Free tool

Canada residency calculator

Canada decides residency on ties, not just days. Score your residential ties and days in Canada to see whether the CRA would treat you as a factual or deemed resident.

How the CRA residential ties test works

Canada has no single day-count test for most people. Under Income Tax Folio S5-F1-C1, the CRA looks at the residential ties you keep with Canada, and weighs them together with how long and how regularly you are there.

Significant ties come first: a dwelling place available to you in Canada, a spouse or common-law partner in Canada, and dependants in Canada. Any one of them generally makes you a factual resident, wherever else you live.

Secondary ties are weighed collectively: personal property such as a car or furniture, social ties like memberships, economic ties such as Canadian bank accounts and credit cards, a Canadian driver's licence, provincial health coverage and a Canadian passport. One or two rarely decide the question on their own. Several together can.

Other factors include whether your time abroad is short with a set plan to return, and whether you have established residence somewhere else. Separately, the Income Tax Act deems you resident if you sojourn in Canada for 183 days or more in a calendar year.

Factual vs deemed vs non-resident vs deemed non-resident

Status	What it generally means	How you are generally taxed
Factual resident	You keep significant residential ties with Canada (a home, spouse or dependants), or enough secondary ties.	On worldwide income, for the part of the year you are resident.
Deemed resident	No significant ties, but you sojourn in Canada 183 days or more in the year (or fall in a listed group such as certain government employees abroad).	On worldwide income for the whole year, subject to treaty relief.
Non-resident	No significant ties, few secondary ties, and under 183 days.	Only on Canadian-source income, such as employment in Canada or Canadian rental income.
Deemed non-resident	Resident under Canadian law, but a tax treaty's tie-breaker makes you resident of the other country.	As a non-resident of Canada, on Canadian-source income only.

Leaving Canada: how to sever residential ties

The CRA generally treats you as a non-resident from the latest of the day you leave, the day your spouse or dependants leave, and the day you become resident of the new country. A checklist for the move:

Sell your home, or lease it to an arm's-length tenant on normal commercial terms. A home kept available to you, or lent to family, remains a significant tie.
Make sure your spouse or partner and dependants move with you, or that the separation is genuine.
Cancel provincial health coverage and tell your province you are leaving.
Close or reduce Canadian accounts and credit cards, and give up memberships you no longer use.
Keep proof of the departure date: flight records, the lease or sale, and your new address abroad.
Plan for departure tax: on emigration you are generally treated as selling certain property at fair market value, which can trigger a capital gain in the year you leave.

When to file Form NR73 or NR74

Form NR73 asks the CRA for an opinion on your residency status when you are leaving or have left Canada. Form NR74 does the same when you are entering Canada. Neither is mandatory, and the CRA's answer is an opinion based on the facts you give it.

They are worth filing when your position is borderline, for example when you keep a few secondary ties or plan to return in a couple of years. The calculator's checklist above lists the facts both forms ask about.

Worked examples

A snowbird with 170 days in Arizona

Retired, home in Ontario, wife travels with him, spends 170 days a year in Arizona. His Ontario home and spouse are significant ties, so he stays a factual resident of Canada. The US side is a separate question: 170 days every year meets the Substantial Presence Test (about 255 weighted days), so he files Form 8840 to claim a closer connection to Canada.

An expat in Dubai who kept a condo

Moved to Dubai for work, leased her Toronto condo to her brother and kept her Canadian credit cards. The condo is lent to family, so it can still count as a dwelling available to her, and the CRA may treat her as still resident. Leasing it at arm's length, or selling it, would remove the significant tie.

A newcomer on a work permit

Arrived in Vancouver on a two-year work permit, rents an apartment, while his spouse stays abroad. The apartment is a home available to him in Canada, so he is likely a factual resident from the day he arrived, a part-year resident in his first year.

Related tools

Questions

Canadian residency, start here

How does Canada decide tax residency?

Canada uses residential ties, not a single day count. Significant (primary) ties, a home in Canada, a spouse or common-law partner in Canada, or dependants in Canada, generally establish factual residency on their own. Secondary ties are weighed together. Separately, 183+ days in a year makes you a deemed resident.

What is the 183-day rule in Canada?

If you 'sojourn' in Canada for 183 days or more in a calendar year, you're generally a deemed resident for tax purposes, taxed on worldwide income, even without significant residential ties, subject to any tax-treaty tie-breaker.

What are significant residential ties?

The CRA's three primary ties are: a dwelling place available to you in Canada, a spouse or common-law partner in Canada, and dependants in Canada. Any one of them strongly indicates factual residency.

Can a tax treaty override Canadian residency?

Yes. If you're a resident of both Canada and a treaty country, the treaty's tie-breaker (permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality) decides which country taxes you as a resident.

Is a Canadian bank account a residential tie?

Yes, but only a secondary one. Keeping a Canadian bank account or credit card is an economic tie the CRA weighs alongside your other secondary ties. On its own it rarely makes you resident, but several secondary ties together can.

Does keeping a house in Canada make me resident?

Usually, if the house stays available to you. A dwelling available for your use is a significant residential tie. A home leased to an arm's-length tenant on normal terms is generally not treated as available to you, while one lent or leased to family generally still is.

How many days can a non-resident spend in Canada?

For tax, sojourning in Canada for 183 days or more in a calendar year makes you a deemed resident, so non-residents generally stay under that. Days are not the only test: significant ties can make you resident with far fewer days. Immigration limits on visitors are a separate rule.

What is a deemed non-resident?

Someone who is resident of Canada under Canadian law but whom a tax treaty's tie-breaker rules make resident of the other country. Canada then treats them as a non-resident and taxes only their Canadian-source income.

Sources & further reading

Every rule on this page is drawn from primary sources. Verify the current law before making a residency decision.

Track your Canadian days automatically

Tax Days tracks Canada's 183-day deemed-resident rule alongside every US state, the SPT, Schengen, and 200+ countries.

Read the full Canada residency days & ties guide.

Days in Canada

Significant (primary) ties

Secondary ties