Help with US and Canada Tax Issues

I am a Canadian citizen and went to us to take up an employment at the end of 2007 and the first pay check was obtained after January 1st 2008. My spouse and dependent children were living in Canada while I am working in us. I came back to Canada last month due to work termination.

I have reading quite a few of the postings here related to tax with similar situation to my, and still have not got a clear idea on what should I do with my tax returns of both us and Canada.

Since I have live in us for over 183 days of 2008, so, presumably I will be classified as "resident alien" and use 1040 form to file my return? Since my spouse has nothing to do with us taxes, I should file as "single with dependents"? The question is can I claim my spouse and children's exemption, if I could, how can this be done, since they have no SSN in us.

For my Canadian return, I will, probably, be classified as "factural resident", since I do not live in Canada for the entire year but have kept connection tie in Canada? What should I do to get the credit for all the taxes I have paid on my us return?

Your help and suggestions are much appreciated.

If your spouse and other dependents lived in Canada then basically you have strong residential ties to Canada and you have to file as a US non-resident for 2008, which will suck because you have to pay Canadian taxes on top of your US income, however you can claim a foreign tax credit for the US taxes on T2209 and T2036.

Obviously it would be helpful if you could file as a resident of the US for the whole of 2008 as it will save you money, but if you file NR-73 with the CRA for a ruling I'm pretty sure they will deem you resident for 2008.

On the US end you file 1040NR to declare the US-source income from your W-2. If it was over $100,000 you need to file 8833 as well.

Everyone gets worked up about the "substantial presence" test but the tax treaty makes it largely irrelevant for Canadians, all it does is make a slight difference in what paperwork you have to file. Clearly if your family lived in Canada you have stronger ties to Canada than to the US.