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smedini
Joined: 02 Apr 2008
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 Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 10:23 am Post subject: |
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| SeoulShakin wrote: |
PS - super weird to come on here and read references to Dartmouth haha. |
Where're you from, SoulShakin'?
~smedini |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Just don't tell the government anything. For all they know you could be doing volunteer work. I've been out of touch with Revenue Canada et al. for seven years now and nothing's happened about it. |
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fusionbarnone
Joined: 31 May 2004
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 10:13 pm Post subject: |
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This is a frightening yet real subject concerning non-residency. The taxation depts. in many countries will come after those who owe them with compounding interest on the assessed amount. In the US, it's possible to settle 10 cents on the dollar(that's why some people wait after their student loans go to collectors) for most debts including owed taxes.
Get chatting to your accountant about this. Mine told me that as long as I wasn't making money from rentals everything would be hunky dory. |
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Jughead
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 10:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Just don't tell the government anything. For all they know you could be doing volunteer work. I've been out of touch with Revenue Canada et al. for seven years now and nothing's happened about it. |
Because you're in Korea. As far as they know, you are dead. It's when you go back and file again that things could get sticky. |
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smedini
Joined: 02 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Jughead wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Just don't tell the government anything. For all they know you could be doing volunteer work. I've been out of touch with Revenue Canada et al. for seven years now and nothing's happened about it. |
Because you're in Korea. As far as they know, you are dead. It's when you go back and file again that things could get sticky. |
This is true. Imagine you go home and file. The government says, hey YBS, where ya been lo' these seven years? And you say, uhm, I was volunteering, dude. They say, oh yeah, where? You say, uhm, Malawi. Or some other place where they would believe you were a volunteer. And just say they don't buy it and decide to go snooping into where your passport has been used or which countries have issued you a visa. Hmm, Korea, eh? Seven visas, you say. Well, let's see how much you earned while you were there "volunteering" and how much you paid in taxes...you see, we can do that because we have a tax treaty with Korea so we can find out right down to the last shimwon you made. Oh look...you only paid 6% on the income you made rather than the 16% you should have paid in Canada (just tossing figures around for effect there  )...let's see how much you owe us (whirring of an adding machine)....well, well Mr. YBS...you'd better go back to Korea to make enough to pay your tax bill.
 Shudder!
IMHO
~smedini |
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loose_ends
Joined: 23 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:37 pm Post subject: |
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| smedini wrote: |
| Jughead wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Just don't tell the government anything. For all they know you could be doing volunteer work. I've been out of touch with Revenue Canada et al. for seven years now and nothing's happened about it. |
Because you're in Korea. As far as they know, you are dead. It's when you go back and file again that things could get sticky. |
This is true. Imagine you go home and file. The government says, hey YBS, where ya been lo' these seven years? And you say, uhm, I was volunteering, dude. They say, oh yeah, where? You say, uhm, Malawi. Or some other place where they would believe you were a volunteer. And just say they don't buy it and decide to go snooping into where your passport has been used or which countries have issued you a visa. Hmm, Korea, eh? Seven visas, you say. Well, let's see how much you earned while you were there "volunteering" and how much you paid in taxes...you see, we can do that because we have a tax treaty with Korea so we can find out right down to the last shimwon you made. Oh look...you only paid 6% on the income you made rather than the 16% you should have paid in Canada (just tossing figures around for effect there )...let's see how much you owe us (whirring of an adding machine)....well, well Mr. YBS...you'd better go back to Korea to make enough to pay your tax bill.
Shudder!
IMHO
~smedini |
This is wrong. The tax treaty keeps one from having to pay double taxes. If you file for a tax credit and have proof of paying taxes in Korea, you won't have to pay double taxes. From my understanding, a person needs to pay taxes in one country, usually the one with the lowest tax rate.
Scroll through this thread for the details. |
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Jughead
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 4:31 am Post subject: |
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That's true.
But the point of the whole thing is that you will never really know about the non-residency thing until you go back and are back on their radar. That's when there could be questions. If they believe you owe them, they'll figure out how much it is..... don't worry about that.
The thing to do is cut your ties. As many as possible.
Look, a true non-resident will never reside in Canada ever again, and therefore never have to be concerned about Canadian tax again. What they want to know is if you really had the intention of leaving Canada for good. If you changed your mind at a later date and came back, that's no problem... that's life. But if you left the country for a short duration of time, only to beat the tax system, they will have a problem with that. That's what they're looking for. Keeping stuff in a storage locker proves that you intended to come back. Owning a house can prove that you were coming back (depending on things already mentioned in this thread). Having medical insurance, a driver's license (in some situations), a bank account, RRSP, credit cards..... all of these things can be used logically to prove that you intended on coming back.
I think that is how you have to look at it, and then get rid of as many of the ties as you can live with, and forget about the stupid 'filing' for non-residency thing. If you cut all of the items mentioned above, they will have a very difficult time proving that you are in fact a resident regardless of how long you've been out of the country. Don't give them a leg to stand on. |
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smedini
Joined: 02 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 5:10 am Post subject: |
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| loose_ends wrote: |
| smedini wrote: |
| Jughead wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Just don't tell the government anything. For all they know you could be doing volunteer work. I've been out of touch with Revenue Canada et al. for seven years now and nothing's happened about it. |
Because you're in Korea. As far as they know, you are dead. It's when you go back and file again that things could get sticky. |
This is true. Imagine you go home and file. The government says, hey YBS, where ya been lo' these seven years? And you say, uhm, I was volunteering, dude. They say, oh yeah, where? You say, uhm, Malawi. Or some other place where they would believe you were a volunteer. And just say they don't buy it and decide to go snooping into where your passport has been used or which countries have issued you a visa. Hmm, Korea, eh? Seven visas, you say. Well, let's see how much you earned while you were there "volunteering" and how much you paid in taxes...you see, we can do that because we have a tax treaty with Korea so we can find out right down to the last shimwon you made. Oh look...you only paid 6% on the income you made rather than the 16% you should have paid in Canada (just tossing figures around for effect there )...let's see how much you owe us (whirring of an adding machine)....well, well Mr. YBS...you'd better go back to Korea to make enough to pay your tax bill.
Shudder!
IMHO
~smedini |
This is wrong. The tax treaty keeps one from having to pay double taxes. If you file for a tax credit and have proof of paying taxes in Korea, you won't have to pay double taxes. From my understanding, a person needs to pay taxes in one country, usually the one with the lowest tax rate.
Scroll through this thread for the details. |
Sorry loose ends (and Jughead) this is not correct. I *literally* just got off the phone with the International Tax Office and they said that yes, if you are deemed to be a resident of Canada and are therefore subject to paying Canadian income tax, you can apply for a tax credit and the Canadian government will put that credit towards what you have to pay, thereby deducting the already-paid-in-Korea portion of your Canadian income tax so you don't get double taxed on THAT portion. The remainder of it (what's left after you take away what you paid in Korea from what you would have paid on the money had you made it in Canada) has to be paid to the Canadian government. Again, this is if you are NOT accepted as a non-resident...if you are accepted as a non-resident, this point is moot since you won't have to pay any Canadian taxes.
Also, on another note, the lovely man at the ITO also told me the same thing what I was yesterday by the CRA office...the letter you get that says you're accepted as a non-resident *IS* legal as long as nothing changes in terms of the form you filled out. If nothing changes, or they don't catch you lying, they can't come back to you in ten years and tell you that you have to pay taxes for the period when you were deemed a non-resident.
And back to the OP and everyone else in doubt...dont't listen to me because I've done this non-resident thing twice already and don't listen to me because I *just* got off the phone with the ITO (and spoke to CRA yesterday)...don't listen to anyone on this forum...there's a lot of misinformation flying around here and in the end it will have to be your informed decision since it's your life and your money. Call the ITO. Call CRA. Ask them all the questions you want...they have the answers you need.
~smedini |
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Jughead
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 7:01 am Post subject: |
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| smedini wrote: |
| loose_ends wrote: |
| smedini wrote: |
| Jughead wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| Just don't tell the government anything. For all they know you could be doing volunteer work. I've been out of touch with Revenue Canada et al. for seven years now and nothing's happened about it. |
Because you're in Korea. As far as they know, you are dead. It's when you go back and file again that things could get sticky. |
This is true. Imagine you go home and file. The government says, hey YBS, where ya been lo' these seven years? And you say, uhm, I was volunteering, dude. They say, oh yeah, where? You say, uhm, Malawi. Or some other place where they would believe you were a volunteer. And just say they don't buy it and decide to go snooping into where your passport has been used or which countries have issued you a visa. Hmm, Korea, eh? Seven visas, you say. Well, let's see how much you earned while you were there "volunteering" and how much you paid in taxes...you see, we can do that because we have a tax treaty with Korea so we can find out right down to the last shimwon you made. Oh look...you only paid 6% on the income you made rather than the 16% you should have paid in Canada (just tossing figures around for effect there )...let's see how much you owe us (whirring of an adding machine)....well, well Mr. YBS...you'd better go back to Korea to make enough to pay your tax bill.
Shudder!
IMHO
~smedini |
This is wrong. The tax treaty keeps one from having to pay double taxes. If you file for a tax credit and have proof of paying taxes in Korea, you won't have to pay double taxes. From my understanding, a person needs to pay taxes in one country, usually the one with the lowest tax rate.
Scroll through this thread for the details. |
Sorry loose ends (and Jughead) this is not correct. I *literally* just got off the phone with the International Tax Office and they said that yes, if you are deemed to be a resident of Canada and are therefore subject to paying Canadian income tax, you can apply for a tax credit and the Canadian government will put that credit towards what you have to pay, thereby deducting the already-paid-in-Korea portion of your Canadian income tax so you don't get double taxed on THAT portion. The remainder of it (what's left after you take away what you paid in Korea from what you would have paid on the money had you made it in Canada) has to be paid to the Canadian government. Again, this is if you are NOT accepted as a non-resident...if you are accepted as a non-resident, this point is moot since you won't have to pay any Canadian taxes.
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Sorry, I didn't read loose ends post carefully enough. You're right on this point smedini. |
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smedini
Joined: 02 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 7:13 am Post subject: |
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^ Thanks, Juggy 
Nonetheless, everyone should make their own calls and not rely on what they read here (even though I'm right... ...teehee). Seriously, though, it's not something to mess around with...gawd...can you imagine coming home and getting slagged with a couple of years' worth of taxes...och, a nightmare to be sure .
~smedini |
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Lola
Joined: 17 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 7:46 am Post subject: |
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| I wonder what happens if you've invested some of your hard-earned Korean pay in Canadian companies... |
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smedini
Joined: 02 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 7:51 am Post subject: |
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| Lola wrote: |
| I wonder what happens if you've invested some of your hard-earned Korean pay in Canadian companies... |
I'm not 100% sure but I believe if you get dividends from those investments you have to pay taxes on those. Double check to be sure but I'm fairly certain that's how it goes...
IMHO
~smedini |
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The Lemon
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 4:34 am Post subject: |
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| Jughead wrote: |
| Look, a true non-resident will never reside in Canada ever again, and therefore never have to be concerned about Canadian tax again. What they want to know is if you really had the intention of leaving Canada for good. |
Precisely true.
| Shakin wrote: |
| PS - super weird to come on here and read references to Dartmouth haha. |
You don't know the half of it. I teach half-way around the world from Halifax. One of my colleagues here at my school used to teach my (Korean) brother in law (my wife's brother) in Halifax, while another colleague grew up in Fairview with my other brother in law, my sister's husband. And I'd never met any of these people before I arrived. I think we're up to 10 Maritimers in this school. |
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SeoulShakin
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 1:25 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm from Dartmouth, went to University in Halifax, and am now back home after being in Seoul for two years. It just kind of threw me off, reading references to Dartmouth while on the site I perused so often while in Korea. |
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smedini
Joined: 02 Apr 2008
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| Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 6:40 pm Post subject: |
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| SeoulShakin wrote: |
| I'm from Dartmouth, went to University in Halifax, and am now back home after being in Seoul for two years. It just kind of threw me off, reading references to Dartmouth while on the site I perused so often while in Korea. |
Lol...it sure is a small world! I'm in Dartmouth now and Lemon and I have chatted behind the PM screen a bit and not only is he from here, he is where I want to be next year in the middle east...same city!
Where do you live in Dartmouth, SeoulShakin? And where did you go to Uni? I live in Westphal and went to SMU.
~smedini |
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