Do I file Form NR74 even if no tax is owed?
Residency or status filing obligations of this kind are generally required on the facts rather than on the tax result, so a nil position does not remove one. Newcomers, returning residents and people with ties in more than one country who need their Canadian start date settled.
What happens if I have missed Form NR74 for several years?
Missed years are dealt with as a package rather than one at a time, because the route chosen for the first year affects the relief available for the rest. We map the years and the obligations before anything is filed.
Is Form NR74 the same as the other reports I already file?
No. The request for a determination of residency status on entering Canada. Satisfying a different obligation, even one covering the same accounts or entity, does nothing for this one.
When does Canadian tax residency start if I moved mid-year?
Residency starts when you establish significant residential ties here, which is usually the day the home and the family are in place rather than the day a visa was issued or the day you first landed. Everything else in your first Canadian return follows from that date: income earned before it generally stays outside the Canadian net, personal credits are prorated to the part of the year you were resident, and reporting for foreign holdings begins from it. Because the date drives so much, settle it on evidence — leases, school registrations, employment start, the shipment of household goods — rather than on an assumption.
Should a newcomer to Canada file Form NR74?
Only where the start date is genuinely open. Most newcomers have an obvious arrival: they landed, rented, enrolled the children and started work within a few weeks, and the return can simply state that date. The request earns its keep when the picture is not that tidy — a family that arrived in stages, a person who kept a home and an employment in the country they came from, or a case where a foreign tax authority is also claiming the same period. In those cases a determination gives you one fixed point to build both countries' returns around.
What is my cost base for property I owned before moving?
Property you already held when you became resident is generally treated as acquired at its value on the day residency began, so gains that accrued before you arrived are not dragged into the Canadian system. That makes the arrival date, and the valuation attached to it, worth documenting at the time rather than reconstructing years later when the asset is sold. Keep the evidence that fixes the date and independent support for the values — statements, appraisals, the exchange rates used. The work is small on arrival and disproportionately difficult afterwards, particularly for private company shares and real property abroad.
Do I have to report my foreign accounts in my first year?
Reporting obligations for foreign holdings attach to residency, so the question is not whether you are new to Canada but when your residency began and what you held after that point. This is why a contested arrival date is expensive in both directions: pull it earlier and a longer period falls inside the Canadian reporting net, push it later and you may be filing on a basis the CRA does not accept. Settle the date on evidence, apply the reporting rules to the period after it, and keep statements showing what was held and when. Deciding this in the first filing season costs far less than explaining it in a review.
Two countries both say I am resident — which one wins?
Domestic law in each country decides its own claim, so both can be right at once. Where a treaty exists between them it contains a tie-breaker that allocates residence to one country for treaty purposes, working through the permanent home available to you, then the centre of your personal and economic interests, and on down that sequence until the question is settled. None of this removes filing obligations; it decides which country taxes what, and which return claims relief for the other. The evidence that decides a tie-breaker is the same evidence that fixes a Canadian start date, which is why the two questions are worked together.
Can the CRA challenge the arrival date on my return?
Yes, and it happens most often where the date on the return is convenient rather than evidenced. A review looks for the ordinary marks of a life being set up here — a lease or purchase, a family arriving, employment starting, cards and accounts opened — and compares them with what you continued to hold elsewhere. If the date moves, the consequences move with it: the value assigned to property you brought with you, the proration of your credits for that year, and the point from which foreign holdings had to be reported. A determination request is the way to have that argument before the filing rather than after it.
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 many days can I spend in a country before I become tax resident?
It depends on the country, and a day count is only ever the start. Many use a threshold in a tax year, some also look at averages across several years, and some have no day test at all and decide on where your home and life are. Two countries can both conclude you are resident, which is what the treaty tie-breaker exists to settle. Counting days without checking the tie-breaker is how people end up filing as resident nowhere. See the residency tie-breaker.
