You are an emigrant for income tax purposes if you leave Canada to settle in another country and you server your residential ties with Canada.
Severing residential ties may include:
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- disposing of or giving up a home in Canada and establishing a permanent home in another country;
- having your spouse or common-law partner or dependants leave Canada; and
- disposing of personal property and breaking social ties in Canada, and acquiring or establishing them in another country.
Your residency status could also be affected by severing or not of other residential ties, such as:
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- a Canadian driver’s license;
- Canadian bank accounts or credit cards; and
- health insurance with a Canadian province or territory.
When do you become a non-resident?
When you leave Canada to settle in another country, you usually become a non-resident for income tax purposes on the latest of the following dates:
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- the date you leave Canada;
- the date your spouse or common-law partner and dependants leave Canada; or
- the date you become a resident of the country to which you are immigrating.
If you lived in another country before living in Canada and you are leaving Canada to re-establish a residence in the other country, you usually become a non-resident on the date you leave Canada. This applies even if your spouse or common-law partner temporarily stays in Canada to dispose of your home.
Generally, you become a deemed non-resident of Canada at a time when your residential ties in the other country are such that, under the tax treaty between Canada and that country, you are considered to be a resident of that country and not of Canada.