Impact of taxes owed to CRA on citizenship decision

[wintersports]

Hello, I am currently a permanent resident of Canada, married to my Canadian citizen wife, been living in Canada almost 5 years uninterrupted. Will soon be sending in an application for citizenship. Have been reading through the application form and got to the section about taxes. I have filed all years tax returns in Canada but currently owe a balance of taxes payable to the CRA.

I see there is language at the bottom of section 12 on the citizenship application where it says "I also authorize IRCC to examine my tax information in activities to support quality assurance and integrity in the citizenship program."

So, even though I have filed tax returns for all required years, wondering if the fact I currently owe a decent amount of $$ to the CRA will impact my citizenship application, if there is a certain amount owed that would result in an adverse opinion or if I should wait to apply for citizenship until I have my tax balance paid off.

Thanks!

 

[shiremag]

Hello, I am currently a permanent resident of Canada, married to my Canadian citizen wife, been living in Canada almost 5 years uninterrupted. Will soon be sending in an application for citizenship. Have been reading through the application form and got to the section about taxes. I have filed all years tax returns in Canada but currently owe a balance of taxes payable to the CRA.

I see there is language at the bottom of section 12 on the citizenship application where it says "I also authorize IRCC to examine my tax information in activities to support quality assurance and integrity in the citizenship program."

So, even though I have filed tax returns for all required years, wondering if the fact I currently owe a decent amount of $$ to the CRA will impact my citizenship application, if there is a certain amount owed that would result in an adverse opinion or if I should wait to apply for citizenship until I have my tax balance paid off.

Thanks!

As long as you have filed your taxes, you should be good. Apply away!

Hope you get in touch with a CRA and come up with a payment arrangement so they don't tack on too much interest on the money owed...

Good luck on both counts!

 

[FreeBird19]

They are looking for proof you were actively living in Canada and not that you owe taxes or not..You are fine to go ahead and apply.

 

[Rahul Ram]

Hi I applied for citizenship but I still owe $900 to cra. I didn't make payment plan either to cra. I thought only filing is required. Will this be an issue with my citizenship application?