Yet another Tax Question....

[CYXDSTUD]

Any tax savy people out there that might be able to tell me if I am able to get my Nunavut/NWT Territorial tax back that I pay every month if I am an Alberta resident already paying Alberta provincial tax. (Rotational work). Thanks a bunch.

[AuxBatOn]

You pay taxes both in Alberta and the Territories on your salary?

[mcrit]

Don't mean to sound like a jerk, but you might want to find an accountant to look into that. (H&R Block have pretty good rates from what I'm told). The guys on here are mostly aviation types, so money managment may not be our strong suit.

[Tim]

im not positive on this one, but i **think** you will automatically. based on how much you payed the formula will determine how much you were required to pay into fed. and prov. taxes (prov for the prov you live in). anything you paid above that is a refund.

might be out to lunch though

call the CRA and ask, and do it before tax season really revs up (aka long waits on the phone)

[Aeros]

I guess it depends -- how much work do you do in the territories? If you spend more than half of the year working OUTSIDE the territories then you can get some sort of a refund. If you do not spend more than half of the year working outside the Territories you are SOL.

I've dealt with this issue in the past and the consensus was that you are getting "robbed" and have to suck it up. The NWT payroll tax, is simply money that is skimmed off of your pay and doesn't have any impact on the income taxes that you wind up paying in the spring. It is not like a provincial income tax in the sense that if you worked in two provinces you get taxed by both provinces. At the end of the year, the tax folks figure out what you owe in your province and you are credited with any taxes that you payed in the other province. That isn't the case with the NWT payroll tax.

(The rules for the Nunavut tax are the same. In fact, the last time that I looked at the Nunavut rules, they simply referred you to the NWT tax rules.)

There is information listed on the pwgsc website about this tax. Compensation Directive: 1993-019

The kicker is:

3.6 This tax is not a personal income tax and will not be reported on a T4.

I would suggest that you talk with an accountant since they might be able to find a way around this, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[CYXDSTUD]

Thanks for that Aeros

[TFTMB heavy]

Your taxation rate is based on where you live on Dec 31. Where is your permanent address?

[4hrstovegas]

If you spend more than half of the year working OUTSIDE the territories then you can get some sort of a refund.

Only if you earned less than $5000 annually while working in NWT. In other words, if you earned more than 5K in NWT, regardless if you did it in a week, you have to pay it.

If you worked more than 50% of the year outside the NWT, you would be entitled to a refund only if your entire salary was subject to the NWT payroll deductions. In other words, if you earned 80K, and the NWT payroll tax was deducted from all of it, but you spent more than 50% of the time working outside NWT, you could get a partial refund.

[Ogee]

Your taxation rate is based on where you live on Dec 31. Where is your permanent address?

Exactly. And I am an accountant.

although not familiar with the specific NWT payroll tax issue.

but for the provinces, it isn't where you worked, it's where you lived.

[Tim]

regarding headsets (offtopic, but it has come up a few times)

i contacted the CRA yesterday and spoke with a M. Beauchemin. i asked if a headset should be filed as a work expense or medical expense. he told me work expense, which requires you keep a signed t2200 in your file to go with the t777 that you submit to the CRA.