Do I have to file Form NR73 when I leave Canada?
No. It is a request, not a return. Nobody is obliged to ask the CRA for a determination of when their Canadian residency ended, and the departure itself is reported on the transition-year return whether or not the request is ever made. The form exists for the case where you want the CRA's written view of the date, or of whether residency ended at all. Treat sending it as a choice with consequences rather than as a step on a checklist, because the answer comes back on the facts you disclose.
The CRA asked me to complete NR73 — do I have to?
An invitation to complete it is common, particularly where a departure year has drawn attention, and it is still a request. What you send is a full account of your ties to Canada, and the CRA's conclusion will be reached on that account. So the question is not whether to be cooperative but what the accurate account actually is: which ties were cut, when, and what remains. Working that out, with evidence, before anything is sent is the part that decides the outcome. The form is only the vehicle it travels in.
Should I send NR73 if I still own a house in Canada?
That is exactly the fact pattern to think twice about. The form is a full disclosure of ties, and a retained home is one of the ties that most often pulls a determination the other way. Sending it invites a conclusion you may not want, in writing, onto a file that will be consulted later. Where the facts are mixed, the better course is usually to take a position on the departure return, document the reasoning and the evidence behind it, and keep the request in reserve for a situation that genuinely requires it.
How do I prove to an overseas bank that I am non-resident?
This is the case the form suits. A foreign bank or employer that needs certainty before it will open an account or run payroll is asking for something a self-assessed position on a return does not give it, and a determination in writing does. Two conditions make it worth doing: the facts have to be clean, so that the disclosure of your ties points one way rather than being arguable, and the third party has to actually need it. Where both hold, the request is a straightforward piece of work.
Is the CRA's answer on Form NR73 binding?
It is the CRA's view of your residency on the facts you put in front of it. That makes it useful evidence and poor insurance. If the disclosure understated a tie, or if your circumstances change afterwards — a return to Canada, a spouse moving back, a property reoccupied — the view was reached on a set of facts that is no longer yours. It also does not substitute for filing. The departure still has to be reported on a return for the transition year, on a date consistent with whatever was disclosed.
Can I just file a departure return instead of NR73?
Usually, yes, and for most departures that is the whole answer. The return is where the departure date is reported, where the deemed disposition on leaving is calculated, and where the residency split for the year is stated. The determination request adds written confirmation from the CRA and nothing else; it files nothing. So the test is whether a third party needs that confirmation, or whether the facts are unclear enough that you would rather have the CRA's view early than argue about it later.
What is Part XIII withholding tax in Canada?
Part XIII is the Canadian charge on certain amounts paid to non-residents — rent, dividends, interest, royalties, pensions and similar passive income. The payer withholds and remits it, and it is a flat charge on the gross payment rather than on profit, which is why a non-resident landlord can be withheld on far more than the net rental result. Treaties reduce the rate and elective returns recover the excess. See the section 216 return.
How are non-residents taxed on Canadian rental income?
By default the payer or agent withholds a flat rate on the gross rent and remits it, with no deduction for mortgage interest, taxes or repairs. Electing under section 216 lets you file on the net rental result instead, which for most properties recovers a substantial part of what was withheld; an NR6 undertaking filed before the year starts lets the withholding itself be computed on net rather than gross. See the section 216 return.
