How do I know if I am a deemed resident or a factual resident?
Start with the ties, not with the rule. If your dwelling, your spouse or dependants and the ordinary pattern of your life sit in Canada, you are resident on the facts and the enquiry ends there. Only once the ties are genuinely gone does the second question arise, which is whether a statutory rule makes you resident anyway despite their absence. The two routes lead to different returns, so the order of the questions is the work. Establish the factual position first, on documents, and treat the deeming rule as the fallback test rather than the opening one. Most files are settled at the first step.
Which province do I file in as a deemed resident?
A factual resident is resident of a particular province, and that province's rates and credits apply to the same income a federal return reports. A deemed resident is made resident of Canada by a rule, not resident of any province, so there is no provincial residence to anchor the calculation to and the provincial layer is not the one a resident of Ontario or Alberta would use. That single difference can change the tax on identical income, and it changes which credits you may claim. It is the clearest practical reason to settle the classification before a return is prepared rather than after.
Can a tax treaty make me a non-resident of Canada?
Only where another country treats you as resident under its own domestic law over the same period. A tie-breaker is machinery for resolving a conflict, so a conflict has to exist: if no other country claims you as resident, there is nothing to break and Canadian residence stands, whether it arose from your ties or from a statutory rule. Where both countries do claim you, the tie-breaker turns on matters such as where your permanent home is and where the centre of your personal and economic life sits. That is the same evidence that decides factual residence, which is why it is assembled once and used twice.
Why am I still resident in Canada when I have no ties left?
Because residence does not come only from ties. A statutory rule can attach residence to a person whose home, family and working life are all elsewhere, and it does so without weighing anything. If you fall inside it you are resident, and the absence of a dwelling, a spouse in Canada or a bank account makes no difference. People in this position often believe a mistake has been made, because every test they have read about concerns ties and none of the ties are present. The point to grasp is that you are on the other route, and the return you owe follows from that route rather than from the factual test.
Do deemed residents and factual residents file the same tax return?
Both report income from all sources for the period of residence, so at first glance the returns look alike. What differs is everything hung off the classification: the province the return is filed for and taxed by, the credits that come with provincial residence, and the schedules that apply to someone resident of Canada without being resident anywhere in it. Two people with identical income and identical foreign holdings can therefore owe different amounts and file different attachments. Copying a colleague's filing pattern because their circumstances sound similar is how the wrong route gets adopted for years at a time.
Should I ask CRA to rule on my residency before I file?
A determination can be requested, but understand what comes back. The authority forms a view on the facts you present to it, in the words you present them in, so an incomplete or loosely worded account produces a view that will not survive later examination. The sequence we use is to assemble the record first, decide which of the two routes the facts support and why, and only then decide whether a determination is worth requesting. Where the file is plainly on one side of the line, a request delays the filing without adding anything. Where it is genuinely close, the request is made from a prepared position.
Do green card holders living abroad have to file US taxes?
Yes. A lawful permanent resident is a US tax resident, taxed on worldwide income, and that status does not end simply because you moved away — it ends when it is formally abandoned or administratively terminated. Two traps follow. Filing as a non-resident on a treaty claim can put the immigration status itself at risk. And ending the status after holding it long-term can bring you inside the expatriation regime. See giving up a green card.
Am I a US tax resident if I live overseas?
If you are a US citizen or a green card holder, yes — the United States taxes on status, not location, and living abroad changes the reliefs available rather than the obligation to file. If you are neither, residence turns on the substantial presence test, a weighted day count over three years, with exceptions for certain visa categories and a closer-connection claim available in some circumstances. The two paths lead to completely different returns. See filing US taxes from abroad.
