Edo

So I did my first tax returns March and received my Notice of Assessment in August (I know quite efficient!) with some refund. I claimed for GST refund as well and I just had a letter from CRA asking for my UK income for the portion of time in 2013 before I moved to Canada. I moved here in May 2013.

Can someone tell me why are they asking me for this information, when I am not supposed to report or be taxed on foreign income until I became a tax resident in Canada?

Souvy

Possibly because they are now looking much more closely at anything "foreign".

Money laundering, tax evasion etc.

My Canadian return was a lot more probing this year than it was before. So was my UK one.

JonboyE

Income tax and GST are different taxes with different rules. You are correct that you do not pay income tax on foreign earnings before you become tax-resident in Canada. Your eligibility for a GST refund depends on your earnings in the previous year, regardless of source. It is intended to be a small supplement for poor people.

BristolUK

March to August is efficient? I netfile and it's usually done in a day or two.

MarkG

It's the first one that takes a while. You're already in their system after that.

BristolUK

I don't think my first took much longer. Obviously I didn't netfile but I signed up for a CRA account and I saw it was done a week or so after mailing it.

Mind you, being an upstanding citizen it looks as if they do mine without question.

Edo

Sarcasm lol. It was so frustrating to wait for 4 and a half months for my own money that I was overcharged for in taxes.

Almost Canadian

If you had completed the necessary paperwork correctly when you were first employed, you would not have been "overcharged". It is perfectly possible, as an employee, to owe tax at the end of each tax year.

BristolUK

Ah...see what you mean. I don't get tax refunds so it never seems like a long wait to me.

Edo

Do you know what's the maximum threshold of foreign income in a year to be eligible for GST refund? Just trying to figure out if its worth it to declare my UK income between January and May of 2013.

JonboyE

You will get something if your combined world income (UK + Canada) is less than around $42,000 in 2013.

BristolUK

Just did a calculator thingy on that for New Brunswick. Childless couple can have $45k net income and still qualify.

Even a single person with net $35k gets $100 every three months. Needs to have $43k net before losing it all.

It would be nice to graduate to that level of 'poor'


I wish that new post while typing feature was back. I got interrupted before I finished and your follow on post appeared in the meantime.

Kaye5

We're poor. We get GST/HST rebate. We declared our UK employee income for 2013 (before becoming resident in Canada). I didn't think it was a big deal, just gave them our P45 figures.

We also declare UK rental income since becoming resident - we don't get taxed on it in the UK as the amount is too low but get taxed in Canada instead.

Edo

OK I can send them my P45. But since P45 shows income for the whole financial year and the financial year in the UK is different to the financial year in Canada, how will they calculate my income between January 2013 and April 2013 since I moved here in May 2013. I know this question might sound silly to some but I'm strictly going by the well known rule here that says "no question is a stupid question"

Shirtback

Does your P45 stipulate dates for the UK Financial year? If not, I'd print off the relevant page from HMRC and send it along too. They, & you, ought then to be able to prorate the annual income for the relevant months.

You might need to fill out T2209 (foreign tax credits, if you paid UK taxes).


JonboyE is much more knowledgeable than I.

S