183 Days Will Do It, but Ordinary Residence Gets There First
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Costa Rica on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
107 exceptions recorded across 42 countries · none match Costa Rica to Canada · When you become a tax resident
The Income Tax Act has two routes to Canadian residence and they work in opposite directions. The one with a number is a deeming rule: sojourn in Canada for 183 days or more in a year and you are deemed resident throughout it. The one that catches most people has no number at all - the Act says a reference to a person resident in Canada includes a person ordinarily resident in Canada, and leaves the phrase undefined. Against both of them sits subsection 250(5), which takes residence away again where a tax treaty with your country makes you resident there and not here.
At a glance
- The day count
- 183 days of sojourning in the calendar year
- What it does
- Deems you resident throughout the whole year, not from day 183
- The test that has no number
- Ordinary residence, which the Act does not define
Subsection 250(3) of the Income Tax Act.
- What can undo it
- A tax treaty with your country
Subsection 250(5) of the Income Tax Act.
- Whose nationality matters
- Nobody's - the Act counts days and ties, not passports
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Costa Rica
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«250 (1) For the purposes of this Act, a person shall, subject to subsection 250(2), be deemed to have been resident in Canada throughout a taxation year if the person - (a) sojourned in Canada in the year for a period of, or periods the total of which is, 183 days or more;»The quotation ends at paragraph (a). The paragraphs that follow deem residence for members of the Canadian Forces and for people in Canadian government service abroad, which are not origin questions.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Canada's consolidated federal statutes and regulations, served whole as plain HTML at a stable address built from the Act's chapter or the regulation's registration number. Each consolidation states the date it is current to and the last amendment applied.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are official under the Legislation Revision and Consolidation Act, but the site itself warns that where a consolidation and the original statute differ, the original prevails. The date a page is current to is printed in a side panel our capture does not carry, so a stored reading here shows the text without the line that dates it. Immigration practice in Canada also sits largely in ministerial instructions and programme delivery guidance, which are not law and are not published here, and Quebec selects its own immigrants under an accord this site does not carry.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(3) In this Act, a reference to a person resident in Canada includes a person who was at the relevant time ordinarily resident in Canada.»The whole of it. What ordinary residence means is left to the courts, and no instrument we read defines it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Canada's consolidated federal statutes and regulations, served whole as plain HTML at a stable address built from the Act's chapter or the regulation's registration number. Each consolidation states the date it is current to and the last amendment applied.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are official under the Legislation Revision and Consolidation Act, but the site itself warns that where a consolidation and the original statute differ, the original prevails. The date a page is current to is printed in a side panel our capture does not carry, so a stored reading here shows the text without the line that dates it. Immigration practice in Canada also sits largely in ministerial instructions and programme delivery guidance, which are not law and are not published here, and Quebec selects its own immigrants under an accord this site does not carry.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(5) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act (other than paragraph 126(1.1)(a)), a person is deemed not to be resident in Canada at a time if, at that time, the person would, but for this subsection and any tax treaty, be resident in Canada for the purposes of this Act but is, under a tax treaty with another country, resident in the other country and not resident in Canada.»The reason this topic is origin-dependent at all: the answer turns on whether Canada has a treaty with the country you came from and what its tie-breaker says. The treaties themselves are not in this corpus.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Canada's consolidated federal statutes and regulations, served whole as plain HTML at a stable address built from the Act's chapter or the regulation's registration number. Each consolidation states the date it is current to and the last amendment applied.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are official under the Legislation Revision and Consolidation Act, but the site itself warns that where a consolidation and the original statute differ, the original prevails. The date a page is current to is printed in a side panel our capture does not carry, so a stored reading here shows the text without the line that dates it. Immigration practice in Canada also sits largely in ministerial instructions and programme delivery guidance, which are not law and are not published here, and Quebec selects its own immigrants under an accord this site does not carry.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Sojourning is not the same as residing, and the Act uses both words in the same section. A person who is ordinarily resident does not need the 183 days; a visitor who is not ordinarily resident can be caught by them.
Subsection 250(5) is a rule about treaties and this record names no treaty. Which tie-breaker applies to a particular country is a question about an instrument we have not read.
- consolidatesIncome Tax Act, section 250
Justice Laws Website, Department of Justice Canada
About this source
Canada's consolidated federal statutes and regulations, served whole as plain HTML at a stable address built from the Act's chapter or the regulation's registration number. Each consolidation states the date it is current to and the last amendment applied.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidations are official under the Legislation Revision and Consolidation Act, but the site itself warns that where a consolidation and the original statute differ, the original prevails. The date a page is current to is printed in a side panel our capture does not carry, so a stored reading here shows the text without the line that dates it. Immigration practice in Canada also sits largely in ministerial instructions and programme delivery guidance, which are not law and are not published here, and Quebec selects its own immigrants under an accord this site does not carry.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source