Moving from Montreal to Columbus: Taxes, Fintech, and the JPMorgan Corridor

Montreal and Columbus aren’t an obvious pairing next to Montreal-to-New York or Montreal-to-Boston, but the pull is concrete. JPMorgan Chase runs a huge operations footprint in Columbus, Nationwide and Huntington Bancshares are headquartered there, and Cardinal Health, L Brands, and Wendy’s round out a Fortune 500 base most people don’t associate with Ohio. Add Amazon’s and Meta’s data center build-out, CoverMyMeds and Root Insurance on the tech side, and Battelle Memorial Institute anchoring research, and Columbus draws steadily from Montreal’s banking, aerospace, and AI talent pools. The rate drop from Quebec is real, but the departure side of the move runs through more Canadian paperwork than most movers expect before that first Ohio return is even relevant.

Why does Quebec’s tax rate drop so much in Columbus?

Because Ohio’s brackets sit far below Quebec’s stacked provincial-plus-surtax structure, and even Columbus’s city tax on top doesn’t close much of that gap. Quebec’s combined top rate lands around 53.31%. Ohio’s state rate tops out near 3.5%, and Columbus’s 2.5% city tax applies on top of that, for a combined state-and-city rate around 6% at the top end.

• That 6% isn’t the whole story for someone still working out net take-home pay, since federal US tax applies on top of both, but the state-and-local layer alone is a fraction of what Quebec’s provincial tax takes by itself, before any federal comparison even starts.

Which Canadian authorities handle the departure?

Three, and Ohio isn’t one of them. The final TP-1 goes to Revenu Québec, covering worldwide income to the departure date, filed separately from the federal return. The final T1 goes to the CRA, covering the same period federally.

• Anyone billing an employer or client through a Quebec corporation, common among aerospace contractors and fintech developers on consulting arrangements, also has a QHSF (Quebec Health Services Fund) filing to close out before the move is fully done. Skipping it is the mistake that resurfaces a year later as an unexpected Revenu Québec notice, long after Columbus has become the only address anyone’s thinking about.

Does the RRSP deferral survive the move to Ohio?

Yes, and this corridor is cleaner than most on that point. The treaty defers US federal tax on RRSP growth automatically, and Ohio builds its own tax calculation starting from federal adjusted gross income rather than computing its own separate base.

• That means the federal deferral carries straight through to the Ohio return with no state-level addback or extra election required. On withdrawal, the distribution lands in federal AGI, then in Ohio taxable income at Ohio’s graduated rate, plus Columbus’s 2.5% city tax if the recipient still lives there. TFSA income gets no equivalent shelter federally or in Ohio; it’s taxed as ordinary investment income from year one. The RRSP and TFSA guide covers the case for closing the TFSA before departure.

Does Columbus charge its own city income tax?

Yes, at 2.5%, one of the higher municipal rates in Ohio, and it applies to essentially all earned income whether you live in the city or just work there. Columbus taxes wages, salaries, and most self-employment income at 2.5% on top of the state rate.

• Settle in a suburb like Dublin, Westerville, Grove City, or Bexley instead, and that suburb’s own municipal rate applies, most sitting close to Columbus’s 2.5% since Franklin County municipalities cluster tightly. Reciprocity credits exist between most central Ohio municipalities, so double taxation on the same wages is rare, but the city tax itself isn’t optional anywhere in the metro.

How do Quebec and Ohio compare, line by line?

The two systems differ on structure as much as headline rate, and the Columbus city layer and the RRSP conformity point are the details most quick comparisons skip.

Category	Quebec/Montreal	Ohio/Columbus
Income tax	Combined top rate ~53.31%	Graduated, tops out ~3.5%
City/local income tax	None (provincial only)	2.5% (Columbus, most earned income)
RRSP treatment	Tax-deferred growth	Treaty-deferred; follows federal AGI, no addback
Sales tax	QST 9.975% + GST 5%, ~14.975% combined	~7.5% combined state and Franklin County
Property tax	Roughly 0.8% to 1.2% in most municipalities	Roughly 1.5% to 2.0% effective (Franklin County)
Estate tax	None (deemed disposition at death instead)	None; repealed in 2013

What replaces my T4 and T5 on the way out?

Relevé slips. Quebec issues its own slips alongside the federal ones, the Relevé 1 next to the T4 for employment income and the Relevé 3 next to the T5 for investment income.

• A partial-year Montreal employer, common for anyone leaving mid-project at a bank, aerospace firm, or startup, often issues the Relevé 1 weeks behind the T4, and the TP-1 can’t be finished from the federal slip total alone. The Quebec abatement, a 16.5% reduction of basic federal tax, also has to be prorated to the actual months of Quebec residency in a departure year rather than applied at the full-year rate.

What happens to RAMQ and the health contribution?

RAMQ doesn’t end the day you leave. Notify the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec once the departure date is fixed, and expect coverage to run roughly three months past that notification, a gap most movers bridge with an employer plan or short-term coverage.

• The Quebec Health Contribution built into the provincial tax bill stops accruing once residency ends. This corridor’s larger employers, JPMorgan Chase, Nationwide, and Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center among them, run group plans that typically start well before the RAMQ tail runs out, and moving from Canada is a Special Enrollment Period event on the federal marketplace if a start date doesn’t line up. The provincial health insurance guide covers the RAMQ wind-down in full.

Why are Montreal professionals moving to Columbus?

The corridor draws on several distinct slices of Montreal’s economy, not one industry. Finance is the largest pull: National Bank and Desjardins staff move into roles at JPMorgan Chase’s large Columbus operation, Nationwide’s headquarters, and Huntington Bancshares, well beyond front-office titles.

• Aerospace engineers from Bombardier, CAE, and Pratt & Whitney land at Honda’s Marysville manufacturing base and the defense logistics work built up around central Ohio. Montreal’s AI and gaming talent, Mila alumni, Element AI veterans, and studio developers, feeds CoverMyMeds (part of McKesson), Root Insurance, and a growing base of Columbus tech startups. Pharma researchers land inside Cardinal Health’s headquarters or Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center research programs, and Amazon’s and Meta’s data center build-out plus Battelle Memorial Institute pull in infrastructure and research roles that don’t map to any single Montreal industry.
• On where people land: finance and tech hires often choose German Village, Short North, or Grandview Heights, close to downtown and inside the 2.5% city tax. Families and more senior hires tend toward Dublin, Upper Arlington, Bexley, or New Albany for schools, each carrying its own municipal rate close to Columbus’s, and Marysville-bound aerospace hires often settle further northwest to cut the commute rather than the tax rate.

What should I do next?

Fix the departure date first, since it sets the deemed disposition figure on both the T1 and TP-1 and starts the RAMQ clock. Then gather both slip sets, T4/T1 and Relevé/TP-1, and close out any QHSF filing tied to a Quebec corporation before calling the move done.

• Moving from Canada to Ohio
• Toronto to Columbus, the sibling corridor from Ontario
• Montreal to Pittsburgh
• Montreal to Detroit
• Montreal to Chicago
• Montreal to Philadelphia
• Ottawa to Columbus, the government tech sibling corridor
• Canada’s departure tax, T1161 and T1243
• Leaving Canada permanently: tax checklist
• RRSP and TFSA after moving to the US
• The US-Canada tax treaty explained
• Your first US tax return as a new Canadian immigrant
• Provincial health insurance when leaving Canada

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