Moving from Ottawa to Orlando: Taxes, Defence Simulation, and Central Florida

Ottawa’s defence and signals-intelligence workforce has a straighter line into Orlando than almost any Canadian city has into any US one. Lockheed Martin’s Orlando divisions build and run simulation, training, and modelling systems for every branch of the US military, and that work sits inside a cluster, anchored by UCF Research Park, that recruiters and hiring managers describe as the largest modelling-and-simulation industry concentration in the world. A DND program officer or a CSE systems engineer isn’t taking a generic tech job when the offer letter comes from Lockheed, L3Harris, or Raytheon’s Orlando operations. They’re moving into the same discipline, just on the other side of the border, at a different pay scale and a different tax rate entirely.

How much of Ottawa’s tax bill actually disappears?

Nearly all of the provincial layer, and permanently rather than as a one-year dip. Ottawa’s combined federal and provincial top rate, with Ontario’s surtax stacked on top of basic Ontario tax, runs close to 53.53%. Orlando sits in Orange County, Florida, a state with no income tax and no county-level income tax to fill the gap, so a genuine Florida resident’s ongoing return is US federal only, topping out near 37% at the highest bracket.

What does the Ontario surtax actually cost you?

It’s a tax on top of a tax, and Florida has nothing structurally like it. Ontario applies a 20% surtax on basic Ontario tax above roughly $4,991, then a further 36% surtax above roughly $6,387, both computed before federal tax is even added. A departure-year deemed disposition with a meaningful gain can push a departing filer through both surtax thresholds in the same year the move happens, which is exactly the year people assume the number will be smallest.

	Ottawa / Ontario	Orlando / Orange County
Provincial or state income tax	Yes, combined with federal to roughly 53.53% at the top, surtax included	None
County or city income tax	None (Ontario has no municipal income tax)	None (Florida counties don’t levy income tax)
Sales tax	HST 13%	Roughly 6.5% in Orange County (6% state plus 0.5% county surtax)
Property tax	Roughly 1.0% to 1.3% of assessed value in Ottawa	Roughly 0.9% to 1.1% effective, before homestead relief
Health coverage	OHIP, funded through general taxation and the Ontario Health Premium	No public system; private or employer coverage required
Estate tax on death	Ontario Estate Administration Tax, roughly 1.5% above the first tier	No Florida estate tax; US federal estate tax applies above the exemption

Who’s moving from Ottawa to Orlando for work?

Defence, simulation, and modelling talent, more concentrated than in any other corridor in this series. DND program staff and CSE systems and cybersecurity engineers move into Lockheed Martin’s Orlando-based training and simulation division, L3Harris’s sensors and space work, and the growing Orlando-area footprint that Raytheon (RTX) and Northrop Grumman both carry.

• A parallel stream comes from Ottawa’s own CAE operations, since CAE is headquartered in Montreal with a substantial Ottawa presence and competes directly with several Orlando simulation firms for the same military training contracts, which means the skill transfer runs almost one to one. Others land at EA’s Tiburon studio, Siemens Energy’s US headquarters, or the large corporate, IT, and finance campuses Disney and Universal run well outside the theme parks.

Why is this the strongest defence corridor in the series?

Because the industry cluster on the receiving end is purpose-built for exactly this skill set. UCF Research Park anchors a modelling, simulation, and training (MS&T) industry cluster that’s widely described as the largest of its kind anywhere, and Lockheed Martin’s Orlando operations are the single biggest defence employer in the metro. A DND simulation or training background isn’t a loosely related credential here. It’s the same job function, moved to a different employer and a different tax system.

• That density also means the move isn’t a one-off. CAE’s direct competition with Orlando’s simulation firms, combined with L3Harris, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman all maintaining Orlando-area operations, gives this corridor more repeat traffic than most destinations on the DND-and-CSE list.

What happens to your RRSP and TFSA in Florida?

Cleaner than almost anywhere else, because there’s no state return to complicate either account. An RRSP keeps its treaty-based tax deferral with no state addback to track, since Florida has no state income tax return at all, only the federal one. A TFSA doesn’t carry the same protection: the US treats it as a foreign trust, exposes it to PFIC rules if it holds mutual funds, and the standard approach is to collapse it before departure rather than carry it across.

• The mechanics that apply regardless of destination state are in RRSP and TFSA after moving to the US and the US-Canada tax treaty explained.

What happens to OHIP and the Ottawa house?

OHIP coverage doesn’t end the day the plane lands in Orlando. A genuine permanent departure typically carries a three-month tail of continued OHIP coverage after notifying the ministry, and the Ontario Health Premium, a separate charge from OHIP eligibility itself, stops accruing the calendar year after departure rather than the day someone leaves. Florida or employer-provided coverage needs to be active before that tail runs out.

• The Ottawa house keeps its principal residence exemption up to the departure date if it was a genuine home, though the exempt portion stops growing once Canadian residence ends. Full mechanics are in the provincial health insurance guide and the leaving-Canada checklist.

How does the homestead exemption work here?

Two separate mechanics, and the gap between them in year one trips up almost everyone who buys before checking. If the home is a genuine permanent residence as of January 1, filing Form DR-501 with the Orange County Property Appraiser by March 1 gets up to $50,000 off assessed value. Save Our Homes is a second, later benefit: once a home has had one exempt year on the roll, annual increases in assessed value are capped at the lesser of 3% or the change in CPI.

Is there an estate tax bill waiting in Florida?

Not from Florida itself, but from the US federal system sitting above it. Florida charges no state estate tax, so there’s no Florida-level equivalent to Ontario’s Estate Administration Tax, which runs roughly 1.5% of estate value above the first tier and applies to assets passing through Ontario probate. The number that actually matters once someone becomes a US resident is the federal estate tax exemption, and the exposure looks very different for a non-resident alien than for a US person.

• The thresholds and how residency status changes them are in the US estate tax and the $60,000 exemption.

Orlando, Tampa, or Miami: where do DND movers land?

Almost entirely on the employer, not on climate or lifestyle preference. Orlando pulls Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and CAE-adjacent simulation work through UCF Research Park. Tampa’s pipeline runs through the MacDill Air Force Base contractor base, CENTCOM and SOCOM support firms, a different slice of the same defence world. Miami stays the condo-and-finance corridor, pulling snowbirds and international finance transplants rather than DND or CSE alumni.

• All three sit inside the same zero-income-tax state, so the tax analysis doesn’t change between them. It only changes who’s making the move and how quickly the paperwork needs to happen once a clearance transfers.

What should you do before you sign anything?

Fix the departure date against the Lockheed, L3Harris, Raytheon, or CAE-competitor start date first, since a fixed start date is usually the least flexible part of the whole move. The departure date decides which Ontario tax year absorbs the deemed disposition and whether both surtax thresholds get crossed in that same year, while the start date drives the closing timeline, the homestead filing, and the first US paycheck’s withholding.

• Once both dates are set, the RRSP and TFSA handling, the OHIP tail, and the choice of neighborhood inside the UCF Research Park, Lake Nona, or Winter Park corridor become far easier calls than they look from Ottawa.

• Moving from Ontario to Florida, the province-level version of this move

• Moving from Canada to Florida, the generic corridor from any province

• Ottawa to Miami, the South Florida version of this corridor

• Ottawa to Tampa, the MacDill defence-contractor version of this corridor

• Ottawa to Washington DC, the policy and consulting corridor

• Ottawa to Denver, another defence and aerospace corridor

• Ottawa to Seattle, the tech-heavy alternative corridor

• Toronto to Orlando, the same destination from Toronto

• Montreal to Orlando, the same destination from Quebec

• Vancouver to Orlando, the same destination from BC

• Calgary to Orlando, the same destination from Alberta

• 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

• The US estate tax and the $60,000 exemption

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