Tax question from a Visitor married to a Canadian

[Baloo]

I am a UK resident.
I have not yet filed for PR.
I have been in Canada for over 183 days in the last 12 months.
My company is based in the and UK, I do not earn any income from Canada.
I have a bank account in Canada.

Now my questions:

Am I considered non resident from a tax point of view?

My wife has been asked to provide full details about any income that I have from anywhere in the world, is it a valid request?

I have no intent to avoid giving the CRA information, but maybe we are being asked to provide something that we do not have to - I am sure not all the CRA staff understand immigration / visitor status.

It seems odd that immigration tell me most certainly that I am not a resident, but the tax people seem to think differently.

 

[steaky]

The more ties you have with Canada, the more likely CRA is to deem you a taxpayer. There is a host of ties -- such as a home in Canada, a spouse in Canada, personal property in Canada, bank accounts, a driver's licence, etc

You may be a non resident for immigration purposes but a tax resident for tax purposes. I think you need a lawyer.

 

[Baloo]

The more ties you have with Canada, the more likely CRA is to deem you a taxpayer. There is a host of ties -- such as a home in Canada, a spouse in Canada, personal property in Canada, bank accounts, a driver's licence, etc

You may be a non resident for immigration purposes but a tax resident for tax purposes. I think you need a lawyer.

Thanks for the info', I finally finished reading a big section of the CRA web site.
I think the key point here is that the UK and Canada have a tax treaty, so I cannot "in theory" be taxed twice.
I doubt that I need a lawyer, I will just send the information to CRA, it will cost less.
As I said I have no wish to avoid tax, if I am going to make a life in I Canada should expect to pay into the system.

Tax limitation is good, tax avoidance is illegal

 

[Aroundtown22]

Tax avoidance is legal... Tax evasion is not

 

[Jonboy]

Tax avoidance is legal... Tax evasion is not

Semantics won't keep you out of jail. The CRA do not distinguish between the two terms.

Paying more tax than you need to is OK. Paying exactly the minimum amount of tax you are required to pay by law is legal. Anything else is illegal.