Declaring non-residency in tax form?

sunten
New Member



Joined: 07 Apr 2008
Posts: 2
Location: Hong Kong

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:34 am

 

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Hi all,

I have moved to Hong Kong since I graduated from university and been working here for almost 2 years now. I reported my HK income for yr 2006, but I didn't declare my departure date with CRA. I would like to declare it this year and appreciate some experienced expats to share with me.

My status:
- no property
- single, no children
- have not-so-active banking account, BC medical, BC driver license

1. To inform CRA of my non-residency, do I only need to fill in the departure date on the front page of T1? Any other forms I need to complete? I have read elsewhere that we should avoid submitting NR 73 and being put "under the radar"
2. Further to Q1, do I just complete schedule D and simply tick "You were non-resident of Canada"?
3. How likely would CRA consider me as resident of Canada based on my secondary ties in CAN (bank a/c, medical, d/l)?
4. Am I allowed to file via NETFILE when filing as non-resident?

Cheers

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Steven
CanuckAbroad VIP



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 739
Location: Calgary

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:27 pm

 

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NR73 is for the CRA to render an opinion on your status, IIRC. Obviously check with the CRA and on the CRA non-residents website rather than taking the opinion of a complete stranger on an internet forum!

#2 is trickier, sounds like you were resident for tax purposes for 2007 because you have a BC licence, so you can't declare non-resident status (read NR73, it's pretty clear where they're going with it). You can do it next year though if you dump all your ties.

#3 I'm pretty sure they would because you have a bank account, BC DL and BC medical card, two of which only a resident can get and if you haven't declared non-resident status to the bank and gotten an NR4 for 2007, that's another blow.

I should really look it up for an actual cite, but anyway there was a court case a few years ago, upheld on appeal, guy had his household effects in storage in Ontario and a valid Ontario DL and he was working in Dubai - he was held to be resident for tax purposes. Sounds like you've got three ties, not just two.

#4: Click here.

From the sounds of it you're going to have to file as a resident with income in HK$ - not sure NETFILE is sophisticated enough for that as you've got no T4.

I'd never use them even if I had only one T4 and my return was really simple. I always think it's a mistake to do that because if you ever get audited, you've just removed the best excuse you've got: "oh, someone at the office where I sent my return must have made a mistake when they entered it into their computer."
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Steve.

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