Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Eunoia]

I'm really on the fence about formally declaring non-residency or not. I have an accountant relative back home who said I shouldn't really need to, but I'm still feeling a little nervous about the possibility of getting zapped someday for nearly 4 years of working here. I'm planning on going to Hong Kong next, probably for another 3 years at least....

It seems that most people I know of who have applied, have gotten it, but I think I may have too many secondary ties:

* Canadian passport, of course
* Canadian bank account and credit card (which I rarely use...)
* BC driver's licence
* some modest RRSP/mutual fund-type investments - I'm not contributing to them, they're just sitting there fluctuating wildly all on their own.. (I think this is the one that's going to bury me )

So I guess the question is, has anyone applied for Non-Res and been denied? If so, what were the reasons?

[JackSarang]

My accountant told me that because of the Korea-Canada tax treaty that legal workers in Korea are automatically "deemed non-residents".

You pay tax in Korea, the treaty ensures you are not taxed twice on your earnings.

[Zed]

I applied for the 2001 tax year and never got a response even though my tax return went through for 2000 and was in the same envelope.

[The Lemon]

[mindmetoo]

My feeling is why bother filling out that form, especially if you don't have a house or dependants you've claimed on taxes in previous years. If you have just normal crap, like bank accounts, credit cards, etc. my feeling is don't worry about it.

I've lived abroad for 4 years. I've never filled out a NR assesment. I had semi active Canadian bank accounts and credit cards. I've never had Revenue Canada come looking for me, and they knew my mailing address in Seattle because I filed my 1999 taxes while I was in Seattle and put my USA address on it.

If you don't tell them you've moved, Rev Can only knows about you via your t4s. And you only have to file if you owe. If they get no t4s with your name on it, you've either moved abroad, you found a rich significant other and you're living off of him or her, or you're one of those crazy types that saves money, up n quits, sells your record collection, and then backpacks thru australia for a year. In sum, dropping off the tax radar for a couple years and then reappearing isn't much of a red flag. A huge % of Canadians do it.

If you're like most esl teachers and you've worked low paying jobs while in university, you vanish, and then you come back to Canada to a 30-40K a year job, you're not exactly going to be high on anyone's list in the auditing department. It might be a different story if you made 80K a year for 5 years, vanish for a couple years, and then pop up again making 80K. You might raise an eye brow then.

Just move your money home in blocks less than 10K.

[The Lemon]

[Howard Roark]

[The Lemon]

[gi66y]

The ties you have to worry about are the major ones.
ie: House, property, wife, children, a car, a business, having a job held for you, and any large investment.

Things like bank accounts, driver's licenses, credit cards, and small investments are secondary.

A girl at my school was rejected earlier this year because in the box where they ask you if your world income is taxable in Korea she checked "no". They rejected her saying that in that case she is still a "factual resident of Canada" However, after talking to various people in the tax office, she was told she could fax a letter basically saying that "whether or not she must pay taxes on sources made outside of Korea she should not be penalized (by Korean tax law)." She did so and now has non-residency status.

I filled out the NR-73 form a month ago and I'm still waiting to hear back. I called the number in Ottawa, but they tell me it could be as long as 90 days to process. Just to be safe I checked the box saying that I am taxable on World Income (whether it's true or not I'm not even sure).
Also to be on the safe side, I have closed most of my secondary ties as well as picking up some Korean ones including a driver's license (only 10,000 and good for 10 years). Also I didn't send them a copy of my contract. I figure that if I do end up getting denied then I'll claim income here, but less than I actually make.

Here's the link to the form.
http://www.ccra-adrc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/nr73/README.html

[mindmetoo]

[mithridates]

Not exactly related to residency but I just noticed this from today's budget:



While there are few surprises in the latest federal budget, at least one promise had the pundits buzzing.

The budget, unveiled by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale, included a tax exemption for Canadian Forces personnel who choose to serve in dangerous missions overseas.

"For those periods when Canadian soldiers are risking their lives overseas, they will no longer pay income tax here at home," Goodale vowed.

It was among just a few targeted tax breaks included in the fiscal plan, which made no other mention of personal income tax.

[FierceInvalid]

I'm currently waiting to hear back after filling out the form. I knew I didn't necessarily have to do it but wanted to anyway just for piece of mind. Lemon, it says specifically at the top of the form that once you are declared a non-resident for a particular tax year you then don't have to file in subsequent years (unless you return to Canada to work, of course). So unless I'm really missing the boat, the form has everything to do with whether you have to file or not.

I do have a question, though: is someone who fills out the form and successfully gets non-residency is only a non-resident "for tax purposes", right? The reason I ask is that sometime in the next couple of years I want to go back to Canada and get the working holiday visa. You need to be a resident of Canada to apply, and I don't want this tax thing to bite me in the ass for that.

[mindmetoo]