Claiming Canadian work experience when you didn't pay Canadian Taxes

[rily]

What’s confusing is that they went thru the procedure to get him multiple exempt LMIA’S, but then never put him on the Canadian companies payroll account to make him an employee of that Canadian company, nor did he apply to get a temporary SIN from ESDC
He in affect was never hired by the Canadian company he was doing the work for, sounds like a sub contractor situation, wasn’t on the companies books at all. Were they aware you were going to go the CEC route to apply for PR with this work ?
The “have been with an employer in Canada“ sounds like one has to be employed by an employer in Canada , and he never was since all his remuneration came from the company aka his employer in the USA

US and Canada have NAFTA agreement. P.Eng or certified engineering technologist can cross border to work in US or Canada without a work permit. It is common for big companies. My companies always send people cross border all the time. My friend in US office asked me to fly there too. In this case, he is employed under US company not Canadian company. I'm pretty sure he didn't have residency in Canada either. Companies paid for the apartment for sure. It is very risky to gain CEC points because he doesn't have any approve for that.

 

[scylla]

This is information I brought up to him at the time I was doing my own Canadian taxes last year, and he looked into it- however the company told him it wasn't necessary (very large company with legal reps handling the back and forth so I have no idea what was going on to be honest). Hence why I'm very confused. Do you suggest he try and file Canadian taxes now, and will this have a negative repercussion if we do get an ITA? I'm not sure how that works now that we are both no longer residing there.

Edit: He never obtained a SIN- he still used all his US bank accounts, phone plan etc as he went back to the US frequently. So I believe this means he can't even file? Bit of a sticky one here

If he had no SIN - then this won't be classified as Canadian work experience. He needs to classify this work as foreign work experience. The lack of a SIN along with no taxes filed seals the deal on this. BTW - sort of impossible to be in Canada on a work permit but not have a SIN. Not sure how he did that. It wasn't legal.

 

[jes_ON]

US and Canada have NAFTA agreement. P.Eng or certified engineering technologist can cross border to work in US or Canada without a work permit. It is common for big companies. My companies always send people cross border all the time. My friend in US office asked me to fly there too. In this case, he is employed under US company not Canadian company. I'm pretty sure he didn't have residency in Canada either. Companies paid for the apartment for sure. It is very risky to gain CEC points because he doesn't have any approve for that.

A business visitor is not an employee of a Canadian company and does not reside in Canada, and the work experience would not qualify as Canadian work experience.

In the OP´s case, they had a work permit and legally resided in Canada for 1 1/2 years. Regardless of payment arrangments, the OP should have filed a Canadian tax return. Something is not quite right with this story.

 

[scylla]

A business visitor is not an employee of a Canadian company and does not reside in Canada, and the work experience would not qualify as Canadian work experience.

In the OP´s case, they had a work permit and legally resided in Canada for 1 1/2 years. Regardless of payment arrangments, the OP should have filed a Canadian tax return. Something is not quite right with this story.

100% agree. The information doesn't add up. You can't be in Canada on a work permit and have no SIN.

 

[jes_ON]

He had several valid LMIA exempt work permits from each stint.

There are many different kinds of LMIA-exempt work permits, could you be more specific? For example, even under NAFTA there are 4 classes of temporary workers. My guess is your partner came under the NAFTA Professional class, which would allow him to work for his US employer under contract to a Canadian employer. (And as being paid by the US employer, did not require a SIN).

This is information I brought up to him at the time I was doing my own Canadian taxes last year, and he looked into it- however the company told him it wasn't necessary (very large company with legal reps handling the back and forth so I have no idea what was going on to be honest). Hence why I'm very confused. Do you suggest he try and file Canadian taxes now, and will this have a negative repercussion if we do get an ITA? I'm not sure how that works now that we are both no longer residing there.

Edit: He never obtained a SIN- he still used all his US bank accounts, phone plan etc as he went back to the US frequently. So I believe this means he can't even file? Bit of a sticky one here

If you were both residing in Canada, and he performed his work in Canada (regardless of the location of payroll), then he should have filed a Canadian tax return (which requires getting a SIN).

If he was using his frequent trips back and forth to claim to be a business visitor instead of a temporary worker (resident) - as you said, "working on the road", then it would not be considered Canadian work experience. (And maybe on the wrong side of the law if he actually was residing in Canada).

If you want to use this as Canadian experience,you could contact the CRA to see if there is some way to correct this. (Note that this could end up costing a bit). Trying to change all of that now might be not be that easy (since it could also involve revising the US tax return). You might want to talk to a lawyer before attempting it.

https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2014/04/canada-thinking-beyond-borders.html

You could try to see how it plays out, but I don´t know what you would give as proof of Canadian work experience, since his employer was a US company.

I think it is safe to say the company lawyers were not concerned about his being able to use the experience for immigration purposes.