flipance

I know you are trying to be helpful but you seem to have missed the point, A seasonal resident has to own or lease a house already, not be about to own one, that was my point. So when this person enters, because they do not already own a house they can not claim to be seasonal residents.

flipance

Flogpoling is leaving the country and entering again at any convieniant border crossing. ( Normaly done to land to activate PR, but it may be a way you can get your goods to follow in)

Sumner5

Dear All

Thanks for all your useful replies. As a result of the comment posted about our arrival before closure on our property purchase meaning we wouldn't be seasonal residents and the potential need to flagpole I called CSBA yesterday and was relieved to hear that they will take a common sense view on it......we simply need to explain to the customs officer that we are arriving to purchase a property and take occupation for the first time and that the goods to follow will therefore be used in our seasonal residence and apparently that is absolutely fine - phew!

Hope this might help others along the line.

flipance

Great result

JonboyE

I think that is because there is the law, and the application of the law - which are not always the same. The law says on any change of use there is a deemed disposition and reacquisition that could trigger a capital gain.

In practice, using part of your home for business or rental will not mean a loss of principal residence status if the business and/or rental use is incidental to its use as a residence.

This is from the CRA's T4036 guide:

You are usually considered to have changed the use of part of your principal residence when you start to use that part for rental purposes. However, you are not considered to have changed its use if:

* the part you use for rental purposes is small in relation to the whole property;
* you do not make any structural changes to the property to make it more suitable for rental purposes; and
* you do not deduct any CCA on the part you are using for rental purposes.

If you meet all the above conditions, the whole property may qualify as your principal residence even though you are using part of it for rental purposes.

I find a similar common sense attitude is taken to business use of a principal residence. The key condition IMHO is CCA. If you claim capital cost allowance then that part of the house can no longer be considered as a principal residence (and you'll get stung for recapture when you sell it or change it back).

Siouxie

There are mortgages for non-residents, although the amount required as a down payment are higher.

One bank who provide this service is CIBC

http://www.cibc.ca/ca/mortgages/new-...ner-pgrms.html

Steve_

"Small in relation to the whole property" - so it's vague, basically. "Small" could mean anything really. Which is probably why I can never get a straight answer about it. "We don't care unless you get audited".

Plus there's the bit about making changes to the property. So if you convert your garage into an office...