Moving from Vancouver to Orlando: Taxes, Simulation, and Central Florida

Orlando isn’t the retiree Florida of theme parks and snowbird condos, not for the people making this move. Vancouver has spent two decades building a gaming, VFX, and simulation talent base for EA, Disney, and a long list of visual effects houses, and Orlando has quietly built the US counterpart: EA Tiburon in Maitland, Walt Disney’s animation and Imagineering teams, Lockheed Martin’s simulation and training campus near UCF, and a cluster of defense and modeling firms that all draw on the same skill set. The tax story is the familiar BC-to-Florida drop, but the corridor itself runs on shared talent, not shared weather.

Why does Orlando pull Vancouver’s creative tech talent?

Because the two cities feed the same industry from opposite ends. Vancouver’s VFX, animation, and gaming studios (EA’s Vancouver studio among them) have trained a generation of artists and engineers who move fluidly into simulation and interactive media roles. Orlando is where a lot of that work lands on the US side: EA Tiburon builds Madden and college football titles in Maitland, Disney runs animation and Imagineering out of the area, and Lockheed Martin’s simulation division sits next to UCF’s modeling program, one of the largest in the country. It’s a talent pipeline more than a tax pitch.

How big is the rate drop to Orlando?

Close to the largest in this corridor set. BC’s provincial brackets run to 20.5% above roughly $252,752 (2025 figures), stacked on federal tax to land near 53.5% combined at the top. Florida adds nothing at the state level, on any income type, salary, bonus, RSU vesting, or capital gains. There’s no state return to file at all, which matters more than it sounds once you get to the RRSP question below.

What does BC charge you on the way out?

The same deemed disposition every departing BC resident faces, taxed at BC’s own bracket rates rather than a separate exit levy. Ceasing Canadian residence triggers a deemed sale of most property at fair market value, with half the resulting gain taxable, reported on your final BC return at BC’s combined rates. Moving to a zero-tax state doesn’t touch this bill; it only stops future income from being taxed at BC rates.

• The forms and worked math sit in the T1161 and T1243 guide.
• The full exit sequence, including elections that defer payment without reducing the liability, is in the leaving-Canada checklist.

Who else is hiring in the Orlando corridor?

Beyond the gaming and simulation names, a wider corporate and tech base. Universal (under Comcast) runs its own creative and technology teams alongside the theme park business, L3Harris Technologies has a major Central Florida presence in defense electronics, and Siemens Energy runs US operations out of the Orlando area. For a Vancouver household where one spouse works creative tech and the other works in a more conventional corporate role, Orlando tends to have an opening on both sides in a way a single-employer relocation doesn’t.

What happens to the RRSP and TFSA?

The RRSP is the cleanest part of this whole move, because Florida has no state return to attach an addback to. Treaty deferral applies automatically at the federal level, and with zero state filing, there’s no additional layer to track the way there is in states that tax RRSP growth or don’t honor the treaty election. The TFSA gets no such pass: the US treats it as a foreign trust, which drags Form 3520 and 3520-A reporting behind it every year it stays open after you become a US person.

• Full federal mechanics for both accounts are in the RRSP and TFSA guide.
• CPP and OAS keep arriving on schedule, taxed under treaty rules that credit Canadian withholding rather than doubling it.

How long does MSP coverage last after you leave?

Shorter than most people plan for. BC’s Medical Services Plan runs out at the end of the month following the month you leave the province, plus whatever period you’ve already prepaid, which in practice works out to roughly a three-month tail from notice to true cutoff. After that window closes, employer-sponsored coverage from a firm like EA, Disney, or Lockheed Martin, or an ACA marketplace plan, needs to already be in place. The full timing sits in the provincial health insurance guide.

How do sales and property taxes actually compare?

Sales tax drops by nearly half; property tax works on a gentler curve than in most Florida metros. BC combines 7% PST and 5% GST for 12%. Orange County runs 6% state sales tax plus a 0.5% county surtax, landing around 6.5% on most purchases. Property tax in Orange County runs roughly 0.9% to 1.1% effective, well below Miami-Dade or Broward, and against home values that, even after the run-up in Central Florida, still sit far below Vancouver’s.

	Vancouver / BC	Orlando / Florida
Top combined income tax rate	About 53.5%	0% state, federal only
Sales tax	12% (7% PST + 5% GST)	About 6.5% in Orange County (6% state + 0.5% surtax)
Property tax (effective)	Roughly 0.3% to 0.5%	Roughly 0.9% to 1.1%, capped after year one
Typical detached home	Among the priciest in North America	Comparable size buys larger, newer, in Orlando suburbs
State/provincial estate tax	Not applicable	None (federal estate tax still applies)

How do the homestead exemption and Save Our Homes work?

Two mechanisms, and the gap between them catches nearly everyone in year one. Own the home and make it your permanent residence by January 1, and Form DR-501 filed with the county by March 1 gets up to $50,000 off assessed value. Save Our Homes is separate: once you’ve had one exempt year on the roll, annual assessment increases cap at the lower of 3% or the change in CPI. That cap doesn’t apply in year one; the first year gets assessed at full value, and the protection only builds from year two forward.

Can you actually afford more house here?

For most Vancouver households, yes, by a wide margin. Vancouver real estate sits among the most expensive in North America, and a detached single-family home within city limits is out of reach for a large share of dual-income professional households. Orlando-suburb pricing, in areas like Lake Nona or Winter Garden, puts a comparable or larger detached home within reach of the same budget, often without the condo-fee structure Vancouver buyers are used to. It’s one of the sharpest affordability shifts in this corridor set.

BC’s speculation and vacancy tax still applies if you hold onto a Vancouver property after you leave; it’s a non-issue only once the home is actually sold.

Is Florida’s estate tax picture as simple as it looks?

Not once you look past the state line. Florida has no state estate tax at all, full stop. The US federal estate tax still applies, and for a non-US citizen the exemption sits at $60,000 rather than the far larger exemption available to citizens and residents, a gap that surprises Canadians who assume “no state estate tax” means no exposure. The mechanics are in the $60,000 exemption guide.

What should you settle before you sign anything?

Two dates and one number. The day your Canadian residence actually ends, because the deemed disposition and the BC bracket both key off it. Your MSP cutoff date, so coverage doesn’t lapse between provinces and states. And a real number on what your Vancouver property will net after sale, since that figure is what turns Orlando’s affordability gap from an idea into an actual house. Only after those are pinned down does the mountains-for-warmth, rain-for-sun trade-off become the easier part of the decision.

• Vancouver to Tampa, the other Central Florida corridor from BC.
• Vancouver to Miami, the South Florida version of this move.
• Vancouver to Seattle, the closer tech corridor with RSU and excise-tax questions.
• Vancouver to Los Angeles, the entertainment-industry version of this corridor.
• Toronto to Orlando, the Ontario version of this move.
• Montreal to Orlando, the Quebec version of this move.
• Calgary to Orlando, the Alberta version of this move.
• Ottawa to Orlando, the defence simulation corridor from Ottawa.
• BC to Florida, the province-level version of this corridor.
• Canada to Florida, the country-level overview.
• Canada’s departure tax, T1161 and T1243, and the leaving-Canada checklist.
• The US-Canada tax treaty explained, the framework behind the RRSP deferral and the FTC math.
• Your first US tax return as a new immigrant, what the first Florida-side filing actually requires.

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