Moving from New Brunswick to the US: Taxes
New Brunswick carries one of the heaviest tax loads in Canada: a top combined marginal rate north of 52%, and 15% HST on almost everything you buy. That combination, alongside a job market concentrated in a handful of large employers, sends a steady stream of Saint John, Moncton, and Fredericton professionals south every year. This page covers what’s specific to leaving New Brunswick; the federal cross-border mechanics (departure tax, RRSP, FBAR) are the same regardless of which province you’re leaving from.
New Brunswick’s top provincial rate is 19.5% on income above roughly $193,861 (2026), on top of federal tax, for a combined marginal rate near 52.5%, one of the highest in Canada. HST runs 15%, also among the highest consumption tax rates in the country. None of that provincial tax follows you once you’re a US nonresident; what does follow is the federal deemed disposition on your worldwide assets at fair market value, taxed on your final NB return at NB rates. NB Medicare coverage ends on your date of departure for a permanent move outside Canada, not weeks later, so bridge coverage matters more here than for an interprovincial move. Most NB movers land in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, or Rhode Island, with Florida drawing retirees separately.
Why are New Brunswickers moving to the US?
A handful of large employers dominate the New Brunswick job market: the Irving group across forestry, oil, and shipbuilding, McCain Foods, and a cluster of IT and call-center operations that often report to a US parent company. When those sectors slow or cap advancement, the exit route runs south. Healthcare is the other big driver: New England hospitals actively recruit NB nurses and doctors at pay scales well above what NB Medicare-funded facilities offer, and Saint John and Moncton have both felt a real brain-drain pattern as trained staff leave for Massachusetts and Maine.
- New Brunswick’s bilingual English-French workforce, especially Acadians from the Moncton and Miramichi areas, adds another wrinkle: some weigh Louisiana as a French-language US option, though that’s a far smaller path than the New England corridor
How does New Brunswick’s income tax work?
New Brunswick taxes income on four graduated brackets: 9.4% up to about $52,333, 14% up to $104,666, 16% up to $193,861, and 19.5% above that (2026, indexed annually). Anyone clearing roughly $194,000 pays about 52.5% combined federal and provincial tax on the next dollar earned, among the highest rates in Canada. HST adds another layer at 15%, one of the country’s highest sales tax rates, applied to nearly everything.
Neither follows you south. Once you’re a US nonresident, New Brunswick stops taxing your worldwide income, and HST stops applying to your day-to-day spending.
What happens to my NB taxes when I leave the country?
You file a final New Brunswick return covering January 1 through your departure date, and NB rates apply to whatever income and deemed gains land in that period. The bigger item is the federal deemed disposition: the CRA treats most of your property as sold at fair market value the day you leave, taxed on your exit-year return at your marginal rate, which can include that 19.5% top NB slice if the gain is large enough.
This applies the same way whether you’re leaving from Saint John, Moncton, or Fredericton; it’s a federal rule with New Brunswick’s rate stapled on top.
Does New Brunswick have its own departure tax?
Not a separate one. The deemed disposition itself is federal, reported via T1161 and T1243, and applies the same way regardless of province. What’s specific to New Brunswick is the rate charged on the resulting gain: your final return uses NB’s brackets, up to that 19.5% top rate.
A large unrealized gain in a non-registered brokerage account or a business interest, taxed against NB’s rate structure, is often the single biggest number in a New Brunswick departure, bigger than most people expect until it’s calculated.
What happens to my Medicare coverage when I move?
For a permanent move outside Canada, NB Medicare coverage ends on your actual date of departure, not at the end of a following month. That’s different from an interprovincial move within Canada, which gets roughly three months of continued NB coverage while the new province’s plan takes effect. Anyone moving to the US needs private or employer health coverage lined up to start on arrival; there’s no NB-funded bridge for a cross-border move the way there is for a move to Ontario or Quebec. Notify Medicare NB of your departure date directly so the file closes cleanly and doesn’t complicate your final tax filing.
Where do most New Brunswick movers end up in the US?
Maine is the natural first stop for anyone driving south, connected by a direct highway run from the Woodstock or St. Stephen crossings, with many NB families already having relatives or property on the Maine side. Massachusetts pulls the Boston-bound healthcare and tech crowd, particularly nurses and IT workers moving into a much bigger metro.
Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island round out the common New England destinations, each with its own tax profile below. Florida draws a separate group, mostly retirees converting a NB pension and CPP into a no-income-tax state.
How does NB’s top rate compare to US destination states?
Every common US destination for New Brunswick movers taxes income at less than half of NB’s 19.5% top provincial rate, and most charge lower sales tax than NB’s 15% HST.
| Jurisdiction | Top state/provincial income tax rate | Sales/consumption tax |
|---|---|---|
| New Brunswick | 19.5% (about 52.5% combined with federal) | 15% HST |
| Maine | 7.15% | 5.5% |
| Massachusetts | 9% (surtax above $1M) | 6.25% |
| Connecticut | 6.99% | 6.35% |
| New Hampshire | 0% on wages | 0% |
| Rhode Island | 5.99% | 7% |
| Florida | 0% | 6% (plus local) |
Every one of these destinations taxes income at less than half of New Brunswick’s top rate, and most charge sales tax at less than half of NB’s 15% HST too. That gap is a large part of why the move pencils out for a lot of professional and skilled-trades households, even before accounting for higher US wages in the same fields.
What should I do next?
The Canadian exit follows the standard departure checklist regardless of which US state you’re landing in. From there, the main New Brunswick-specific items are getting the deemed disposition calculation right against NB’s top bracket, and lining up health coverage before departure rather than after.
- Departure tax checklist, the full Canadian exit sequence
- Canada departure tax (T1161/T1243), the exit filing detail
- Provincial health insurance when leaving Canada, coverage timing rules by province
- US-Canada tax treaty explained, the framework behind RRSP deferral and credits
- RRSP and TFSA on a US move, federal treatment and reporting
- First US tax return after moving from Canada, the arrival-year mechanics
- State income tax for cross-border filers, how these states compare more broadly
- Moving from Canada to Maine, the border-state destination
- Moving from Canada to Massachusetts, the Boston healthcare and tech corridor
- Moving from Canada to Rhode Island, the Maritimes-connected Providence corridor
- Moving from Nova Scotia to the US, the sister Maritime province corridor
- Moving from the US to New Brunswick, the reverse of this corridor
The Cross-Border Assessment is a fixed $250. You get a written, CPA-reviewed plan covering your departure tax exposure against NB's top bracket, Medicare coverage timing, RRSP/TFSA treatment, and FBAR/FATCA reporting.
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Yarik Yarosh, CPA. "Moving from New Brunswick to the US: Taxes." Blue Cloud CPA, August 30, 2026. https://bluecloudcpa.com/guides/moving-from-new-brunswick-to-us-taxes
This guide is general information, not tax advice for your specific situation. Which points apply, and how, depends on your facts.