Determining Resident status prior to our Move

[dannykool]

I know for a fact that if one moves to any of the middle east non-treaty countries that ALL Cdn ties need to be broken (even RRSP) in order to achieve Cdn non-residency.

Even worse, the treaty countries down there aren't any better, because treaty tax residency is not granted to non-citizens, so only nationals can become Cdn non-residents unless they divest everything Cdn.

The Tesky case illustrates how easy it is to be considered resident when no treaty exists.

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$http://www.canuckabroad.com/forums/do-canadians-pay-taxes-on-money-made-overseas-vt2445-8.html


One of the guys said he worked in 5 countries Cambodia etc...

-- Fri Oct 30, 2009 6:51 pm --

You would probably be fine, although one would really want to reduce the ties more significantly. It would depend on how much you were relying on the treaty to be treated as non-resident.
There is a principal that one cannot be considered a Cdn tax non-resident unless and until one establishes tax residency elsewhere. The intervening move to US could be that step.
The situation is analoguous to those who decide they are going to "sail the world". They never set up residsnce anywhere, thus remain Cdn residents. If they move first, establishe residency elsewhere, and then start sailing, they are usually fine.

--ä

This post is the one i was talking about

I was abroad for 5.5 years with no ties to Canada. No DL, no health care, no insurance, no bank account, nothing. Upon repatriation I was told to produce the previous 3 years income statements and was taxed on the Canadian currency equivalent for those 3 years. This included employment in UAE, China, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia. Have challenged it in court and lost with the reasoning that I returned and did not fill out the form asking for residency verification.
On the other hand, I had a colleague repatriate after 2.5 years while keeping property, property insurance, DL and bank account and taxed nothing.
There would appear to be no consistency.


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So the intervening move could be the key step. Coming back to the original post where there is no such step (non treaty) and it is not sailing really in that the person is resident and has a lot of ties in a non treaty country, then you suggest it could be ties which determine. This would apply to people who move to Dubai etc. There has been very little knowledge on what the exact definitions are when one moves to a non treaty country. Someone posted (can't find it) that they worked in Asia etc for many years and could not get the non residency.