CRA residency determination review — how much of this can I do myself?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: significant ties carry the most weight, with secondary ties supporting the picture, and a treaty tie-breaker can override the domestic conclusion.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
How does the CRA decide whether I am still resident in Canada?
By looking at your ties, and by weighing them rather than counting them. Significant ties carry the most weight; secondary ties support the picture but rarely decide it on their own. The same test is applied in both directions, so the ties that make someone resident on arrival are the ties that keep them resident on departure. Where the other country also treats you as resident under its own law, the treaty tie-breaker can override the domestic conclusion. A review is decided on the evidence that exists for the years in question, which is often assembled long after the move.
I left Canada but kept my house. Am I still a tax resident?
Keeping a home available to you is one of the ties that weighs heavily, but it is not decisive by itself. What matters is the whole picture and what the home actually was during the years in issue: available for your use, or let to an unrelated tenant on ordinary terms for a real period. Those are different facts and they are proved with different documents. A house kept empty and furnished, with the utilities in your name, tells a story about intention. The review will read it that way, so the tenancy papers and the utility records matter more than the explanation offered later.
My family stayed in Canada after I moved for work. Does that make me resident?
A spouse or dependants remaining here is among the weightiest ties there is, and it is the single most common reason a departure is questioned. It does not end the matter. What the review looks at is the arrangement as it genuinely was: whether the separation was a temporary stage of a move the family completed, how often you returned and for what, where the household's life was actually conducted. Where both countries claim you, the treaty tie-breaker is reached, and it examines a permanent home, the centre of your vital interests and habitual abode in turn.
What evidence do I need to show I became a non-resident?
Evidence that is contemporaneous with the departure rather than produced for the review. The strong items are third-party and dated: a lease or purchase in the new country, the employment contract, the school registration for children, the closure or conversion of Canadian accounts, the change of registration for vehicles and licences, and the record of where you actually were. Statements of intention are the weakest evidence, because everyone has them. Build the file in the year you move and the later review becomes a straightforward presentation. Rebuild it afterwards and the work is far harder and less convincing.
Can a tax treaty make me non-resident even if I have ties to Canada?
Yes, and this is often the route where ties genuinely exist on both sides. If each country treats you as resident under its own law, the treaty supplies a tie-breaker that applies in order: where you have a permanent home available, where your personal and economic relations are closer, where you habitually live, and then nationality. It can override the domestic conclusion. It is not automatic. You have to establish that the other country treats you as resident, and that means evidence from its authority for each year, not simply that you lived there.
The CRA is reviewing a year I left Canada long ago. What can I do now?
Work with what still exists, and start with third-party records because personal memory carries little weight this far out. Entry and exit records, employment and payroll history abroad, bank and card activity showing where daily life was conducted, tenancy or ownership documents, and foreign tax filings for the same years can all be recovered when they are asked for early. The reconstruction has to be consistent across every year, because inconsistency between years is what turns a determination into a dispute. Where the position is genuinely mixed, the treaty tie-breaker is often the stronger ground to build on.
Is moving money between my own accounts in two countries taxable?
Moving your own capital between your own accounts is not itself income, so the transfer is not what creates tax. What can create tax or reporting is the income the money earned before it moved, a foreign-exchange gain on certain holdings, and the reporting obligations the balances themselves trigger — foreign account and asset reports keyed to balances rather than income. Remittances out of some countries also need certification before the bank will send them. See foreign account reporting.
Do I have to declare my dual citizenship?
A tax return does not generally ask you to declare which passports you hold; it asks about residence, and in the US case it applies to citizens by definition. What does ask is your bank. Account-opening self-certification under FATCA and the Common Reporting Standard asks which countries you are a tax resident or citizen of, and the answer is reported onward to the tax authority. So the practical answer is that the information arrives either way. See FATCA reporting.
