Resource

Canadian Tax Residency Checklist

Gather these facts before filing as a non-resident, requesting NR73, or buying a review. The goal is to build a coherent departure file before CRA, a preparer, or a professional adviser asks for the details.

1. Departure timeline

Start with the date story. CRA's emigrant guidance links departure status to when you leave Canada, when your spouse or common-law partner and dependents leave Canada, and when you become resident in the country where you settle. Your file should make that timeline easy to follow.

• Departure date and arrival date in the destination country.
• Flight records, passport stamps, visas, residence permits, or border records.
• Calendar of days in Canada after departure and the reason for each trip.
• Date foreign housing, utilities, insurance, banking, or local registration began.

2. Canadian residential ties

The highest-risk facts usually involve whether a home, spouse or partner, or dependents remained in Canada. Secondary ties also matter when they collectively make Canada look like the centre of ordinary life.

• Canadian home sale, lease, access, and property-management records.
• Whether any Canadian dwelling remains available for personal use.
• Spouse, partner, dependent, school, and custody facts.
• Personal property, vehicles, memberships, professional registrations, and mailing address.
• Canadian bank, brokerage, credit card, loan, insurance, and investment account status.
• Provincial health card status, province, cancellation date, or reason for continued coverage.
• Driver licence status, province, expiry, exchange, cancellation, or foreign replacement.

3. Foreign ties and ordinary life abroad

It is usually not enough to show that Canadian ties were reduced. A stronger file also shows where life actually moved: housing, banking, local documents, employment, family routines, health coverage, and tax or immigration status abroad.

• Foreign residence lease, deed, utility, or registration records.
• Foreign identity, residence, immigration, visa, or tax registration documents.
• Local bank account, payment account, insurance, phone, and utility records.
• Foreign school, family, medical, club, or community records where relevant.
• Evidence that work, clients, board activity, or business management moved abroad.

4. Work, business, and asset facts

Founders, investors, crypto holders, executives, remote workers, and real estate owners should document more than lifestyle facts. Departure tax, Canadian-source income, corporate control, and withholding can remain relevant after residency changes.

• Employment, business, payroll, and client facts.
• Canadian corporation, shareholder, option, trust, partnership, or director records.
• Non-registered investment, private company share, crypto, and foreign property schedules.
• Adjusted cost base records and fair market value support for material assets.
• Canadian rental property, pension, RRSP/RRIF, TFSA, RESP, dividend, and interest facts.

5. Filing and CRA history

Filing history should not conflict with the departure position. Gather prior returns, notices, CRA letters, T1135 history, NR73 or NR74 correspondence, and any cross-border filing records before deciding what to file next.

• Canadian and foreign tax filing history.
• Prior CRA correspondence, residency opinions, audit letters, and installment notices.
• Final Canadian return plan, departure date support, and possible T1243/T1244 review.
• Non-resident withholding, Section 216, Section 217, or taxable Canadian property issues.

How to use this checklist

Primary references

• CRA, Leaving Canada: emigrants
• CRA Income Tax Folio S5-F1-C1, Determining an Individual’s Residence Status
• CRA Form NR73, Determination of Residency Status
• CRA, Dispositions of property for emigrants of Canada