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yellowtulip

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    Alberta
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  • Program
    Physics

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  1. Just checking if any successful applicants holding their PDFs outside of Canada have seen any signs of funds yet? I put Apr 1st as a start date, but haven't yet received anything. Although the PDF is certainly appreciated, I wish NSERC realized how difficult they made it for us. With the award counting (at least in part) against my salary I'm nearly back to living on mac & cheese! And I won't even mention the complications on the university's end I had to sort out to ensure I didn't lose my benefits! Good luck to others in the same boat!
  2. Hi Mtlgrad, Unless the rules have changed in the last couple of months, the PGS D is tax free in Canada - both provincially and federally (I recently held one) http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/rprtng-ncm/lns101-170/130/schlrshp-eng.html. If you are looking online most of the issues with regards to taxes you might see being discussed are for postdoc fellowships. A few years back (maybe 2006 or so?), the government said scholarships, bursaries, fellowships, etc. would be tax free, so there were many postdocs who won awards (e.g. NSERC PDFs or other), that didn't pay taxes for the entire two year duration. What wasn't all that clear however at the time was that this this was only tax free if you were in a program that was leading to some sort of degree or diploma. As such, post-docs don't qualify, and many of the post-docs were forced to pay back taxes (http://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/informationfor/postdoctoral/taxupdate.htm). This caused a rather large commotion. The following website (http://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/informationfor/postdoctoral/taxupdate.htm) notes a response from Jim Flaherty stating: "Unlike post-secondary students enrolled in courses and pursuing a degree or diploma, post-doctoral fellows can be compared to a number of other professionals such as lawyers, medical residents, and accountants, where there is a period of paid training at the beginning of their careers. Similar to these other professionals, the compensation received by post-doctoral fellows is taxable." Sure.... but lawyers, residents, and accountants all probably get paid much more than a post-doc salary (their net is probably greater than our gross)... chances are that many of them have gone to school for less than a post-doc has too. Generally speaking they have an end-goal job in mind (whereas a post-doc is essentially just striving to get more training so that they can get a job if they're lucky), and unlike (generally speaking - there are many medical residents who do research as well), but many of the post-docs out there are doing a lot of fundamental/basic sciences and are much more intricately involved with academic institutions than the other positions. Plus, at least in the case of NSERC, the PDFs are federally funded! Why give you money just to take it away? Anyway... that's my rant. Nothing I can do about it (except know that I have to pay taxes next year!).
  3. Wow... I'm only now just reading this post, and I don't get it - the residency waiver needs to go through before you start your job? Maybe I should be happy I'm on a TN. BTW.... where the heck do you guys learn about all this visa/insurance/waiver/tax info other than word of mouth? The university down here seems to be totally clueless, and sure, I can search the many online forms, but most of 'em seem rather frightening and in technical lingo that isn't necessarily all that straightforward (although I'll admit, the Canadian stuff doesn't seem nearly as complicated as the US paperwork).
  4. Hmmm... another reason I wish I were on J1! Thanks so much Simhod and dhanson for sharing your tax/visa experiences!
  5. Interesting to hear about the visa switch. Was that tough?
  6. I don't quite get how I can be on a TN visa either - several of the universities I was applying to had suggested it, and said that there was fundamentally no difference between the J1 and TN (other than less paperwork with the TN). Of course, being told it was easier to get, I went with a TN. Upon starting the job and filling out the paperwork however, I came to realize that from what I can interpret (which doesn't actually go that far), when you're on a J1, you're considered a non-resident of the US by default for tax purposes. However with TN, how I understand it is that I am considered a resident of the US for tax purposes. Although, apparently, from what I've been able to figure out, I should be able to fill out some sort of document at the end of this all (sounds maybe like the same thing you're referring to) to justify that although I met the substantial presence test in the US, I have more ties in Canada. How difficult was it to justify your Canadian ties? At what point did you request to establish your residency status in Canada? Lol... with a PDF, it looks like probably >80% of my income this year will be Canadian! Out of curiosity, when you filed your taxes, were you able to use up your tuition credits? Also out of curiosity, when you "justify" your ties to Canada, are you justifying it to a particular province (I would assume so, but that's just a guess)? I literally just moved (and I had a year long health insurance thing I had signed up for back in Canada - since I'm not sure if I'm a resident or not, I don't know if should cancel that [or even it is still valid]). Anyway... for any other post-docs out there looking to go to a US university, if given the option between J1 vs. TN... yeah the TN might be less paperwork up front, but I suspect (once again cannot be sure) that down the road it might be a little more challenging than the J1. p.s. What's the difference between "factual" vs. "deemed" resident of Canada? Are there any other types of residents? p.p.s. For anyone still wanting to go in under TN... be sure to have your original degree certificate with you as you cross the border (at least if you want to make life easier). Since I don't convocate for another couple months, they were big sticklers about this (transcript & letter from the U saying I finished all degree requirements weren't enough). While it sounds crazy, proof of my BSc is what got me in. I don't get it... but just a head's up for anyone that tries!!
  7. Lol... confusing is a word I am all too familiar with these days! I just started as a post-doc in the US, but I am still totally confused as how to fill out customs forms when I go across the border, I am somewhat confused on what country's health insurance I should be holding (at present I think I'm likely over-insured), and I have no idea how taxes are going to work next year (will I lose my >10 years worth of tuition credits)? I have absolutely no intention to stay in the US (nearly all my belongings are still in Canada, I still have my Canadian cell phone #, drivers license, etc... I even still work in Canada part-time, although don't have a home up there). I know this is a bit off topic, but for any post-docs out there in the US (TN visa in particular), have you encountered any good resources that you'd be open to sharing on figuring out what the heck "resident" really means and how to go about justifying for tax purposes that you're in the US solely for the purpose of training? I know NSERC says directly on their website that they cannot give tax advice, but it sure would be handy if they (maybe in partnership with the CRA) put a little "how-to" or "tips" brochure of becoming a post-doc in the US since there must be tons of people in the same boat. They encourage us to go abroad to gain breadth in our experiences, but I suspect it causes many of us to lose time and money trying to figure out how to actually follow the law and make all the paperwork (tax stuff in particular) fall into place. Anyway - any advice would be much appreciated Thanks!!
  8. Hi Shawn007 - I don't know tons about the IRDF, but from what I understood, it was only open to Canadian places (I didn't think you could hold it outside Canada, but I might be wrong). Best of luck!!!
  9. Sure. It was 6/10 1st author papers, 1/1 for 1st author submitted papers, I listed 8 international first author presentations (4 were at the same meeting - so certainly no doubling up on abstracts!!)... due to space constraints, I omitted anything I didn't present and/or wasn't peer reviewed. I did have a PGS-D under my belt (and a couple other awards), and also (although yeah, I know, almost everyone on here probably has a 4.0), I had that as well.... thank goodness the PDF doesn't require the undergrad transcripts (those certainly weren't as nice!). Other than that, I'd say I have a reasonable chunk of volunteer work (both in and out of the university). Good luck to all!!!!!
  10. Woohoo... Successful PDF mail in Washington. Yippee!!
  11. Shucks... if you didn't get it in Boston yet... it'll be another week before it makes it to the west coast US!
  12. How do you plan for it to "sweeten" the deal? If you get the PDF, are you planning to have both your main income and the PDF? Or some sort of top-up? Does your university have a policy on this? p.s. "Need" isn't all that relative. If we (US PDFs) want the award to be effective April 1st... we need to know soon, or it will be too late (after payroll has gone though) and we'll have to start May 1st
  13. Going up!! 20 user(s) are reading this topic
  14. Not yet!! Still waiting for someone to get a PDF!
  15. Not that I've heard yet!! My fingers crossed
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