Leaving Canada Procedures

[FlyingSpanner]

Hi All,

I know that there is a few Canucks on this forum and am asking for a bit of info.

My brother in law is marrying a Canadian girl and they are wondering if there are any specific procedures that she has to do before leaving Canada to keep her health care benefits and the like. (I konw in the UK if you keep paying your class 3 NI then its good).

Any advice on where to look or departments to contact wouold be much appreciated.

Regards
Flying Spanner :ok:

[Trader]

If you go back and you are in Ontario you can get the health benefits back after 3 months - BUT - you must apply to get them back when you return.

The problem with CCRA (Rev Can) is that they do not define exactly how to be non-resident. They look at each individual case. So, it is possible to kep some things - ie. a bank account if you have a reason for it (ie. investments such as rental properties etc).

[Immigrant]

Hope this will halp:

Appendix A: Residency obligation

You must meet the residency obligation to obtain a Permanent Resident Card. If you have been a permanent resident for five years or more: you must have been physically present in Canada for a minimum of 730 days within the past five years. If you have been a permanent resident for less than five years: you must show that you will be able to meet the minimum 730 days in Canada at the five-year mark.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5445EA.asp

[Panama Jack]

Unless the Canadian girl will be living full time in Canada, she loses her medical benefits. Shouldn't be a problem though since I understand the UK has a comparable scheme, but this is a fact of life for those who do not continue to reside in Canada (and many say "good riddens")

Here is a good site regarding taxation. She may opt to file with the Canada Revenue Agency so that they themselves say that she is no longer a resident and have been notified (so they don't come chasing her for money later):

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/nonresidents/individuals/nonres-e.html

(another "good riddens")

[wadefac]

go to canadanresidentsabroad.com...............

for any info on leaving or returning to Canada.......

Do NOT fill out any canadian government forms when leaving....simply put tick NO on your last filing of income form if u where a resident of Canada on Dec 31 of whatever year...thats it thats all.....

wadefac ;)

[troff]

Get ticket stub ripped off Boarding Pass. Smile. Run down jetway as quick as you can. Only thing I miss is seeing the Leafs getting trounced!
T

[northeast canuck]

I have a question regarding taxation for Canadians who are working for Emirates. Looking at some of the links posted above, it would indicate that you could be liable to pay Canadian tax on income earned abroad if you have maintained significant links to Canada, and it seems to me that it is pretty easy for the government to interpret these links as proof of residency and therefore you are liable for tax. I also see that Canada now has a tax treaty with UAE.

Has this been a problem for anyone? I am interested to know if anyone has maintained significant ties (maybe their family still lives in Canada or they spend a lot of time there), and run into tax problems? And if so, do you end up paying the full whack of Canadian tax (yikes) or is it something less?

More importantly, are there ways of avoiding such tax problems?

[FlyingSpanner]

Cheers for all the info, as I said it was for the Brother In Law and he is a FA with EK.

Have sent him at least on the right track I think to get started which is what he was looking for I believe. He is getting married later this year and his fiance (at present) is looking to return with him to Dubai and set up for a while.

Dont think that he will be in Dubai forever but they were just looking into the process of getting the things sorted out.

Regards

Flying Spanner :ok:

[JoeCo]

As mentioned previously, it is a case by case situation. When I left I had nothign, no house, no wife, no kids, I was a basically a bachelor with an oppportunity. So when I left I had dad's accountant look at the situation and help me out. He said that bacially if a guy sold the house and the cars, took the kids out of school, cancelled medicare, drivers leicense etc for the entire family, then it would be pretty obvious that the family was leaving. But in my case, as I did not have any of that, we just had to be careful that we did not forget anythgin and follow up on the case. In the end, I cancelled all that I had such as bank accounts, credit cards, drivers license, medicare (all of which are mandatory by the way) and sold the car, and my case was 'approved' with no complications.

As for the people that spend a significant time outisde of the country, you can qualify for a redustion in income tax, but you have to be outside of the country for 6 months plus a day i.e. 183 days. Thats easiy enought o prove as everytime you leave and come back you passport gets stamped, but the thing here is that the governments view on this is that a person HAS TO BE a resident somewhere. So if you dont make yourself a resident somewhere other then Canada, then Canada presumes you are still a Canadian resident and will tax you accordingly.

My suggestion is that if the young lady in question is only going to be outisde of Canada short period of time then it might not be worth the hassle to go through the process of cancelling everythign she would need to cancel to become a non resident just to have to re-apply a short time there after. However if this will be an extended tiem away or every if it MIGHT become an extended period away then definately go through the process and make herself a non-resident.

As for the tax agreement that Canada has with the UAE, it is current at 25%. This does not effect your income, as far as I am awre, rather it's for investments that you may still have in Canada. For example I recently closed my RRSP account and had to pay 25% tax on the amount.

As for property, I would suggest you seek proffessional advise as it really depends what the property is used for which will determine whether or not you will exposed to taxes or not.

Good Luck, I hope it helped.