How Much Does a Canadian Departure Tax Return Cost?

The CRA doesn’t list a filing fee for the emigration-year return, so doing it yourself costs your time and maybe software. One firm publishes $325 for an emigrant return with the T1161 and T1243; a Windsor firm quotes $1,250 to $1,750 CAD for a move to the US that also covers the US return. Our departure-year module is $750 USD, added to the year’s returns. Skipping Form T1161 can cost up to $2,500 on its own. For every cross-border price we publish, see what cross-border tax help costs.

What does a departure return cost if you file it yourself?

Nothing in CRA’s emigrant pages charges a fee to file. Your cost is time, plus software if you don’t qualify for a free product, because CRA says that with a modest income most certified software will prepare a basic return for free, and otherwise there’s usually a service fee. The hard part is valuing every holding on the day you left.

When you leave Canada, the CRA treats you as having sold certain property at its fair market value and bought it right back, and any gain goes on your final return (CRA, Dispositions of property for emigrants of Canada). You work that out on Form T1243 and carry the result to Schedule 3. If the fair market value of everything you owned when you left was more than $25,000, you also list all of it, inside and outside Canada, on Form T1161. Cash, RRSPs, TFSAs, pensions and personal-use items worth less than $10,000 each stay off that list.

Plan on mailing it. CRA’s EFILE rules exclude an emigrant return filed with Form T1243, T1244 or T1161, and CRA’s electronic filers manual tells software to warn that a paper return is required when any of those forms is included. An emigrant return without them can be sent electronically. The departure tax walkthrough explains which assets are caught.

What do accountants charge for a departure return?

Few firms publish a departure price, and the ones that do describe different work. The lowest figure we found is a base rate for an emigrant return with the exit forms; another is a range that bundles the US return too. Read what each one includes before comparing them, and note that two of the pages don’t state a currency.

Firm and what the price covers	Published price	Checked
Cross Border Specialized Tax Solutions: “Immigrating/Emigrating Returns” for people with “T1161 requirements or T1243 requirements”	$325 (no currency stated)	2026-10-18
Serbinski Accounting: Form T1243, on top of a Canadian return that averages $CDN 750 to 950	$275 - 750 ($CA)	2026-10-18
US Tax Consulting (Windsor): emigrants moving to the US, “Includes Canadian departure return,” the US Form 1040 or 1040NR, and FBAR filings	$1250 - $1750, “All prices are in CAD and are plus HST/GST”	2026-10-18
Toronto Tax Consulting: T1-NR non-resident return package, which lists “Departure Return (if applicable)"	"Starting at $2,500” (no currency stated)	2026-10-18

Sources: Cross Border Specialized Tax Solutions pricing, Serbinski fee page, US Tax Consulting price list, Toronto Tax Consulting pricing.

Serbinski states its figures as averages for a consultant working in the US on a TN visa, and bills extra complexity at hourly rates. US Tax Consulting calls its range an estimate that “may vary depending on circumstances.” So a $325 line and a $1,750 line aren’t priced for the same file. The low one is a base rate for the Canadian emigrant return; the high one is both countries.

What makes a departure return cost more?

The asset list. A file with a chequing account and an RRSP is close to an ordinary T1, because registered plans are excluded from the deemed disposition and cash stays off Form T1161. A file with a non-registered portfolio, private company shares or property outside Canada needs a fair market value and a cost base for each item on the exit date, and that’s where the hours go.

• Deemed disposition math. Each holding on Form T1243 needs its value on the day you left and its adjusted cost base. Shares of a private corporation usually need a valuation.
• Form T1161. Required once the fair market value of all your property passes $25,000, and it goes in even if you don’t otherwise have to file a return (CRA).
• Deferring the tax with Form T1244. The election is due by April 30 of the year after you leave. If the federal tax on the deemed disposition is more than $16,500 ($13,777.50 for former Quebec residents), you have to give CRA adequate security, which means arranging it with CRA before April 30. The T1244 guide covers how that works.
• RRSPs and pensions. They’re excluded from the exit tax, but the plan for withdrawing them as a non-resident is part of the same conversation. Withdrawals after you leave are taxed under the non-resident rules.
• The US side of the same year. The IRS says the most common dual-status years are the years of arrival and departure (IRS, Taxation of dual-status individuals), so a move to the US usually means a second, unusual return. Our dual-status cost guide prices that piece.
• Getting the date wrong. Fixing an exit date after both returns are filed means amending both sides, which is its own job; see the wrong departure year fix.

What does Blue Cloud charge for the move year?

Our departure-year module is $750, added to the year’s returns. It covers the exit date, the deemed disposition, Forms T1161 and T1243, and the US arrival-year elections. Priced together for both sides of the border, the first year after a move, module included, starts from $3,495. Both are starting points, fixed in writing at the Diagnostic.

If you sell your home in the move year, the principal-residence sale module is $500, and the T2062 or T2062A clearance certificate for selling Canadian property after you’ve left is $700. A spouse’s second separate return is typically 50%. The rate card is on the cross-border tax services page.

What does it cost to file the departure return late?

Two penalties stack. The late T1 penalty under ITA 162(1) is 5% of the unpaid tax plus 1% for each full month late, up to 12 months. Form T1161 has its own: $25 a day, minimum $100, maximum $2,500, according to CRA, and that one applies even when no tax is owing.

A repeat failure costs more. If you were already penalized for a late return in any of the 3 previous years and CRA sent a demand to file, ITA 162(2) raises the penalty to 10% of the unpaid tax plus 2% a month, for up to 20 months. For most people, the return for the year you leave is due April 30 of the next year, or June 15 if you or your spouse were self-employed, with any balance still due April 30 (CRA filing due dates). For what has to happen before and after the move, use the move checklist.

What should I do next?

Make the asset list first: every non-registered account, share, property and collectible, with its value on your exit date and what you paid. That list decides whether you need T1161, whether the tax is big enough to defer, and what any firm will quote. Then decide whether one firm should do both countries’ returns for the move year, because the exit date has to match on both.

• Forms and due dates in one place: T1161 and T1243 for a move to the US.
• What the whole both-country year costs: cross-border return costs.

This guide is general information, not tax advice for your specific situation. Which points apply, and how, depends on your facts.