basic rundown

wildside41 · Post by **wildside41** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 2:28 pm

Hi . New to the forum. Wife and I are both canadians and have a house in British Columbia. She is now in Arizona working for a hospital as a nurse under a TN visa for 6 months. Our question is taxes. U.S. taxes are coming right off her paycheck but do not know what canada expects. Is it a pecentage of her earnings here or is it just about healthcare pension ect. I am not retired yet so I am visiting her a few weeks during this time. Next year when I retire we want to stay for 9 months so dont want any trouble with the tax people. Thanks for any info

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Tue Dec 08, 2009 2:38 pm

Since you appear to be mainatining Cdn residency (her contracts do not appear to last very long unfortunatey), she will need to report he r income in canada, as well as in US and AZ.

She has some choices in how she files in US, but simplest will be to file a 1040NR reporting only the US wages.

For her Cdn taxes, she will rpoet all income from everywhere, and then take credit for the IRS and AZ income tax she pays, as well as her SS and medicare payments. The end result should be that she pay tax on her wages as if she had earned it in Burnaby.

As to your long-term plans, be careful. Leaving the country for 9 months will put your BC med at risk. It will also make you both taxable in US and, becuase you will be comeing back to Canada every year, in canada too. This may not be the best solution.

I would suggest that she line up a longer temr contract, both of you move to AZ (keep the house in BC if you wish) and make sure you are on her medical coverage with work. This will remove Cdn tax on non-Cdn income, and reduce your taxrate on any Cdn pensions you get as well.

wildside41 · Post by **wildside41** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 4:02 pm

Thanks for the info. Will it be better for me to get a TD visa I had one last year but I didnt get one this year because I had my own job. It raised some eyebrows at customs this time across and one customs oficer told ne I would be better off geting it back. Also I am recieving a Nexus pass next week I hope that makes my travel a little easier back and forth.

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 4:14 pm

When your spouse is on TN, it is ALWAYS better to have TD status conincidental with theirs. B2 requires Cdn residence, TD does not.

On would only 'settle' for B2 if they were non-Cdn and either already had a B2 visa in their passport or were cdn PR. This wouldsave them a trip to the consulate, but would mean they needed to maintain Cdn residence.