Lookie below- I did do this eventually, my tax guy suggested it. I hav'nt heard anything back yet, did anyone else do this late? (I guess you have to do it, for the government.) I know they will make me pay back any GST checks that I did get after I left the country.


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Forms and publications NR73 Determination of Residency Status (Leaving Canada)You can view this form in:

PDF nr73-04e.pdf (94 KB)

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Last update: 2005-02-04
Available in print: 2005-02-04

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I hate forms.

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No you do not HAVE to fill out NR73, soem tax consultants recommend you do it, but it is not a must. I never did and was deemed a non resident. As far as I'm concerned, if they want me to fill it out, they will tell me to fill it out, lol

I'm an accountant and I dont even do it when I leave the country! Flames is correct.. it's OPTIONAL... personally I refuse to offer more information that is necessary... why bother? You'll only confuse them... also.. as long as you check off the box in your last return that reads 'final tax return' (or something like that, I forgot), you should be fine! By doing so, they were able to hunt me down and ask me to pay them back in GST credits.. so...

On first page of your income tax return form,it asks the date you became or CEASED to becomea Cdn resident!! Filled out enough paperwork for the govt, no need for more, killed enough trees,lol

When I filed my taxes for 2004 in Canada, my chartered accountant consulted the tax powers that be and I had to fill out the form. Took fifteen minutes or so, not a huge deal.

Hi Chiroman,

Good luck on your immigration journey. Likewise, I forgot to fill out any forms when I left the country too. I figured that I could just "pack my bags and go". I guess not then. I hate forms too. Meanwhile, I'm in the midst of filling out this form (as I found out on the VJ message boards that there was this form to fill out). It sure is easier filling out this form than filling out a tax return.

By the way, does anyone else know that if I fill out this NR73 form, do I have to fill out a tax return too (even though I had no income last year)? Thanks.

Ant

Call up Revenue canada, the few times I have called they have been very helpful, unlike their USA counterparts!!

I never filled that form in either. In fact, this is the first time I have heard of such a form. Like others have said, they will bill you for the GST payments they gave after you left. In my case, I cancelled them, after I recieved several after I left. Then 2 days later I recieved one more. I sent in a payment on the same cheque that I paid my taxes (had to pay back that 10 year RRSP loan.) They sent me a bill one day, and the next day they sent a letter saying the bill was taken care of.

You don't need to fill out the NR73 and I wouldn't unless I had a request from CRA in writing. Why give them more ammunition in making a determination if you are a deemed resident when they always declare you a non-resident when you just put down the date you left Canada on the form.

Hi Zyggy and Everyone Else,

Good luck on your immigration journeys. Thanks for your replies. So if I do fill out a tax return, the only thing that I need to fill out is the date that I left Canada? That's it? I don't have to fill out the financial numbers stuff? Lol...in that case then maybe it's better that I fill out a tax form instead of a NR73? Boy, am I confused, as I thought that filling out the NR73 would be easier for me (since it is easier for me to fill out words than to fill out numbers, I was never much of a math person)..lol...As for the GST cheques, I simply asked someone in Canada who picked up my mail to put "return to sender" on any government stuff and any other letters that were addressed to me after I left. I did not cash in any cheques after I left, as I am not legally entitled to them anyways. And yes, I am not a resident of Canada anymore, so frankly I don't care how they determine that I'm not a resident there, as the bottom line is I'm not.

Ant

Ant..

All Canadians must file a leaving Canada return which is a T1 from the province that you left with the date that you left on the front. You must file it even if you had absolutely no income during the year that you left...

You should not have done the return to sender on the GST checks. You should have either held onto them uncashed and sent it back when they asked for them or cashed them so that you would have the money to write a check back when they send you the ultimate bill. If you do a mere return to sender, they may not have accounted for it when it was returned and you will still owe the money...

Hi Zyggy,

Good luck on your immigration journey. Thanks for your reply. So do I just print out the first page of the T1 (lol..I didn't even know it was called this until I looked it up and found out it was the proper name for the tax return form), and fill it out with the date that I left and send it in to the CRA?

As for the GST cheques, well, it's a little too late to hold on to them, as they were already sent back "return to sender". But if I did not cash in those cheques, then I do not owe them any money, so why should they send me a bill for cheques that I never cashed in? Frankly, if the uncashed returned cheques got lost in the mail and/or the government does not keep track of cheques that are not cashed, it's not my problem anymore (blame it on Canada Post or the CRA for that). Hey, at least I did the honest thing, I returned those cheques and did not cash them in, as due to that fact that I left the country I am not legally entitled to those cheques in the first place!

Ant

Nope.. you actually have to fill in all the blanks... you can't just send in the first page... if you have 0 income.. you have to prove that you have 0 income and that you don't owe the government anything like for instance if you cashed in a RRSP for education and didn't pay it back.. you would owe the tax for that when you left Canada...

And you could always just keep them in a drawer uncashed and could cash them in later after you told them that you never received them '.. believe me that's not the first time that has been pulled... The goverment has no easy way to track if you ever cashed the checks...

I never even bothered.

Hi Zyggy,

Thanks for your reply. What? I have to fill in all the blanks...darn....Lol..oh well, I'll think about that. As for the cheques, I don't have any in my drawers! All I have are pens, papers, staples, and any other junk, so the government can have that if they want (just kidding). And no, I'm not trying to pull any frauds or anything like that. Even if I did get a cheque from anyone in Canada, there is no way I can cash it in anyways, as I have no financial ties or bank accounts in Canada to cash them in at. Like I said, I did the honest thing, I sent the cheques back. And if the government has no way of tracking down their own cheques that they send out, then what kind of a government are they? Hey, if the government can track anything else, why can't they track a cheque? Hello, it's the government, we are talking about here! If it takes them longer to track, then it's their problem, not mine.

Funny, in all this, I really do have to ask, 'Why the heck do/did I file taxes or submit any paperwork when I didn't even need to?"

Sorry, just needed to vent a bit.....

Ant

Hi Cherry,

I agree, "Why even bother?" filing any paperwork to the government? Good idea.

Ant

Because it's the way to close off your tax status in Canada.... I don't know about you, but the prospect of CRA coming after me for any taxes after I had left is not a very thrilling thing... It's but another thing you do to show you are cutting off your ties to Canada....

Hi Zyggy,

Lol...in that sense, I agree, as the best way to cut off ties is to do it through paperwork. It's just a pain in the neck filling out more paperwork than I have to, that's all. I guess to anyone, the prospect of the CRA coming at my door is not a good idea. Lol...I can just imagine those guys in suits from Ottawa, driving down the country roads here in the USA, only to drive 10hrs or so to find out that I don't owe them any money (sorry, this image is way too funny). Anyways, I'm still thinking about filling out the forms and.or sending them paperwork to "officially cut the apron strings with Canada"....

Ant

The last time I could possibly have owed CRA any moneys would have been for the period of 1993/08/15-1993/12/30. Anyway, CRA had LOTS of opportunities to collect (as I made several airtrips to Calgary, one airtrip to Montreal, and one road-trip from DTW to Ayr).

Agree, the image is just too funny.

I wound up cutting ties in 1996 when my AB licence (issued in 1993, which I hadn't swapped-out in 2 years of living in Metro Atlanta) was stolen while I was working in Memphis; the headaches involved in getting a duplicate were enough to convince me that I should swap that out (which I did, two years before its expiry, for a TN licence).

Hi Cherry,

Good luck on your immigration journey. I agree, if the CRA would have wanted to collect, then they probably would have collected by now. Lol...I can just imagine them now, chasing people at the airport and toll booths in their suits....

Did you end up filing any forms (tax return or NR73 when you left the country?

Glad you got that license thing sorted out though. Yeah, it is not a good situation to have your license stolen. By the way, how come you got to keep your AB license for so long? Isn't there a time limit or something like that to get your Canadian license exchanged?

Ant

There is a time limit, but its not as if they are going to come to ur house and ask for it back,lol