Is Form NR74 compulsory when you move to Canada?
No. It is a request for the CRA's view of when you became a Canadian resident, not a schedule your return is incomplete without. The arrival year is reported on a return regardless, on a date you take a position on. The request is for the case where that date is genuinely contested, or where something turns on having it settled in writing. Most straightforward arrivals never need it. Ties in more than one country, or a return to Canada after years away, are where it earns its keep.
What date does the CRA count as my arrival for tax purposes?
The date your residential ties to Canada were established, which is not necessarily the date on your immigration document or the day you first landed. Somebody who arrives with a household, a lease and a job starts on a date that is hard to argue with. Somebody who comes ahead of a family, keeps a home and an employment abroad, and settles in properly months later has a position to take rather than a date to read off a stamp. The determination request exists because the second situation is common and consequential.
I still have a job and a flat abroad — am I resident in Canada?
This is the case the form is built for. Ties in more than one country do not cancel out; each country reaches its own conclusion under its own rules, and the two can overlap. A determination gives you the Canadian half of the answer in writing, from which the overlap can be addressed. Before asking, be clear about what you are disclosing: the request is an account of every tie on both sides, and the answer will follow that account, so the evidence for each tie and its date is the real work.
Why does my arrival date matter so much on the first return?
Three things run off it. Property you already own is treated as acquired at its value when you arrive, so the date fixes the cost base a future Canadian gain will be measured from. Personal credits for the first year are prorated over the part of the year you were resident. And the point at which reporting on foreign assets begins is set by it. A date moved by a season can therefore change a capital gain years later, a credit claim now, and whether a foreign-asset filing was due at all.
Does Form NR74 apply to someone returning to Canada after years away?
Yes, returning residents are one of the groups it is meant for, and often the hardest case. A person coming back may have kept ties throughout — a property, a bank relationship, family — so the question is not only when Canadian residency restarted but whether it ever stopped. Those two questions have different answers and different consequences for the years in between. Establishing the earlier departure position is usually the first piece of work, because the arrival date you can defend depends on it.
Will a Canadian determination settle my status in the other country?
No. It is the CRA's conclusion about Canadian residency, reached on Canadian rules and on what you disclosed. The other country applies its own test and can reach the opposite result on the same facts, which leaves you treated as resident in two places at once. That overlap is resolved separately, and the Canadian determination is an input to it rather than the end of it. It is still worth having, because the overlap cannot be addressed while the Canadian side of it is undecided.
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.
How do I reduce withholding tax on a cross-border payment?
Before the payment, not after. Where a treaty gives a lower rate, the payer needs your residency declaration in hand to apply it; where the statutory rate would over-withhold on a gross amount, an advance application can authorise a reduced deduction on a net or estimated basis. Once the money has moved at the full rate, your remaining route is an elective return or a refund claim, which recovers the same cash far more slowly. See withholding refund and recovery.
