DUAL CITIZEN LIVED IN US 2008 - HOW TO FILE TAXES

Hi,
I am a dual US/Cdn citizen - US by birth, parents were canadian citizens residing in Canada.
In 2008 I moved to the US for work and I never had any home in Canada (always rented). I lived in the US for the majority of the year, but still left my car insurance and drivers license as Canadian. Also Canadian health insurance made me pay, since I failed to inform them that I had left. I had no Canadian income other than my RRSP money that I pulled out, which the government already withheld taxes on.
Does having bank accounts (chequing only) and car registered in Canada mean I have to claim my US income in Canada, or can I just file a US tax return as a US resident, and not file in canada.
Also, was I supposed to file tax returns in the US for my whole life as a citizen (I never lived there before, was raised, went to school, worked in Canada only before 2008).
I am so confused. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You have to file a 1040 as a US citizen regardless of where you live.

It's not entirely clear what your residency status was but as you had a Canadian DL you were resident in Canada. Under US law if you're a citizen there for more than 183 days in the year you are resident there.

Bit of a dicey situation because you don't want to get taxed twice.

First of all you need to square yourself away with the IRS, which means filing 1040s and 2555s for however many years they want you to prior to 2008 (usually seven), this is relatively simple if your income has been under US$87,500. Use form 2555-EZ and read the instructions carefully. Basically you put down your income on that form, claim a foreign income exclusion and then you put zero down on 1040.

Your residency status sounds complex to me, it's not clear which country was your primary residence based on what you've said, I think you need to talk to the IRS about it, because I'm pretty sure the CRA will consider you resident - paying healthcare and having a DL here basically means that.

What it boils down to is you either file a 1040 in the US and tell the CRA you were non-resident (but you may have to file a pro-rated T1 for the days you were in Canada if you had reportable income) and claim a foreign tax credit on Form 1116.

Or if you were resident in Canada you file a T1 as per usual reporting your income from your W-2 and claim a foreign tax credit using forms T2036 and form T2209, and file a 1040 in the US together with a 2555 (perhaps, depends on the circumstances).

From what you've said it will be probably be the second method but you need to first determine which country was your principal residence.