Hi, All,

This is a question mainly addressed to Canadians, Canadian permanent residents, or those well-versed in Canadian taxation matters for Canadians and Canadian permanent residents.

Does it make sense to fill out the NR5 form as a non-resident of Canada? It seems one can ELECT to fill it out or not. What are the implications of doing so?

Thank you!

At the advice of a tax lawyer we filled out the forms. It was easy to do and we had no problems explaining that our ties are stronger here than in Canada.

The benefit of doing it now is that they can retroactively audit you and question why you didn't do the paperwork at the time, so we did so in order to avoid a hassle down the line of it ever comes to that.

Thank you, JaneMacP! I will give CRA a call to clarify as best as possible. Our situation is a lot hairier than what most have to deal with, and they have proven very helpful in the past - if one can say that about the "taxman". Being audited isn't as scary as it sounds. (if there is nothing to hide, I suppose) We were in the past, and as soon as they had acceptable answers to their questions, all was fine.