessment

Post by TOTB »

My wife and I separated in March 2019, but continued living in the same house. When I went to the US for work my wife stayed in the house with our two daughters. I was to stay in the US working for much longer but because of covid and the loss of my job I had to go back to my home in Canada. So I do have a home in which is co-owed between my wife and I. We continue to live in the same house with our two children despite being separated. Yes, weird ******, but it is what it is for now.
My US taxes in 2019 and 2020 where filled using the 1040NR.
I did read through the Income Tax Folio S5-F1-CI. Extremely hard to understand.
Even if the CRA reduced the BPA (even though they suggest they increased it to the maximum) the math still doesn't add up. I was only out of Canada for 38 days in 2019 (45 minus the 7 days of Christmas). And so the reduction if by ratio would be 10812$ instead of 12069$. This still doesn't come close to changing my non-refundable tax credit from a Total of 2190 to 786. Your total non-refundable tax credit is calculated by taking 15% of the sum of your claims. By CRA reducing my total from 2190 to 786 then the sum of claims changed from 14 600 $ (can be seen in my original post) to 5240 $.
TOTB
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:53 pm

Re: CRA Assessment

Post by TOTB »

Even if the CRA cut the BPA in half it would 6000$ x .15 = 900$ in Total Non-refundable tac credit. But they dropped it to 786. ??
nelsona
Posts: 18314
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Re: CRA Assessment

Post by nelsona »

Shrug. I don't have access to your return and can't help you figure out what CRA decided. Looks like you will need to contact them.
nelsona non grata. Non pro. Please Search previous posts, no situation is unique as you might think. Happy Browsing :D
TOTB
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:53 pm

Re: CRA Assessment

Post by TOTB »

I believe you might be right “i will need to contact them”. I was hoping that someone would have more specific info on this particular situation. I do however agree with you nelsona that it may have something to do with residency.

What about the other issue:
“Also, I claimed taxes on line 43700 “total income tax deducted (amounts from all Canadian slips)
The CRA changed it from from 5537$ to 7078$. What's going on here? The only way this makes sense is if they included the tax withheld from my income in the US. But it says only “amounts from all Canadian slip” , plus the amount doesn't add up even if so.”
Any theories on this one?
nelsona
Posts: 18314
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Re: CRA Assessment

Post by nelsona »

See previous answer. Giving us specific nimbers isn;t going o make us magically figure out your taxes. You will have to see/show someone.
nelsona non grata. Non pro. Please Search previous posts, no situation is unique as you might think. Happy Browsing :D
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