I'm a Snowbird and I Just Bought a Florida Condo. Does That Change My Taxes?

No, the purchase doesn’t put you on a US residency test. Your day count does that, and ownership isn’t a term in it. Two things sit outside that count: a green card alone makes you a US resident under IRC 7701(b)(1)(A), and a US citizen is never a nonresident alien. If either one is you, none of what follows is your analysis. What the condo touches is the closer connection exception, the route you use to stay a nonresident once the count is met, if you clear its own conditions, because that test asks where your permanent home is. A dwelling available to you at all times, continuously, counts as one. So the condo can become your second, and Form 8840 then asks you to list both and explain.

Does buying the condo make me a US tax resident?

No. Ownership isn’t one of the US residency tests. IRC 7701(b)(3)(A) builds the substantial presence test out of days of US presence, and property isn’t among its terms, so a deed never enters the arithmetic. That test is for an alien individual, and it isn’t the only route: a green card makes you a US resident under 7701(b)(1)(A) whatever the days say, and a US citizen isn’t in that provision. The condo lands one step later, on the closer connection exception you use once the count is met, if you clear its own conditions, which the snowbird day count guide sets out.

“In determining whether an individual has maintained more significant contacts with a foreign country than the United States, the facts and circumstances to be considered include, but are not limited to, the following, (i) The location of the individual’s permanent home; (ii) The location of the individual’s family; (iii) The location of personal belongings, such as automobiles, furniture, clothing and jewelry owned by the individual and his or her family …”

That’s 26 CFR 301.7701(b)-2(d)(1), and the shape of it matters as much as the content. It’s a list of factors, permanent home sits first, and the list is expressly open: “include, but are not limited to”. Family and personal belongings come next, and the regulation carries on from there through the rest of the list, most of which Form 8840 Part IV then asks about one line at a time. What it doesn’t do is rank them, weight them, or set a pass mark.

So after the purchase the first factor points at two countries where it used to point at one. That’s a change in the facts a closer connection claim has to describe. It isn’t a verdict, and there’s no line in this regulation that says a second home sinks the claim. The count itself, and the arithmetic that produces it, belong to how many days a Canadian snowbird can spend in the US and the substantial presence test calculator. This page picks up where those leave off.

There’s a second thing in the regulation, and it cuts against the intuition in both directions.

“For purposes of paragraph (d)(1)(i) of this section, it is immaterial whether a permanent home is a house, an apartment, or a furnished room. It is also immaterial whether the home is owned or rented by the alien individual. It is material, however, that the dwelling be available at all times, continuously, and not solely for stays of short duration.”

Owning is beside the point. Availability is the point. Read that against a snowbird who spent nine winters in the same rented unit on a year-round lease: they already had a US permanent home, and buying the place they were already renting changed nothing about this factor. Read it against a snowbird who used to book a different hotel every January: for them the purchase does add a permanent home, provided they keep the unit available to themselves rather than tied up where they can’t use it at will.

What exactly does the condo change on Form 8840?

Two lines in Part IV, and one of them probably wasn’t live for you before. Line 14 asks where your regular or principal permanent home was during the year. Line 15 asks, where more than one permanent home was available to you at all times, for the location of each of them plus an explanation. Buy a unit you keep available year round and line 15 becomes the one to answer, for an alien individual claiming the exception.

“14 Where was your regular or principal permanent home located during 2025? See instructions.”

“15 If you had more than one permanent home available to you at all times during 2025, list the location of each and explain.”

The instructions to line 14 define the term the same way the regulation does: “A ‘permanent home’ is a dwelling unit (whether owned or rented, and whether a house, an apartment, or a furnished room) that is available at all times, continuously and not solely for short stays.” Both texts are in the 2025 Form 8840. Two sources, one definition, and the definition turns on availability.

Notice what line 15 asks for. A list, and an explanation. It doesn’t ask you to withdraw the claim, and it doesn’t say a second home is disqualifying. It’s a disclosure with a paragraph attached, and the paragraph is the part worth spending time on.

What changes and what stays the same, before and after the purchase?

Four things hold, and one genuinely moves. The day count holds. The exception and its conditions hold. Your annual filing habit holds unless you start renting the unit out, and the 8840 is for an alien individual claiming the closer connection exception. The estate question is new, and it belongs to another page. And the permanent home answer moves, on the condition that the condo actually stays available to you continuously.

Point	Before the purchase	After the purchase
Substantial presence day count	Set by your US days under IRC 7701(b)(3)(A), and ownership isn’t one of its terms	Unchanged, because ownership still isn’t one of its terms
Permanent home under 26 CFR 301.7701(b)-2(d)(2)	Canada holds the one dwelling available to you continuously, if your US stays were hotels or short rentals	A second permanent home, if the condo is available to you at all times, continuously
Form 8840 Part IV	Line 14 answered with one location, line 15 not reached	Line 15 reached once a second home is available continuously: list each one and explain
US estate exposure	Not a question this property raised, since you didn’t own it	A new question, answered on the estate guide rather than here, and one that stands apart from the availability question
Annual US filing	Form 8840 if you’re an alien individual claiming the closer connection exception	Form 8840 on the same footing, still for an alien individual claiming that exception, plus a US return if you rent the condo out

Rows two and three are the only rows carrying that availability condition, and the other three hold whether or not it’s satisfied. That asymmetry is worth understanding rather than skimming: if you bought into something that blocks your own use outside a fixed window, a fractional interest or a mandatory rental pool, then whether you have a second permanent home is a live question about your paperwork rather than a settled one, and 26 CFR 301.7701(b)-2(d)(2) is the text to read it against.

The estate row is a pointer on this page by design. Whether and how the condo reaches your US gross estate, and the exemption arithmetic that follows, sits on US estate tax for Canadians and the $60,000 exemption. How you take title in the first place, personally or through some vehicle, is its own decision with its own tradeoffs: how a Canadian should own US property. Both of those are downstream of the purchase you already made, and neither one changes what goes on the 8840.

What if I rent it out when I’m not there?

Renting doesn’t move the residency analysis, and it does open a second file. Your day count is what it was. The permanent home question is what it was, so long as the unit still comes back to you at will rather than being locked into someone else’s calendar. What’s new is US-source rental income, which is an income-tax question rather than a residency one.

• The gross-basis default and the net-basis election: US rental income, 30 percent or the section 871(d) election.
• Short stays and the different characterization that can follow: Airbnb and US property as a non-resident.

Both of those are income-tax questions. Neither one is a residency question, and neither one changes the two lines on Form 8840 that this page is about.

What should I actually do differently now?

Three things, and the first is a habit rather than a filing. Keep the day log, because the count is still the gate that decides whether the exception is even in play. Build the closer connection file in the year you buy, while the Canadian side is still easy to document. And if you’re an alien individual claiming the exception, get the 8840 in on time, because the deadline and the cost of missing it live on the snowbird day count guide.

• Write the line 15 explanation while the facts are fresh, and keep it with the return file rather than reconstructing it next spring.
• Document the Canadian home as available to you all year: the utility accounts in your name, no year-round tenant, nothing that makes it unavailable during the months you’re away.
• Keep the contacts Form 8840 Part IV asks about in Canada where they already are: family, the cars and where they’re registered, personal belongings and furniture, your routine personal banking, your driver’s license, your voter registration, and the country you list as your residence on official documents. Notice when one starts drifting south.
• Put the condo’s closing documents in the same folder as the day log. The two files answer to each other now.

Those are the four items for the year you buy.

If you’re already a few winters into this and the 8840s were filed without much thought behind Part IV, the fix is the same work done once, properly, with the condo now in the picture. Start with the buying decision you’ve already made, then read it against the Canadian buying US property guide for everything the purchase touches beyond residency.

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