Filing Your Return - For which province do I file a tax return?

For which province do I file a tax return?

Under normal conditions, a person files a tax return for the province in which they are residing on December 31 of the taxation year.  Sometimes, a person may be considered to be a resident of a province even if they have temporarily relocated to another province.  This could happen if the person was employed in a temporary job, or was a student in a province where they do not normally reside.    A person will be determined to be resident in the province in which they have the most significant residential ties.  For more information on this, see the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Income Tax Folio S5-F1-C1: Determining an Individual's Residence Status.  This folio was published on March 27, 2013, in consultation format, and will be available until June 29, 2013.

See our Tax Rates page for a comparison of total taxes payable by province, and our Marginal Tax Rates page for marginal tax rates for each province/territory.

Tax Tip:  If you are moving to a lower tax rate province, do it before December 31st.  If you are moving to a higher tax rate province, wait till after December 31st.

What if I live in one province or territory, and work in another, or have paid taxes in two or more provinces?

When it comes time to file your income tax, it doesn't matter if you live in one province or territory and are employed and pay taxes in another.  You file your income tax for the province or territory in which you reside on December 31 of the tax year.  You will simply add up all of your Canadian T4s, and enter the information on your tax return.  If you have employment income and deductions from Québec, but reside in another province, you will include your Québec provincial income tax on line 437 of your tax return, as part of total income tax deducted.  Any QPP contributions that you paid should be treated on your tax return as if you contributed them to CPP.

If you are using tax software to file your tax return (recommended), it will most likely provide separate input areas for T4s and for Québec Relevé 1 forms.  If you are not using tax software, you can look at both forms - T4 and Relevé 1 to see which boxes are for the same amounts.

Because Québec residents must file separate federal and provincial tax returns, there is one more step for Québec residents who paid tax in another province.  If income tax was paid to another province or territory, you may request a tax transfer to the province of Québec to offset your Québec provincial taxes payable.  You may transfer up to 45% of the tax shown on information slips from payers outside of Québec.  This is done by entering the desired transfer amount on line 438 of the federal tax return and line 454 of the Québec tax return.

The above information is available in the CRA General Income Tax and Benefit Guide.

From Revenu Québec Guide to the Tax Return:

Line 97 Québec parental insurance plan (QPIP) premium:  If you worked outside Québec (in Canada or elsewhere), and you did not receive an RL-1 slip for that employment, complete Schedule R to find out whether you must pay a QPIP premium.

Line 101 Employment income:  You must include on line 101 the employment income you earned outside Québec, and:

The Québec Tax Calculator shows, near the bottom of the calculator, "QPIP paid on employment income".  If you worked outside Québec, did not pay QPIP premiums, and have determined that you are required to pay them, you will have to add this QPIP amount to your "Total Federal and QC balance payable (refund if negative)".

If you reside in Canada outside Québec, but you carried on a business or practised a profession in Québec, you may have to file a Québec tax return.  See the Québec Revenue Ministry article "Are you required to file an income tax return?", which lists the situations in which a Québec tax return must be filed.

Revised: April 04, 2013