exenglishman

my personal opinion is that you are not currently a Resident of Canada as you are in the 'in process' part of the application, you are probably on some sort of working holiday visa. You are only deemed a resident for tax purposes I believe. You are therefore still a Resident of the UK so morally, shouldnt feel bad about doing so.

Then theres the question of actually finding a NHS Dentist though haha.

To be honest though, I havnt even been in Canada two years and and my health plan through work has better coverage than I ever did in the UK for Dental, I pay less and the Dentist quality is so much better. He even uncovered things my UK dentist never could (problem sensitive teeth etc) Not to mention I used to hate going to the Dentist in the UK, here I have no issues with it as the experience is that much nicer. This could just be my dentist choice, either way im happy

Siouxie

There was one interesting line on the "who has to pay for NHS treatment - visitors from abroad" web-page.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/E...able/DH_074379

People fully entitled to NHS hospital treatment free of charge:

"Anyone working abroad (including self employed people) for not more than 5 years as long as they have lived legally in the UK for ten continuous years at some point"

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/E...able/DH_128866

conjonway

Many thanks for the link, it was very helpful.

No, I didn't even think to Google it actually. Besides, I find it useful to get answers/opinions from people who have experienced things first hand. I did search the forum first though. (albeit briefly - not a big fan of how the search results show up - maybe I'm just stupid)

I saw that, and thought that maybe that stretches enough to cover it, although that first eligibility requirement seems to pretty clearly say no

It's a bit of an eye opener, because I consider my self quite paranoid about things happening, so I like to know that I'm covered by insurance if anything goes wrong! If I was to fly home for a few days, and I want to be absolute certain I was covered I might need to buy travel insurance I guess!

scrubbedexpat133

I was with a private dentist in UK still much cheaper that Canada - same for opticians, they nearly fell off the chair when I told them what I paid with specsavers vs what they were asking for (more than double!!! )

so I make a point of doing both when Im in the UK

MarkG

I found the dentist fees here were about the same as I paid in the UK, though my dentist there had fancy gizmos that the dentist here doesn't. I agree about opticians though, since many people here have insurance which will pay for glasses they can afford to charge crazy prices.

Pretty Flowers

... As a heads up dental work not covered on insurance in Canada is tax deductible.

I know this because I'm half way though about $5,000 worth of treatment, and although 90% of this is covered by my health insurance, I can still claim for the remainder as part of my tax return next year.

Apparently medical expenses are the most missed tax rebate. Hope this helps.

cheeky_monkey

yes its something small like 3%..so if you have $1000 of dental and are covered for 90% you get something like 3% back of $100..so $3..i think well something like that it may not be 3% but its not much.

Pretty Flowers

Not correct. You're allowed to claim medical expenses for up to 3% of your gross income (so if you earned $100,000 you could make a claim for up to $3,000 in medical expenses). The rebate amount is the lowest level of income taxation (the CRA site mentions 17% but this % may have changed)

In my case, I can put in a claim for approx $2,500 worth of expenses, meaning that I could get $425 back. Seems worth doing to me...

cheeky_monkey

Actually looking at my tax return its 3% or $2,000 whichever is less so it is capped at $2k...then they take that away from your medical expenses after deducting healthcare benefit...then add that to federal non refundable tax credits...so if you have $2500 worth of medical expenses you can only claim on $500 worth...i think?

Pretty Flowers

Honestly not sure. Just went by what the CRA website said...

dbd33

iirc it's the case that you can claim the tax on the medical bills exceeding 3% of your income so, if income is $100,000 and the dental bill $4,000, $1,000 is eligible. On the $1,000 the tax break is at your marginal tax rate so well less than $500.

I did well on this one year but only by having dental work for the coming year billed in December so I could combine the cost with the previous year's.

Souvy

The best way to deal with this is to shack-up with/marry a soldier who retires and joins the public service. We have insurance coming out of the proverbial.

JonboyE

Sort of right. You claim for medical expenses that exceed 3% of net income or $2,052 (2011) - whichever is the lower.

If you earn $50,000 a year you claim medical expenses in excess of $1,500 (50,000 x .03). If you earn $100,000 you claim medical expenses in excess of $2,052. In your example the $100,000 earner claims $1,948 (4000 - 2052).

The tax break is always at the combined federal and provincial basic rates: e.g. 20% in ON and BC or 25% in AB. The Ontario taxpayer earning $100,000 with $4,000 of medical expenses gets to reduce their taxes by $390 (1948 x .2).

It is non-refundable so if you don't pay tax you are SOL.

You can choose any 12 month period that ends in the tax year. If you had expenses in November 2010 that you could not claim because of the 3% limit in 2010 you can combine these with medical expenses in Jan - Oct 2011 on your 2011 tax return.

__TJ__

my uk dentist is nhs, in fact they are advertising for new patients!!!

so there is something good about this hole...

Steve_

My dentist told me the other day she spends a lot of time fixing NHS dentist screw ups. I know my previous dentist said some of the work done on my fillings by an NHS dentist was the worst he had seen.

As far as paying dentists, I don't notice that much of a difference compared to a private dentist in the UK.

Optometrists you have to be careful of, the prices for frames here are insane compared to the UK but on the other hand I went to one in the US not long ago and his prices for contact lenses were basically identical to what I pay here. In the UK my optometrist at the time used to order lenses from the US because he said they were cheaper.

Just like anything else really, you have to shop around.