Determining your residency status
Under the Canadian income tax system, your income tax obligations to Canada are based on your residency status. You need to know your residency status before you can know what your tax responsibilities and filing requirements to Canada are.
To determine your residency status, all of the relevant facts in your case must be considered, including residential ties with Canada and the length of time, purpose, intent and continuity of the stay while living inside and outside Canada.
The following steps can help you determine your residency status for income tax purposes and your tax obligations to Canada.
Step 1: Determine if you have residential ties with Canada
The most important thing to consider when determining your residency status in Canada for income tax purposes is whether or not you maintain or establish significant residential ties with Canada.
Residential ties
Significant residential ties to Canada include:
- a home in Canada
- a spouse or common-law partner in Canada
- dependants in Canada
Secondary residential ties that may be relevant include:
- personal property in Canada, such as a car or furniture
- social ties in Canada, such as memberships in Canadian recreational or religious organizations
- economic ties in Canada, such as Canadian bank accounts or credit cards
- a Canadian driver's licence
- a Canadian passport
- health insurance with a Canadian province or territory
The information above is general in nature. For more information on residential ties, see Income Tax Folio S5-F1-C1, Determining an Individual's Residence Status.
Step 2: Determine your residency status and its tax implications
If you left Canada
You may be considered a factual resident of Canada if you maintain residential ties with Canada and are:
- working temporarily outside Canada
- teaching or attending school in another country
- commuting (going back and forth daily or weekly) from Canada to your place of work in the United States (U.S.)
- vacationing outside Canada
- spending part of the year in the U.S., for example, for health reasons or on vacation
You may be considered an emigrant if you left Canada and established a permanent home in another country and you severed your residential ties with Canada, ceasing to be a resident of Canada in the tax year.
You may be considered a deemed non-resident of Canada if you established residential ties in a country that Canada has a tax treaty with and you are considered a resident of that country, but you are otherwise a factual resident of Canada, meaning you maintain significant residential ties with Canada. The same rules apply to deemed non-residents as non-residents of Canada.
You are usually considered a factual resident or a deemed resident of Canada if you left Canada and you are a government employee outside Canada, which includes members of the Canadian Forces posted abroad. For more information, see Government employees outside Canada.
If you entered Canada
You may be considered an immigrant if you left another country to settle in Canada and established significant residential ties with Canada and became a resident of Canada in the tax year.
You may be considered a deemed non-resident of Canada if you have residential ties in a country that Canada has a tax treaty with and you are considered to be a resident of that country, but you are also a factual resident of Canada because you established significant residential ties with Canada. The same rules apply to deemed non-residents as non-residents of Canada.
You may be considered a deemed resident of Canada if you have not established significant residential ties with Canada to be considered a factual resident, but you stayed in Canada for 183 or more days in the year.
If you normally, customarily or routinely live in another country
You may be considered a non-resident of Canada if you did not have significant residential ties with Canada and:
- You lived outside Canada throughout the year (except if you were a deemed resident of Canada)
- You stayed in Canada for less than 183 days in the tax year
If you want the CRA's opinion on your residency status, complete Form NR74, Determination of Residency Status (entering Canada), or Form NR73, Determination of Residency Status (leaving Canada), whichever applies.
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