T1141 and T1142: Canadians and Foreign Trusts

If you live in Canada and you got money from a non-resident trust, or borrowed from one, you file Form T1142. If you put money or property into a non-resident trust, you file Form T1141, and you keep filing it every year after. Both are information returns that ride along with your T1 and are due on its filing date, April 30 for most people. They’re part of the bigger picture in our cross-border estate planning guide, and this page covers who files which one, the exceptions, and what a miss costs.

What is the T1142 form and who has to file it?

Form T1142 is the “Information Return in Respect of Distributions from and Indebtedness to a Non-Resident Trust.” Under ITA 233.6(1), a Canadian resident individual, corporation, trust or partnership files it for a year in which it received a distribution from, or was indebted to, a non-resident trust and was beneficially interested in that trust at any time in the year.

Both conditions have to be met. Being a named beneficiary of a US trust that paid you nothing and lent you nothing doesn’t trigger the form for that year. A single cheque does, and so does a loan from the trust that’s still outstanding.

What goes on it, per the CRA’s T1142 page and the 2025 form:

• the trust’s name, country, creation date, settlors and trustees (Section A)
• each distribution, split between income and capital “for Canadian income tax purposes”, with property other than cash at an estimated fair market value (Section B)
• any debt you owe the trust, the interest rate and the interest paid (Section C)
• supporting documents you have, such as the trust deed, emails from the trustee or a loan agreement (Section D)

Amounts go in Canadian dollars at the exchange rate in effect when the transaction happened, and the form says CRA will accept an average rate for the year if distributions came in throughout the year. The 2025 version of the form must be used for 2025 and later years.

The T1142 doesn’t make anything taxable. It tells CRA what you received. Whether part of it is income to you is a separate question under the trust rules, for example ITA 104(13), which brings into a beneficiary’s income the part of a trust’s income that became payable to them in the year.

What is the T1141 form and who files it?

Form T1141 is the “Information Return in Respect of Contributions to Non-Resident Trusts, Arrangements, or Entities.” Under ITA 233.2(4), a person resident in Canada at the trust’s year-end who is a contributor, connected contributor or resident contributor to a non-resident trust files it for each taxation year of that trust.

The word that does the work is “contributor.” ITA 94(1) defines a contribution as a transfer or loan of property to the trust “other than an arm’s length transfer.” So a gift into a trust, or an interest-free loan to it, makes you a contributor. Selling the trust something at fair market value on commercial terms generally doesn’t.

The part people miss is that it never stops. The CRA’s T1141 page says the form is required “for each tax year that a person is or continues to be a contributor,” so the obligation continues “even if no contribution has been made in the current tax year.” One transfer in 2019 means a T1141 for 2019 and every year after, as long as you’re resident in Canada at the trust’s year-end and the trust still exists.

The common cross-border version is a Canadian resident who funds a US revocable living trust, often to hold US property. If that trust is non-resident, putting your house or brokerage account into it is a transfer that isn’t at arm’s length, and that’s a T1141 every year. ITA 94(3) can also deem that trust resident in Canada for computing its income when there’s a resident contributor, which brings its own Canadian filings. Our guide on revocable and irrevocable trusts in Canada covers how Canada treats the trust itself.

The T1141 asks for more than the T1142: the trust’s settlors, trustees, beneficiaries and anyone the trustees must consult, every transfer, loan and distribution after 1990, and on a first filing the trust deed and any letter of wishes, plus the trust’s financial statements if it prepares them.

Do I file a T1142 for an inheritance from a US estate?

Generally not while the estate is being administered. ITA 233.6(1) carves out “an estate that arose on and as a consequence of the death of an individual,” and CRA says a T1142 “does not have to be filed in respect of a distribution of property from a non-resident estate during its administration that arose on and as a consequence of the death of an individual.”

The exception ends when administration does. CRA’s next sentence is the one that catches families: “once the estate has been administered, the Canadian beneficiary of any ongoing non-resident testamentary trust must file Form T1142 in any year where a distribution is received from the trust or where the Canadian beneficiary becomes indebted to the trust” (CRA, About Form T1142).

So a lump-sum inheritance paid out by a US executor is usually outside the form. A US will that leaves your share in a continuing trust, with a US trustee paying you every year, puts you on the T1142 from the first payment after the estate wraps up. A parent’s revocable trust is different: it was set up during the parent’s life, so it isn’t an estate that arose on death. Our read is that the estate carve-out in 233.6(1) doesn’t reach it, so a payment from it after the death generally goes on a T1142 from the first one. Whether the payment is taxable in Canada at all is covered in our guides on cross-border inheritance and a US person inheriting from a Canadian estate.

Which trusts are excluded from T1141 and T1142?

Both forms skip retirement trusts. The CRA pages for both forms exclude “a trust governed by a foreign retirement arrangement, such as a U.S. Individual Retirement Account (IRA),” and a foreign tax-exempt trust that principally provides pension, retirement or employee benefits and is maintained primarily for non-residents or governed by an employees profit sharing plan.

The other exclusions are narrower:

• New residents. An individual (other than a trust) doesn’t file either form for the year they first become resident in Canada.
• T1135 overlap. No T1142 for a trust you already report on Form T1134, Form T1135 or Form T1141. Reinvested distributions from a non-resident mutual fund trust go on the T1135 when your specified foreign property cost more than C$100,000 at any time in the year, and then no T1142 is needed for that distribution.
• Widely held unit trusts. T1141 doesn’t apply to a unit trust with at least 150 beneficiaries in the same class who each hold at least one block of units worth at least $500.
• Certain filers. Mutual fund corporations and trusts, registered investments and some tax-exempt persons don’t file.

Situation	Form	Due
A US trust pays you a distribution while you live in Canada	T1142 for that year	Your T1 filing due date
You owe money to a non-resident trust at any point in the year	T1142 for that year	Your T1 filing due date
A US executor pays your share of an estate during administration	None for that payment	n/a
A continuing US testamentary trust pays you after the estate is wound up	T1142 for each year with a payment	Your T1 filing due date
You funded a US revocable living trust and still live in Canada	T1141 every year	Your filing due date for the year in which the trust’s year ends
You withdraw from your US IRA	Neither form (excluded trust)	n/a
You moved to Canada this year and had trust dealings	Neither form for the first year	n/a

When are T1141 and T1142 due?

With your income tax return. For an individual that’s the filing-due date in ITA 150(1)(d), April 30 of the following year, or June 15 if you or your cohabiting spouse or common-law partner carried on a business. For the 2026 tax year that means April 30, 2027 for most people.

Two details matter. First, both forms are due even if you don’t have to file a return; the form is then due by the date your return would have been due. Second, they’re paper only. The T1142 instructions say it “cannot be filed electronically,” so if you e-file your T1 you still mail the form to the Winnipeg Taxation Centre address printed on it.

The T1141 has a timing wrinkle the T1142 doesn’t. It’s filed for the trust’s taxation year, on your filing-due date for your tax year in which the trust’s year ends (ITA 233.2(4)). For an individual and a calendar-year trust both years line up, so it’s the same April 30. A corporation with an October year-end can end up reporting a December transfer on the following year’s form, and CRA’s T1141 page walks through exactly that example.

What are the penalties for a late T1141 or T1142?

They start small and get large fast for the T1141. Both forms carry the general late-filing penalty in ITA 162(7), the greater of $100 and $25 a day for up to 100 days, so a maximum of $2,500. The bigger penalties depend on which form and why it’s late.

From the CRA’s table of foreign reporting penalties and section 162:

Penalty	T1141	T1142
162(7): $25 a day, up to 100 days ($100 minimum, $2,500 maximum)	Yes	Yes
162(10)(a): knowingly or grossly negligent failure to file, $500 a month for up to 24 months, less 162(7)	Yes	No
162(10)(b): knowingly or grossly negligent failure to comply with a CRA demand to file, $1,000 a month for up to 24 months, less earlier penalties	Yes	Yes
162(10.1): where 162(10) applies and the return is more than 24 months late, 5% of the fair market value of what you contributed to the trust, less earlier penalties	Yes	No
163(2.4): false statement or omission, knowingly or grossly negligent	Yes	Yes. For T1142, the greater of $2,500 or 5% of the distributed property’s value or the unpaid debt

The 5% in 162(10.1) is why an unfiled T1141 is the expensive one, but it only sits on top of a 162(10) penalty: the failure to file, or to comply with a CRA demand to file, has to be knowing or grossly negligent and run past 24 months. It’s measured on the total contributions you’ve made to the trust, so on a funded revocable trust it can run into real money. The T1141 also gets the due diligence exception in ITA 233.5: information you couldn’t get after real effort can be left off if you disclose that and file it within 90 days of getting it. CRA’s table shows that exception doesn’t apply to the T1142.

If you’re behind, CRA’s own pages point to the Voluntary Disclosures Program as the route for correcting foreign reporting.

Does a US person beneficiary also file Form 3520?

Yes, if the beneficiary is a US person and the trust is foreign. A US citizen living in Canada who receives a distribution from a Canadian trust files Form 3520 Part III for that year, and the Form 3520 instructions set the penalty for missing it at the greater of $10,000 or 35% of the gross value of the distributions received.

That can stack on top of the T1142. A US citizen in Toronto who gets a payment from a US trust has no Form 3520 for it, because a US trust isn’t foreign to the IRS, but does have a T1142 because the trust is non-resident to Canada. Flip the facts, a Canadian trust paying the same person, and it’s a Form 3520 in the US and, if the trust is Canadian resident, no T1142. Gifts and bequests count too: a US person who receives more than $100,000 from a nonresident alien individual or foreign estate reports it on Form 3520 Part IV. Our guides on whether a TFSA is a foreign trust for Form 3520 and a Canadian trust with a US beneficiary go deeper on the US side.

What to do next

Make a list of every trust you’ve received anything from, owed anything to, or put anything into, on either side of the border. Mark which are non-resident to Canada, which are estates still in administration, and which are IRAs or pension trusts. That list tells you whether you have a T1141, a T1142, both or neither, and how many years back you’re missing.

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