Moving from Alberta to Florida: Taxes, RRSP, and the Low-to-Zero Corridor

Alberta is already the cheapest province in Canada to leave from a tax standpoint. The provincial rate tops out at a flat 15%, there is no PST, and the combined federal-plus-provincial top rate sits around 48%, several points below Ontario, BC, or Quebec. Moving to Florida still drops that number to federal-only, but the point-for-point improvement is smaller than the Ontario-to-Florida or Quebec-to-Florida version of this move, simply because Alberta did not have as much provincial rate to shed in the first place. The departure tax and the RRSP mechanics work the same way regardless, and this is one of the more common corridors: Calgary energy-sector retirees, Edmonton professionals, and long-time Arizona-or-Florida snowbirds finally making the split permanent.

What’s the real tax drop from Calgary to Miami?

Smaller than people expect, and that is the point worth naming up front rather than after the fact. Alberta’s top combined rate of roughly 48% (33% federal plus a flat 15% provincial) compares to Florida’s federal-only top rate of 37%, an 11-point spread. Ontario to Florida and Quebec to Florida see a bigger spread, because those provinces layer surtaxes and higher brackets on top of a federal rate that is identical everywhere. Alberta movers still gain, just less dramatically, and the gain shows up mostly at higher income levels rather than across the board.

	Alberta	Florida
Income tax, top combined rate	About 48% (33% federal, 15% flat provincial)	About 37% (federal only, no state layer)
Sales tax	5% GST, no PST	6% state, plus county surtax up to about 1.5%
Property tax, effective rate	Roughly 0.6% to 1%	Roughly 0.8% to 1.2%, capped after year one under Save Our Homes
Estate or inheritance tax	None (deemed disposition at death instead)	None at the state level; federal US estate tax can still apply to nonresidents
Public health coverage	AHCIP, ends the month you leave	None; private coverage required from day one

Why is Alberta’s departure tax the lightest exit?

Because the deemed disposition on the way out is taxed using Alberta’s rates, and Alberta’s rates are the lowest of any province. Leaving Canada triggers a deemed sale of most worldwide property (Canadian real estate and a short list of other items excluded), reported on the final return alongside Form T1161 and T1243. Someone leaving from Ontario or BC pays provincial tax on that gain at a top rate around 20.5%. Someone leaving from Alberta pays at 15%, flat, with no surtax layered on top the way Ontario applies one. On a large deemed gain, that difference is real money, not a rounding error.

• The rest of the departure sequence does not change with the province. Residential ties still have to be severed, the final T1 still has to carry the departure date, and the full checklist still applies in the same order it would from any other province.

Does the RRSP math get simpler here too?

Yes, for the same reason it does moving from Alberta to Texas: no state income tax means no state addback on the withdrawal, and no state government competing with the foreign tax credit for a piece of the Canadian withholding. The RRSP and TFSA decisions after becoming a US resident hinge on lump-sum versus periodic withdrawals, and on whether the 15% treaty withholding rate is fully absorbed by the US foreign tax credit. In a high-tax state like California, that credit has to stretch across a state layer too.

• In Florida, as in Texas, it only has to cover federal tax, which is the cleanest version of this calculation across the whole corridor list.

Why does sales tax go up instead of down?

This is the one line item that runs against the general direction of the move. Alberta has no provincial sales tax at all, just the 5% federal GST. Florida charges a 6% state sales tax, and counties can add a discretionary surtax on top, pushing the effective rate to roughly 6% to 7.5% depending on the county. It is a small number next to the income tax swing, but it is worth naming plainly, because Alberta movers are used to thinking of themselves as coming from the low-tax province and can be caught off guard the first time a Florida receipt runs higher than expected.

Who actually makes this move?

Three recognizable groups show up in this corridor, and each brings a different starting point into the departure tax calculation.

• Calgary energy-sector retirees converting a pension, deferred compensation, or the sale of a private practice into a warm-weather retirement, usually with a meaningful non-registered portfolio that makes the deemed disposition the main event.
• Edmonton professionals relocating for remote work, a spouse’s job, or a business sale, often still earning employment or business income in the departure year alongside whatever the deemed disposition produces.
• Longtime snowbirds finally converting a seasonal Florida property into a permanent one, a group that overlaps heavily with Albertans who have also wintered in Scottsdale, since Arizona and Florida are the two dominant snowbird destinations out of Alberta.

The conversion from seasonal to permanent is where the tax questions actually start, because a property owned for years as a vacation home carries a different homestead and residency posture than one bought the year of the move. Seasonal use never qualified for the homestead exemption, so the clock only starts running once the move is genuinely permanent.

What happens to AHCIP and CPP/OAS?

Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan coverage ends at the end of the month you leave Alberta, or on the date Alberta Health is notified, whichever is later. There is no grace period comparable to Ontario’s, so US health coverage needs to be lined up close to the departure date rather than months afterward; the province-by-province comparison covers the mechanics.

CPP and OAS keep paying regardless of where you live. Once you are a US resident, both are taxed under the treaty rules covered in how CPP and OAS are taxed from the US, and the province you left does not change that treatment.

Can you claim Florida homestead in year one?

Only if you own the home and have made it your permanent residence by January 1, and only if you file Form DR-501 with the county property appraiser by March 1. Miss either date and the exemption waits a full year. The first homestead year is assessed at just value, no cap applied yet; the Save Our Homes cap on annual assessment increases only starts the following January. Effective property tax in Florida runs a bit higher than Alberta’s roughly 0.6% to 1% municipal rate, landing around 0.8% to 1.2% before the cap has had time to build any protection.

Does either side tax your estate?

Alberta has no provincial estate or inheritance tax; Canada handles death through a deemed disposition of the estate’s assets, not a separate estate tax. Florida has no state estate tax either. The exposure that survives both is federal: the US estate tax applies to nonresident aliens on US-situs assets with only a $60,000 exemption, a fraction of the multimillion-dollar exemption available to citizens and residents, though the Canada-US treaty allows a prorated unified credit that can reduce or eliminate the exposure.

• The full $60,000 exemption mechanics are worth reading before any large US-situs asset, particularly US real estate, sits directly in a nonresident’s name.

What should you do next?

Confirm the departure date and value the estate as of that date first, since the deemed disposition and the Alberta tax on it both key off it. Then work the two calendars in parallel: the Canadian side runs off the departure date, and the Florida side runs off January 1 and the March 1 homestead filing deadline. The substantial presence test determines when US residency starts for federal purposes, and the first US return has its own elections that are easiest to get right the first time.

• Leaving Canada permanently: the tax checklist
• Canada departure tax, Form T1161 and T1243
• Moving from Alberta to Texas, the other no-state-income-tax Alberta corridor
• Moving from Canada to Florida, the generic version of this corridor
• Moving from BC to Florida, for comparison against a higher-provincial-rate departure
• State income tax across the Canada-US border, how state and provincial layers actually interact

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