Why is it asking my to pay thousands in Canadian tax if I am a Canadian citizen non-resident living in the UK, and I already paid thousands in UK tax? Is there no treaty?

[sammac1]

I lived in the UK for all of 2023 as a non-resident of Canada. I am still a Canadian citizen. I work and live in the UK, and paid my UK taxes as I am self-employed in the UK. Now when I try to file my Canadian taxes with turbotax, it is asking me to pay over $4000 in Canadian taxes on top of the $12000 I already paid and am declaring for my British taxes. Surely this can't be right?

[TurboTaxSusan]

Yes, there is a tax treaty between Canada, and the UK. You'd have to double check it to see how the income you are entering is treated by the treaty. Like with the US/Canada treaty, you might still have to pay taxes in Canada even if you earned the income in the UK.

[sammac1]

Thank you - this further backs up the issue I first raised. The page you linked states under Article 7: "The profits of an enterprise of a Contracting State shall be taxable only in that State unless the enterprise carries on business in the other Contracting State". That would mean that since I operated my business solely in the UK and did not carry out any business in Canada, the income from my British business should not be taxed in Canada (since it was already taxed in the UK). Why then is TurboTax calculating that I own over $4000 in tax on my British income? I declared by British income as foreign income, and declared the $12000+ in tax that I paid. I am not sure how to fix this so that it works out correctly in the TurboTax system. I would request a call, but Turbotax does not let me input a foreign phone number as a contact. Not sure how to proceed so that the system calculated my owed tax correctly. Any help would really be appreciated.

[sammac1]

I called CRA and am posting an update in case anyone else runs into this issue. Since all of my income was British and I had no Canadian income, I do not have to file Canadian taxes (only British taxes). This is only the case because I am a non-resident. 

[TurboTaxGinette]

Thank you for the update. It is appreciated.

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.