Short stays can end rental-activity status; trade or business and no material participation make it passive; a nonresident alien has no self-employment income absent totalization.
Cross-BorderITA 116(5) can assess a buyer 25% of the gross price; 116(5.3) 50% on 116(5.2) property, a rented building or inventory, no certificate relieves, and on inventory 50% is a floor.
Cross-BorderBuying US property as a Canadian sets off four obligations, and they key to six different trigger dates. Here is the order they fire in, and which one to settle first.
Cross-BorderOrdinary section 1250 recapture on a post-1986 straight-line US residential rental building held over a year is zero, and up to 25 percent still hits the unrecaptured 1250 gain.
Cross-BorderFour vehicles, three compared here: no trust source was locked. A regulation rather than the statute settles what you hold at death, and an LLC interest is the open question.
Cross-BorderOn the Canadian side it mostly doesn't matter: arrival resets your cost to fair market value. US basis doesn't move, and T1135 can switch on unless the place is personal-use.
Cross-BorderBuying doesn't change your US day count. A condo available to you at all times becomes a second permanent home, and Form 8840 line 15 asks for an explanation.
Cross-BorderUsually no. For a Canadian resident who isn't a US citizen, the treaty can trade the $60,000 for a pro-rata share of the 2026 $15,000,000 exclusion, but the IRS position is that the estate claims it on a filed 706-NA.
Cross-BorderThree problems, two sides of the border: US corporate tax, a Canadian shareholder benefit on CRA's view if the place is available for personal use, then the cost of getting out.
Cross-BorderYes, 30% of the gross rent is the default. The section 871(d) election moves you to graduated rates on net rent, and the first one can usually be filed late.
Cross-BorderUsually not, on one condition. Days you commute home inside 24 hours drop out of the US day count, but only if you commute on over 75% of workdays in the working period.
Cross-BorderCanada taxes your remote pay first, because the work happens in Canada. What you owe, what your US employer owes Canada, and the forms both sides need.
Cross-BorderYes, if you're a US person who owns 10% or more of it or controls it. A missed year costs $10,000, and the return can stay open to IRS assessment until you file.
Cross-BorderDual-status is the default in your arrival year. Three separate elections can change that, and two of them generally need a spouse. Here's which is which.
Cross-BorderA section 6677 penalty on a TFSA is assessable, so it can land before anyone reads your explanation. The routes back are abatement, Appeals or a refund claim, each with a clock.
Cross-BorderA paid assessment is worth it when your file holds an unknown that changes the price or the plan. If you already know which returns you need, skip it.
Cross-BorderAn LLC formed while you're still a Canadian resident usually lands in a mismatch Canada doesn't fix, and an S corporation is closed to a nonresident alien.
Cross-BorderCalifornia doesn't follow the treaty that defers US tax on RRSP growth, so a California resident reports those earnings yearly, even where nothing is withdrawn.
Cross-BorderFlorida levies no personal income tax, but the cost of the move lands on the Canadian side, on the way out. Here is the sequence, and the dates that decide it.
Cross-BorderForm 8854 asks you to certify five years of US tax compliance. Fail that certification and you're a covered expatriate at any net worth, so the catch-up comes first.
Cross-BorderA section 217 election trades the flat 25% withholding on non-resident RRSP income for graduated Canadian rates. Who wins, the June 30 wall, and the math.
Cross-BorderUS brokerage and bank accounts count toward the T1135's $100,000 cost-amount line while you're a Canadian resident. The penalties, and the two late routes.
Cross-BorderProbably yes. The delinquent FBAR route excluded anyone needing either of the IRS's disclosure procedures to file an amended return, and the IRS removed that route in mid-2026.
Cross-BorderYour LIRA isn't deemed sold when you leave Canada. Whether you can unlock it as a non-resident, and how long you wait, is set by the pension law governing the account.
Cross-BorderThere's no flat 182-day safe number. The substantial presence test weights three years, so 122 days each winter, three winters running, already meets it.
Cross-BorderCanadian residence restarts when you establish ties here, and an instant before that the Act deems most of what you own sold and acquired again at fair market value.
Cross-BorderUsually yes for a 401(k), though CRA has never confirmed it: ITA 60(j) gives a deduction if five conditions hold and you fund the RRSP in time. A Roth generally can't.
Cross-BorderTwo slips for one tranche isn't double tax by itself. Each country runs its own inclusion trigger and its own share, the two needn't sum to the tranche, and any credit is capped.
Cross-BorderIn most cases yes, but only where you filed the Article XVIII(7) election, made no contribution as a Canadian resident, and the payout is qualified under US rules.
Cross-BorderEvery CRA description of Form NR73 is conditional, and what it gives back is an opinion that isn't binding on the CRA. Two fact patterns still make it worth filing.
Cross-BorderA spouse who stays in Canada is usually a significant residential tie, which can push your Canadian departure date past your own flight. The US side runs separately.
Cross-BorderYour residential ties decide the first test, and the tests run in a set order. The treaty tie-breaker only starts if the US also claims you as its resident.
Cross-BorderThe 15% treaty rate reaches only a periodic pension payment. A lump-sum cash-out of a pre-tax IRA or 401(k) stays at the 30% US default, and a W-8BEN can't lower it.
Cross-BorderIf you're a US resident, CPP and OAS are taxable only in the US under the treaty. Canada's tax drops to nil and the OAS clawback doesn't reach you.
Cross-BorderBoth countries tax the sale. Canada taxes the gain minus a shrinking principal residence exemption; the US mostly taxes the post-move rise, with a credit for the Canadian tax.
Cross-BorderUsually, wind it up before you leave. The CDA only comes out tax-free while you're a Canadian resident, and once your US residency starts the liquidation is a US taxable event.
Cross-BorderCanada takes 25% of gross Canadian rent at source. An approved NR6 moves it onto the net, and a section 216 return usually refunds the difference.
Cross-BorderIf the income was already reported, you file the late FBARs yourself through FinCEN. The IRS removed its Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures page in mid-2026.
Cross-BorderYour corporation stays Canadian, but it stops being a CCPC the day control passes to a non-resident, and it becomes a controlled foreign corporation on your US return.
Cross-BorderCanada calls your US LLC a corporation and the IRS calls it nothing, so the same profit gets taxed twice. Here's the math, and the fix options side by side.
Cross-BorderYes, almost always. Canadian mutual funds and ETFs are PFICs; GICs and cash aren't. Form 8621 runs one per fund, from $400 a year, unless an exception applies.
Cross-BorderNot on its own. Your US basis stays at original cost after Canada's deemed disposition unless you make the Article XIII(7) treaty election on the return for the year you moved.
Cross-BorderYes, you were supposed to file. There's a named IRS path where eligible filers who follow every instruction pay no penalties: three years of returns, six years of FBARs, one form.
Cross-BorderYou can keep the RESP, but contributions and the CESG stop when your child leaves Canada. The CCB ends too, and the IRS side turns on Rev. Proc. 2020-17.
Cross-BorderYes, your TN days count toward the substantial presence test. Arrive by mid-year and you'll likely file a dual-status return. Here's the day math and the forms.
Cross-BorderMost E-2 movers become US tax residents the year they land, file a final Canadian return with a departure date, and add FBAR plus Form 5471 if they keep the Canadian corporation.
Cross-BorderOnly if you're both a long-term resident (green card in 8 of the last 15 taxable years) and a covered expatriate. Plenty of people are neither. Timing decides it.
Cross-BorderThe full leaving-Canada tax list in order: sever ties, document the departure date, file T1161 with the final return, settle RRSP, TFSA, CPP, and OAS.
Cross-BorderNeither account is deemed sold when you leave Canada. The RRSP's US tax deferral is automatic now if you're an eligible individual; the TFSA turns into taxable US income on day 1.
Cross-BorderWithout a clearance certificate the buyer holds back 25% of your full sale price. Form T2062 cuts that to 25% of the gain. Deadlines, math, and the US side.
Cross-BorderUsually yes. Leaving Canada triggers a deemed sale of most property at fair market value. Here are the forms (T1161, T1243), the penalties, and the worked math.
Cross-BorderThe IRS has never ruled on TFSAs. Here are both defensible filing positions, the penalty math, and the 2024 proposed rule that may exempt accounts under a $50,000 aggregate cap.
Cross-BorderPeriodic RRIF withdrawals get the 15% treaty rate; an RRSP lump sum is withheld at 25%. Here are the rules, the yearly ceiling, and the ten-year math.
Cross-BorderMost Canadian streamlined files land between US$2,500 and $4,500 in preparer fees, and a typical employee file owes $0 US tax. Accounts drive the spread.
Cross-BorderA $1,200 TFSA quote usually means protective Form 3520 and 3520-A filings for every account. Here's what that work involves and when the number is fair.
Cross-BorderCeasing Canadian residence deems most of your property sold at fair market value. Five statutory exclusions cut into that, and Canadian real property is one.