Married an American, moved to USA and unsure of current Canadian citizenship

[HK5775]

Hello,
I'm looking to get some help and some more information for my current situation.
I married my husband in December of 2011 and moved to America in June 2012. I am currently a PR in America and have a green card. While filling out taxes for 2011 and 2012 year, my marital status was not changed to married nor was it mentioned that I moved to the US (in all honesty this was carelessness on my part and partially on the part of my father who was the one filling my taxes for me at the time). After talking to my accountant, she emphasized that I get this fixed ASAP and informed me that I have to fill out an NR73 form to send to revenue Canada before I can fill out my taxes for 2013 however, I'm currently attending college in the US (I don't know if that changes anything).

At this point my main concerns are as follows;
1. Will I be allowed to keep my Canadian citizenship/Healthcare coverage while living in the States?
2. What can I expect to happen next?

If you're a Canadian living in the US, please let me know what you did regarding taxes/residency in Canada.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Rob_TO]

Healthcare will depend on your province. In some provinces there is a residency obligation, and if you are out of the province for a long enough time you lose healthcare and have to go through a waiting period after you return to qualify for healthcare again. Some provinces (like Alberta) have no waiting period but if you ever returned just to use healthcare, you'd need to actually reside there for a set time.

And your accountant is right, you need to go back and fix your taxes. What you've done (intentional or not) was commit tax fraud by filing as single when you were in fact married. If you were getting any monthly benefit payments (like GST/HST rebates) since Dec 2011 as single, and you wouldn't have qualified as married, then you will need to pay everything back. Your accountant can help you out here.

Declaring non-residency will exempt you from paying Canadian taxes each year while in the US. However to declare non-residency you need to sever ties with Canada (such as bank accounts, home, etc). If you don't declare non-residency, then it's expected any income you make in the US will also need to pay a portion to CRA (Canada and USA have a tax treaty). Again your accountant should be able to advise on this.

 

[Leon]

If you don't own assets in Canada and don't have an income in Canada, you can declare yourself as a non-resident for tax purposes and after that you don't have to file any more. You do however have to correct your filing for 2011 and 2012 and set things straight with CRA. When filing for 2013, mention that you have moved to the US permanently, have no assets in Canada, have not had any income in Canada in that year and would like them to consider you non-resident for tax purposes.

You can keep your citizenship regardless of your status in the US. You even keep it if you go for US citizenship in the future, then you'd have dual.

Most, if not all provinces have a residency requirement for health care and in most cases it's 6 months a year. In some provinces, you can prolong your health care if you are outside Canada temporarily for a job or studies but you would have to let them know if that is the case. It doesn't sound like that is the case with you. You should always notify your health care if you move outside the province. Health care is for residents as Rob_TO already mentioned, so if you were to move to Canada and get health care, you would be expected to commit to living in that province 6 months a year. There have been cases where people have been back charged for their expenses after having moved to a province, gained health care, used it and then left the province within 6 months.

 

[HK5775]

Thank you for your replies. I plan on correcting this ASAP.