Canadian residency status

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MaggieA
Posts: 150
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 4:06 pm

Canadian residency status

Post by MaggieA »

CRA seems to think daughter, mid 20s, is a non-resident. I'm not sure if this is correct, or how much it matters, but I figure I'll ask.

Daughter was born in Canada and was an elementary schooler when we moved to US in 2002. She became a US citizen while living in the US. She attended university in the US, graduated spring 2016, worked a summer job then accompanied her parents on our big move back to Canada at the end of August, 2016. All her worldly possessions came to Canada and she announced herself as a returning resident at the Canadian border.

Daughter spent only 3 weeks in Canada in fall 2016, then flew to France to take up a temporary job she'd lined up with a cool French government program. She came home (to Canada) for Christmas then returned permanently in May 2017 at the end of her job in France. She got a summer job in Canada and worked until going to the UK in September, to start grad school over there. She got an EAP from grandmother's family RESP to help with this.

For 2016, daughter filed in US, of course, as a citizen. She had income earned in US before departure, also foreign income from France. She didn't file in Canada because she was only here 3 weeks in the entire year. At most her French income might have been of interest to CRA, but it was a really small stipend, so she wouldn't have paid tax anyway.

For 2017, she had regular wage income from her summer job in Canada, plus the RESP EAP. She filed for the full year, including her income from France of course. Large tuition expenditure (she had her UK uni fill out the TL11A form) meant she got a small refund of summer job withholding. She also filed in US, of course, but didn't earn enough to have to pay any taxes there.

So, the question is, she didn't give CRA a return date in 2017 because actually she returned in 2016 (I think?). She set up CRA "my account" and we noticed it shows zero TFSA contribution room, because she's "non-resident". Well, it's true she spent more of 2017 outside Canada than in, but she has a Canadian DL, Canadian home address, most of her possessions are here, she's only in the UK on a student visa. Apparently CRA thinks she's non-resident, probably because she didn't give them a return date. Is this correct, though? How much does it matter? I'm figuring maybe it could matter for OAS eligibility in future. If it does matter, how would we go about correcting it?
nelsona
Posts: 18311
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Post by nelsona »

The problem sarted of course, because she did not file a return in 2016. She was not resident oin france for this exchange program, so was still resident in Canada.

I always advise people to file a returning resident/newcomer return, and of course a departure return, even if they technically don't need to file.

That would have solved everything in her case.

Barring fixing that, she then should have put 1/1/2017 as her return date for 2017.

Technically, even a "pure" non-resident of Canada who worked a summer job in Canada would file a provincial return (reporting only Canada-sourced wages) with no return or departure date -- which is exactly what she did. She wouldn't filr a non-resident return, but would not be considered resident, given no history of residency.

So, if you really want to amass TFSA room, she should amend her 2016 return, and write an explanatory note for 2017.

She remains a deemed resident of canada while a student abroad.
nelsona non grata. Non pro. Please Search previous posts, no situation is unique as you might think. Happy Browsing :D
MaggieA
Posts: 150
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 4:06 pm

Post by MaggieA »

Thanks much. I should have thought to ask here last year. We thought she probably counted as a Canadian resident during her stint in France, but we weren't confident of this common sense deduction and found it easiest to do nothing. It's not so much the TFSA room that I care about (since she's a US citizen it's not useful at present), but just that I'd like to get her into the correct status with CRA, on principle. We have to give them an arrival date for her at some point, it is now evident.
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