Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ohahakehte]

what do i do for my income tax bidniss when all of my income for 2004 and most of it in 2003 was earned in korea? a friend who worked in japan for 3 years hasnt done his taxes in a while because he says he didnt earn it in canada.

[the eye]

korea and canada have an information sharing treaty.
if the canadian government still considers you a resident, you will owe canadian tax on your korean income in addition to korean tax.

assets such as property ownership, vehicles, and large financial holdings in canada, will tie you to canadian residency, even though you live in korea for the m ajority of the tax year.

[ohahakehte]

[the eye]

i am hesitant to give advice on what you should do because there are people here who swear to do the opposite.

options:
1. declare non residency. this action requires 2 years living outside of canada.
2. have the canadian income tax report booklet mailed to you and file a report. you don't need a T4.
3. stay under the radar and don't report at all.

[ohahakehte]

[the eye]

i have absolutely nothing in my name in canada, except a personal mailing address. i try to make it look like i am still living there, as a dependant on my family.
the money i send home, is sent to a family member's account.

[ohahakehte]

sounds a lot like me. i dont own any vehicles or dwellings and the little amount of savings i made in korea will probably all go to the fucking government for my income tax. im basically killing time in canada until i find a teaching job in japan

[Daechidong Waygookin]

If you are like me and are planning to live here for a long, long time without any plans to ever go back, then sever as many ties to Canada as you can. Sever them all if you can. Then do nothing. Dont file taxes, dont file for non residency.

If you are going to go back, severing all ties is still the thing to do. Filing for non residency is useless as it ias ABSOLUTELY ZERO LEGAL STANDING and is not at all binding. The feds can still turn around and say you are a resident even if you got non residency status. Its only an opinion.

[mindmetoo]

The Korean government does not remit tax/income data to Rev Can automatically. Under a tax treaty they will if asked, I suppose. But the Korean government does not send Rev Can your Korean "T4". Unless you register at the Canadian embassy or you mailed them your forwarding address, Rev Can has no idea you're here I warrant.

There is no two year rule either. If you're going to be here for a whole tax year or more and you have no home or dependants in Canada (wife or child), then consider yourself non resident. I have been an ex pat for 5 years or something (I last filed tax year 1999), Rev Can has been aware of where I lived abroad, and it has never asked me to file. And in that time I maintained a semi active Canadian bank account and credit cards and have an RRSP (although I did not contribute to it). The serious trigger is a house and things you might claim tax breaks for like putting money into an RRSP or a dependant.

You don't have to fill out the NR form either. This can only lead to some low level tax man deciding you are in fact not NR and demanding you file.

Anyway do a search on things like "non resident" "canada" for loads of previous discussions.

[No L]

File income tax for the income that you did earn in Canada is 2003. On the form, there's a spot for your address, put in your Korean address. I do't know about all provinces, but the MB form asks if you were a resident of the province on the last day of the tax year. Obviously, check no. These will inform Revenue Canada that you're no longer a resident and saves you from filling out the NR-73 form (which is subjective).

After that, you only have file if you have some sort of CDN income (interest on investments, etc.) in addition to your Korean income.

[canadian_in_korea]

Well, I called the international tax office number to find all of this out for myself...and this is what I was told. If you have no ties to canada....children, property, bank accounts, credit card etc.....you can declare yourself a non resident...however...this is judged on a case by case basis....if you do this and come back 3 years later and the government thinks you had intentions of coming back all along, they can make you pay taxes for the last three years. I do know that Canada and Korea also have a pension agreement....my husband was told this by a korean pension guy here, when he moves to canada he can get all the money he paid into korean pension....from canada...I don't know the details.... BUT if you are going to claim that you haven't been working overseas....you should find out about that ...and don't try to get your pension in canada...kind of hard to explain if you made no income why you are entitled to a pension refund. If i'm not mistaken ....technically you don't HAVE to file an income tax every year....if you owe the government money it does accumulate interest so you end up paying more...but if they owe you money...then you just get it later...I have a friend who only files his income tax about once every 3 years....always messes up his GST and stuff. I would also call the canadian embassy and ask about the non-resident thing....i have a friend who has done this and depending maybe on the province you are from...you might have a wait for your health insurance and stuff to be active upon your return...I'm assuming that in the event of a serious illness your provincial health insurance won't cover any of the cost (as they will most likely now, even if you are in another country ....i think) because you are no longer a resident. I just asked my employer if they could give me a paper showing what i made and all my deductions...it took about a week but they gave me one. You can always download the forms from the website....and see how much you would owe....depending on the non=refundable tax credits you can claim.....mine wasn't as bad as I thought it would be....and I had to claim my husband's income...even though he isn't canadian...doesn't live in canada....made all his money in korea....AND we were only married for one month in 2004... ....the canadian government bites....

[paperbag princess]

what's their website?

[karoly]

First it is case by case depending on the answers to the questions that you give on the form you submit to RevCan as previously mentioned. The form is straight forward. Where is it and what is its name; search google for "non-residency Canada form" and it should pop up.

One thing. Governments have an interesting habit of expecting to hear certain things when people are applying for special status. Too much or too little bull*&%t and a flag is raised. Make sure you think you're position through BEFORE YOU SIGN ANYTHING. RevCan does not forget or forgive.

The pertinent question is whether you are residing in a country that taxes your income ( or something to that effect ) and, whether Canada has a tax treaty with said country. Just say yes.

I've got some RRSP's ( not much ), bank account, driver's license, $5000 insurance policy, passport and Mastercard.

They deemed that I had significant ties to Canada . That was for a couple grand in the bank and 7 grand in RRSP's. Nevertheless I got residency in Korea. Good luck if you own a house or other property.

Did this when I went home for a couple months to finish my Masters. I was only in Korea for 15 months or so previously.

You can do it retroactively after having arrived back in Canada; having filed no taxes for the periods applied for. You can download the form and send it to them from Korea. Having a Korean address would probably help. Be prepared to hear, "No" the first time.

I called and they said all I had to do was answer the above referred to question, "Yes." A month or so later no problem.

It's my understanding that you can hop back and forth to the Great White North as long as your stay is less than six months otherwise you're not really a resident of Korea.

As far as intentions are concerned. Yes, I don't intend on going back (for periods of longer than six months). I don't know what would happen but I hazard to guess that Ottawa would be drooling over me like the @#$%* it is. I believe that I would have to make up the difference in taxes to them.

The difference = % taxes normally paid vis-a-vis the Canadian system -% taxes paid here. For simplicity: assuming 24 000 000 a year income and a base tax rate of 28%, you would owe 25% on the 24 M. Good reason to have your own business set up in Canada so that you can deduct everything that you can eh? Thus, it would be prudent to keep all your receipts for items used in your job; I sure as L do (or at least try to)!

Anyone with more info? Let us know.

One thing of interest to me is whether we can still forward Canada Pension payments given that we reside out of state as it were. I believe we can but am not certain. This would be a good way to ensure some income in the future, assuming the future exists.

Another question (and thus another point of interest ) is whether you can top up your RRSP's with funds gained from out of state IF you have a surplus available within said RRSP plan (ie. you didn't have all the cash to make a 100% contribution based on your yearly income so now you want to stash the cash) from other years working income from Canadian sources. I know that you can retroactively contribute if you're in Canada but any other details and I would be guessing. I WANT THIS ANSWER BADLY.

After all is said and done have all the fun you can, while you can, 'cause tomorrow may never come.

[canadian_in_korea]

The website is www.cra-arc.gc.ca ...after you enter the site there is a box to click on for forms and stuff...its pretty straight forward...