alan yuill

I am a Canadian citizen hoping to return with my new partner and her family
3 teens of 16 and 17 to settle in Hamilton, Ontario in 2008.
The problem is that I work for an offshore drilling contractor in Angola and
am employed through a company in Cyprus. I will have to pay Canadian taxes etc but we are worried about the lack of benifits i.e dental ,health insurance,
prescription drugs. My partner is a secretary within the national health service and is worried that she may not find suitable employment or may choose part-time so may not qualify for employment benifits.
Also could I claim the kids education costs for university/college on my tax return
We are going out to Hamilton before year end to find out more about these things, it would be great to have an idea of the pit falls before we go.

Andrew Miller

How you can live in Canada if you work in Angola??? Will you commute there every day? Or once a week? I didn't think so.

If you cannot prove that you will be really living in Canada (not just visiting family from time to time) your partner's application will be refused.

alan yuill

Sorry I should have made it clear that I spend 28 days out in Angola and then I would have 28 days at home ( less 1 day either side travel time )
Would this be a problem as I would be in Canada less than 6 months of the year??

robwrx

Hiya Alan

I am in the oil game too ( mechanical commissioning) and usually work overseas as you do on a 28/28 rota or whatever.
I think you need to spend at least two years out of five in Canada to maintain your permanent residency.
So I make 28/28 ok as you will be in Canada 6 months per year x 5 = 30 months.
Not everyone can have a normal 9 till 5 job and spend every day of every year in Canada. As long as you pay your Canadian taxes I can't see any problem with what you want to do. We have applied under skilled worker program and may do exactly the same as you on occasion, just to keep the bank balance up. At least that way you don't need to worry about having your qualifications accepted in Canada to be able to earn a good living.

Good luck
Rob

alan yuill

thanks for that Rob
The Canadians I work with out in Angola tell me that they are really having
a difficult time getting staff to go overseas so the contracts are very good.
If you work for a Canadian company your first $85000 is tax free.
You may be quicker trying to get hired direct by one of these companies, I found plenty of them looking for staff on various oil related websites
Alan

Judy in Calgary

Alan, I don't know enough about the topic to say whether or not you would be allowed to sponsor your partner and her children to become permanent residents of Canada. However, I'll try to address the other issues you raised.

Since your partner and her children would live in Canada permanently, they would be eligible for Ontario Health Care Insurance Plan (OHIP) coverage.

I don't know whether or not your 28/28 rotation would jeopardise your eligibility for OHIP. Most provincial health care insurance plans stipulate that you have to spend 183 days of the year in your home province in order to qualify for coverage.

There is the additional stipulation in Ontario that you may not be absent for more than 30 days in your first six months in Ontario, or you lose your eligibility. However, another poster made enquiries about the 30-day rule, and found out that he could get around it if he got himself classified as a mobile worker. There is a thread about that topic here.

If your partner does not get supplementary medical and dental benefits through her job, your family would be wise to purchase private medical and dental insurance.

All of you in any case will need to consider getting private medical insurance during the initial 3-month waiting period before you're eligible for OHIP. For that insurance, look into:

• Canadasure
  
• Manulife
  
• Blue Cross
  
• Sunlife
  
• Greenlife
  
• Great West Life

As far as I know, you cannot claim your partner's children's university tuition against your taxable income. If they earn money themselves (through summer jobs, for example), they can deduct their tuition (or a good chunk of it anyway) from their income.

Something for you to be aware of is the fact that university tuition is much higher for a non-resident of a province than it is for a resident of a province. If a student did not live in a province in the year preceding his/her university studies, he/she is charged the higher out-of-province tuition fee for his/her first year. During his/her second year of university, he/she is charged the lower local tuition fee (because the first year of university, during which the student lived in the relevant province, qualified him/her as a local resident for tuition fee assessing purposes).

JAJ

Are you sure that's true? If he is tax resident of Canada then Canadian tax will be due on worldwide income.

alan yuill

I,m not 100% on that but at least 3 of the canadians have told me the same thing, its of great interest to me as the company I work for are bidding for contracts in canada and hopefully open an office there in time
Alan

alan yuill

Thanks for the info Judy, I will check with the university,s to see the difference
Alan

JAJ

You should ask them if they have completed form NR-73 and had it accepted by the Canada Revenue Agency.

I would think that if you are a Canadian working on a "fly in, fly out" basis to Angola, and have a home+family in Canada, there is a good chance the CRA will still continue you to be Canada tax resident.

Andrew Miller

I agree with JAJ here - you can't have the cake and eat it too. If you want to claim that you "reside" in Canada but "only work" abroad, have all your ties, family, dwellings, bank accounts, or even stored furniture and/or other household items you are Canadian resident for tax purposes and file Canadian tax return and pay taxes here.

alan yuill

Thanks for your input, although my original thread wasn,t about tax I thought
I,d try to find out more about what I had heard from the canucks over in Angola.
I checked with the site below

[U]www.cra-arc.gc.ca
The form is IT 497 Overseas employment tax credit ( summary )
Hope this helps anyone in a similar position
Alan

Andrew Miller

As far as I understand what this tax credit is all about you don't qualify for it as you are employed by company in Cyprus. This credit applies to Canadians who are employed by employer in Canada (Canadian resident) but are assigned to perform majority of their duties abroad.

ck1

[QUOTE=alan yuill;5121838]If you work for a Canadian company your first $85000 is tax free.
/QUOTE]

Christ man, get me a job where you are!