need help with tax filing

hello,

i was wondering if someone can advice me please, i am a permanent resident of canada from august 2008, i have visited toronto twice for 8 weeks since last year , but live in uk before and after I have recieved the canadian permanent residency as i work here, i have saving bank accounts in canada, other than that i do not have any ties there. i know i have to file for income tax .could someone tell me if i should file as non resident, which form i need to fill up,do i have to send documents, i am comepletely lost now, would be very grateful if someone can show me the right way. also can someone suggest me an accountant in london with a reasonable charge to help me with the form. thank you

Well this is a bit of a tricky one. What you could do is not file at all and just tell the Canadian bank you're non-resident for tax purposes.

However as a Canadian LPR what that means is that you permanently reside there, so what you're supposed to do is file a resident T1 for wherever you live in Canada and claim a foreign tax credit for any tax you've paid in the UK. You will almost certainly end up paying more tax as NI cannot be claimed as a foreign tax credit in Canada.

If you haven't got a Canadian address though this is going to be tricky. If you haven't got an SIN yet I wouldn't bother. There's no requirement to file a non-resident tax return merely to report a small amount of bank interest, although you have to declare it in the UK.

The problem is that by filing this way you're essentially saying you're not a permanent resident of Canada. The CIC don't seem to get as worked up about that as the Americans do, but if you're a permanent resident then you're supposed to live here.

This is more of an immigration issue than a tax issue that you've got here.