Failed to declare international income but willing to do now: am I in trouble?!!

[geo909]

Hello all,

I have the following problem which I'm afraid may be serious! Any feedback
would be greatly appreciated.

I am an international grad student in Ontario. I moved in Canada and
started my master's in September 2008 and since then I've been a student
(now a Phd). My income in Canada is a few scholarships (non-taxable), and
research and teaching assistantships. My taxable income has never been more
than CAD 20,000 per year and I've been receiving tax returns every year.

Now, I do have world income: I receive around 36,000 euros per year from
renting some apartments and stores in my home country. These are all
declared back there and I pay all the taxes that I'm supposed to. However
I never declared that world income since I came in Canada. The reason is
lack of knowledge and proper research from my side as well as failure of
the tax filing company guys to bring up the subject of world income when I
was filing the taxes with them.

This year I thought about filling my taxes myself and I very quickly
realized that I was supposed to be declaring the above-mentioned income in
the first place.. I will most probably go find an accountant and talk about
this and my options, but I'm very stressed and anxious right now and I'd
really like some opinion:

Do you think I'm in trouble? Can I now declare the income that I failed to
declare the previous years? If so, am I going to have to pay some penalty
for not doing so in the first place?!

Thank you in advance for your time..

 

[me2land]

You are fine. CRA will happily accept your coming clean and forgive you the penalty amount. They will re-assess all your past taxes and you will have to pay them + interest.

¬m2l

 

[geo909]

You are fine. CRA will happily accept your coming clean and forgive you the penalty amount. They will re-assess all your past taxes and you will have to pay them + interest.

¬m2l

Thanks, that's good to know!

So I guess what is going to happen most probably is that I am going to return all the previous
tax returns, right? I mean, my Canadian income is very low (so I was getting returns every
year) but my world income is considerable.. What do you think?

 

[me2land]

Well you will have to pay something back but by how much it all depends how "considerable" your world income is. You can talk to a local tax expert in your area and they can re-assess your past taxes and returns and tell you approx. amount of repayment.

¬m2l

 

[RAY2112]

Dear All,

Please I need a help regarding the below issue:

I landed in Canada in Sept 2011 and stayed for approx one month then I came back to my origin country; during the months that I was outside Canada I did one money transfer from my overseas bank account, and now I am planning to return back and settle, I already have Driving License, Canadian bank account, SIN, PR. My questions is, Do I need to pay tax for the amount that I transferred during my absence from Canada and the the money that I am willing to transfer to my Canadian account? I planning to transfer about 50K.

Thank you

 

[geo909]

Dear All,

Please I need a help regarding the below issue:

I landed in Canada in Sept 2011 and stayed for approx one month then I came back to my origin country; during the months that I was outside Canada I did one money transfer from my overseas bank account, and now I am planning to return back and settle, I already have Driving License, Canadian bank account, SIN, PR. My questions is, Do I need to pay tax for the amount that I transferred during my absence from Canada and the the money that I am willing to transfer to my Canadian account? I planning to transfer about 50K.

Thank you

You should start your own topic.. In internet forums it is not considered
appropriate to post your questions on other peoples' threads.

 

[steaky]

Dear All,

Please I need a help regarding the below issue:

I landed in Canada in Sept 2011 and stayed for approx one month then I came back to my origin country; during the months that I was outside Canada I did one money transfer from my overseas bank account, and now I am planning to return back and settle, I already have Driving License, Canadian bank account, SIN, PR. My questions is, Do I need to pay tax for the amount that I transferred during my absence from Canada and the the money that I am willing to transfer to my Canadian account? I planning to transfer about 50K.

Thank you

If you need a definite answer, you can always call the International Tax office of the CRA.