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I have a bit of a strange tax residency situation:

  • I am a Citizen of India, but spent 0 days in India in 2023.

  • I am an international student in Canada, and spent 4 months of 2023 in Canada (studying on a student visa). I was a tax resident of Canada from 2019-2022, and will be in 2024.

  • The other 8 months of the year, I was on a J1 visa training/interning in the US for a US company.

Other details:

  • I have already filed my US tax return, and I know that I was not a tax resident in the US. Even though I passed the substantial presence test in the US (spent more than 183 days in the US), none of those days count since J1 makes me an "exempt-individual" (see here).

    • (accordingly, I did not have to pay Social Security / Medicaid taxes)

  • I am not sure if I am a tax resident of Canada.

    • Looking at the guidelines here, I did not own any property or car in Canada, and the 4 months I lived in Canada was only a temporary rental.

    • 4 months is also less than 183 days.

    • I did, however, have active bank accounts/credit cards in Canada, and was still a student at a Canadian university.

    • Note that my J1 visa was contingent on me being a student at that Canadian university (the internship was part of my coursework, in a way).

I would obviously like to not be considered a non-resident of Canada because I can avoid paying taxes on my US income, but then I would technically not be a tax resident of any country.

So... am I a tax resident of Canada?

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  • "because I can avoid paying taxes on my US income" If you were a resident of Canada, you would be able to claim a foreign tax credit on the tax paid to the US on that income, though you would still have some Canadian tax left if Canadian tax is higher than US tax.
    – user102008
    Commented Apr 27 at 5:09

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You'd probably want to talk to a licensed tax advisor in Canada. My personal layman take is that you are in fact a tax resident in Canada for the whole year.

My reasoning:

  • Your absence was temporary, limited in time, and short
  • You have economical ties to Canada (bank account, etc).
  • You intended to return to Canada
  • Your center of life is there (you're an enrolled student, and you were required to remain as such, in a Canadian university)

In the guidelines you linked to, they discuss the concept of "factual resident", and bring temporary absence due to studies as one example for such a situation.

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