Am I a Non-Resident?

[milimili]

I am trying to figure out if I am a non-resident for tax purposes. I am an international student and I have a Canadian bank account and provincial health care. However, I spend most of the year in my home country for research related to my studies. I am less than 183 days in Canada. My husband is in our home country.

Am I a resident or not?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I am trying to figure out if I am a non-resident for tax purposes. I am an international student and I have a Canadian bank account and provincial health care. However, I spend most of the year in my home country for research related to my studies. I am less than 183 days in Canada. My husband is in our home country.

Am I a resident or not?

Probably not. You can contact CRA and have them make a determination on your tax residency status.

If you spend most of the year in your own country, you likely don't meet the residency requirement for provincial healthcare. If you return to Canada and use the healthcare system when you don't qualify, you will be committing fraud.

 

[milimili]

I understand. I will contact CRA when I come back to Canada. They issued me the health card when I first arrived and I did spend my first year in Canada. But since I am a PhD student I am required to do research abroad (in my home country) so I only spend a semester in Canada when I have a TA-ship. I didn't know I had to do something about the health card.

And yeah, I forgot to mention that I work as a Teaching Assistant one semester per year. Not sure if this chances something regarding residency... It is not permanent work.