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Hi Allan, I read your quoted comments in an article called "Can you take a working tax holiday" on the advisor.ca.
I was bit worried when it was written in the article that non tax treaty countries (Qatar) are harder for the tax payer to prove tax residence position in them and easier for the CRA to likely stress on less significant residential ties kept in Canada to prove factual residence position while living in Qatar. (No significant ties for me except some light ties I kept: driving license, professional membership and saving account, Canadian credit cards but never used them)
Now I am planning to reside in Canada so moving with family this year and I will cut all my ties in Qatar, do you think if I keep Qatari documents (e.g. credit cards statement, housing rental agreement, school reports) would be sufficient to defend residence position in Qatar for the past three years (because we don't file or pay tax in Qatar. )
Please note three years ago, we landed for short time (1.5 month) and within these three years we visited Qatar for summer vacation (less than one month renting hotels) but now moving permanently and 2020 will be our first tax return to be filed.
So long as you had no primary ties to Canada, minimal secondary ties to Canada, and you lived in Qatar with your family for the past 3 years, you and your family can claim non-resident status with Canada.
