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) Interpretation Bulletin
IT221
Determination of an
Individual's Residence Status. This bulletin
deals with residency in Canada, as well as province of residence.
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.
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.
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: July 19, 2010
