question for Canadians here

[JJJ]

I simply left Vancouver and lived in the Philippines for about five years. Renewing my visa. I had a mailing address in Vancouver so as far as the Canadian government was concerned I was living in Vancouver. I would go back and check mail twice a year. Of course my B.C. Health should have been voided but it was not. There were no tax implications.

Soon I will return to the Philippines and live there. I get the sense that they are cracking down more and it is harder to play this game.

Being retired on a pension I do not want to bother cutting all my ties and becoming a non Canadian for tax.  I wonder what the implications of this are. That being prentending one is in his home country while living in the Philippines.

Any thoughts?

 

 

[Dave Hounddriver]

52 minutes ago, JJJ said:

Soon I will return to the Philippines and live there. I get the sense that they are cracking down more and it is harder to play this game.

Being retired on a pension I do not want to bother cutting all my ties and becoming a non Canadian for tax.  I wonder what the implications of this are. That being pretending one is in his home country while living in the Philippines.

Any thoughts?

There are constantly changes but I do not think the Canadian government is cracking down on it.  If you are a long time Canadian and have any ties to Canada, such as an address, and you are paying taxes as required to the government of Canada, then I do not foresee any problems.  Do not listen to the BS'ers who say you cannot collect your Old Age Security money while outside Canada.  Click here for a link to the gov can website that says:

Quote

Receiving your OAS pension outside of Canada

You can qualify to receive Old Age Security pension payments while living outside of Canada if one if these reasons applies to you:

You lived in Canada for at least 20 years after turning 18

 

On the other hand, you cannot collect the Guaranteed Income supplement if you are out of the Country more than 6 months.   Ask yourself why it would be easy to collect OAS while living in another country if the Canadian government wanted to stop people from maintaining an association with Canada while living abroad??  What they do not want is to be paying you benefits like health care, employment insurance etc. while you are not a productive member of Canadian Society.

[Jollygoodfellow]

1 hour ago, JJJ said:

I simply left Vancouver and lived in the Philippines for about five years. Renewing my visa.

If so you would have taken a trip out of the country at or before the 3-year mark?