Taxes for the Overseas Teacher

Congratulations, you have started your overseas teaching career and/or have moved around and now find yourself overseas.

I would ask you to reference this when making your decision to file resident/non-resident with Canadian government.

One CAN save a lot of money if they are going overseas for work through a long period of time, however, there are other implications if one does not.

Where do I fit in all this...

https://meurrensonimmigration.com/am-i-a-tax-resident-in-canada-or-chinain/

Residency Forms for government observance and determination

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/forms/nr73.html
-->File introduction

https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/formspubs/pbg/nr73/nr73-fill-s-17e.pdf
--> Fillable PDF

https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/formspubs/pbg/nr73/nr73-17e.pdf
-->Printable PDF

Further reading on Tax Treaty between Canada and China (dated to 2012)
https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2012/02/conclusion-tax-treaty-negotiations-china.html

On another note,

I had a conversation with a teacher in an International School (located in Shenzhen, GuangDong China-PRC), it seems that there is a flight risk for getting cheated a bit in regards to extended benefits and packages with some schools regarding Chinese Taxation Evasion,

Ed Dawes to Carmelo Bono via Linkedin, Topic of discussion is teaching experience at OISS (Oxstand)

"The school tax dodge by making you sign a fake contract with an incredibly reduced salary which they use for the tax and Education burea. This also means they pay less towards your pension fund. So you could work there for years and barely get anything back when you decide to leave China.

Unfortunately many schools do crap like this so be sure to find one which you can either be sure of the legality of things or be able to look by this sort of business"

**Updated Taxes in China 2023**

I have (since tthis orginal publication), experienced something peculiar in regards to taxes (aside from paying ridiculous amounts only to recieve next to no social beenfits) that only until now did I have understanding of the event that I experienced a couple years ago (when I first moved to Guangdong). It turns out that when a foreigner moves from one province to the next, because of the difference and the lack of communication between the finance offices, the foreign worker will need to pay taxes that were unpaid in the previous province resided in. 

The current finance office will tell the worker "you don't need to pay anything", they don't know, they didn't ask-don't believe them. You will find out sooner or later that there is a ridiculously large amount of unpaid tendor. 

How to avoid this, speak with your current finance office to ensure that you have paid up the last of your taxes there in that province before moving and specifically reference the situation where in which a foreign worker will be called upon to pay taxes when arriving in a new province, I am still investigating this more myself, but I personally paid around 2500 RMB and recently colleagues have have paid 6000 RMB, 4000 RMB and another 10,000 RMB. Confusing is a word, but from what information has been informally shared with us from our secretary, this is related to unpaid taxes in another province.

Again, if you have further information, please send a comment with more information!

-------------------------------------

Foreginers-Taxes-China-2021

So, in 2021-Working in Guangzhou at HBIC Huamei Bonds International School-taxes are accounted for and paid-the problem falls upon communication between the school and the tax brueau. Had an interestingly anti-climatic experience today (literally-June 25, 2021). 

A few foreigners at our school went to pay taxes-being in China 183 days some people quickly learned its either a good time to collect tax rebates or build credit if you are going for the mythed green card status. People did a great job about raising awareness for the need in regards to paying taxes-however so much in the "how"-side of things other than a location and "ask fro English service".

Regardless of all that, in Guangzhou-a couple friends and myself got the phone application, brought our passports and headed to Zhujiang New Town for processing. We were able to get English service...THANK YOU! We needed to register-whiich was a bit of a silly process with technology and language barriers-didn't want to bug the lady for E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G but needed to in the end anyways. 

After getting registered, they asked time/length in China-arrival-end of contracct-where you live/do you pay rent/do you have a child/do you pay mortage? etc. These are things that can be deducted from your taxes. 

I knew a few foreigners in Dalian who said "it doesn't matter-it doesn't affect you"-to them-I flip you a bird an a half. I did what Maple Leaf couldn't be bothered to do-what the finance offer here was unwilling to double check-I went there and asked questions. 

FOLKS! please note that you have a social responsibility and ignorance is bliss, these organizations don't care if you pay your taxes or not because that falls on your shoulders in the end-you do get penalized if you don't pay-Had a few coworkers here who went to get processed-found out they owed money and just thought-"meh not gonna pay". Turns out they have been getting phone calls in regards to their payment. 

On the otherhand, did have friends who got money back-like 3000RMB sort of amounts-I don't fully understand it, but I understand enough to confidently warn you to inquire about this with your school financial office, ASK QUESTIONS and if it is "well-it seems like it doesn't impact you..." take the initiative to go into a novel situation and not make all foreigners look like ignorant tards. As idiotic as we already look bumping around on an application asking "where do I put my name?", but I mean it goes without saying-you don't pay taxes here-you do/you probably got taxes to pay back home, this counts against the taxes back home-do yourself a favour!

Cheers.