1,423 plain-English guides on cross-border moves, US and Canadian returns, and small-business money. Each one ends in what to do next, and says when a written Position Check is the smarter first step.
September 14, 2026
The border officer, the IRS, and your provincial health plan each run a different clock with different math — per-visit immigration limits, a three-year weighted tax formula, and a residency day count for coverage. Satisfying one says nothing about the others. Here is each rule, how they conflict, and the one calendar that serves all three.
Read more →September 14, 2026
An ITIN is the IRS's identification number for people who need to file or be reported but can't get a Social Security number — which describes a Canadian selling US property, filing a 1040-NR, or claiming a treaty refund. Plenty of Canadians are told to get one who don't need it. Here is the needed/not-needed sort, and the application without the horror stories.
Read more →September 14, 2026
A taxable US brokerage account is tax-fine to keep after moving to Canada — the issues are practical (many US brokers restrict Canadian-resident clients), administrative (T1135, adjusted cost base in Canadian dollars), and strategic (what to hold where). Here is what changes about the account the day you become a Canadian resident.
Read more →September 14, 2026
A US citizen married to a Canadian can elect to treat the nonresident spouse as a US resident and file jointly — better brackets and credits, at the price of the Canadian spouse's worldwide income, FBAR, and PFIC exposure entering the US system, indefinitely, until the election is ended and cannot be made again. Here is the full trade, priced.
Read more →September 14, 2026
Marriage to an American does not make a Canadian a US taxpayer — but it hands the couple a menu of elections, drags the American spouse's US filings into family finances, and puts gift and estate rules between spouses that same-country couples never meet. Here is what changes automatically, what changes by choice, and the household design that keeps two systems livable.
Read more →September 14, 2026
The move year is two tax lives stitched at the departure date: Canada takes world income before and Canadian-source income after; the US takes what its residency start captures, shaped by the dual-status-or-election choice. Getting each income item into the right country's column — salary, bonus, RRSP, dividends, gains — is the whole art of the transition year. Here is the map.
Read more →September 14, 2026
The LLC is the default US small-business wrapper — and one of the worst entities to bring to Canada. Canada sees a corporation where the US sees a flow-through, so the same profit is taxed personally in the US now and as a corporate distribution in Canada later, with credits that refuse to line up. Here is the mismatch, the treaty patch, and the restructuring options.
Read more →September 14, 2026
Canadian pension splitting lets couples shift up to half of eligible pension income to the lower-income spouse with one form — but when the receiving spouse is a US citizen, the shifted income lands on their 1040 too, and when the transferring spouse is the American, the US keeps taxing what Canada moved away. Here is how the mismatch works and when splitting still pays.
Read more →September 14, 2026
A Canadian's US-situs assets — the Florida house, the US stocks — sit inside the US estate tax at death, and the treaty's pro-rated credit protects most but not all estates. For those with real exposure, the levers are structural: debt, ownership design, holding vehicles, insurance, and asset location. Here is which levers work, which are folklore, and how to size the problem first.
Read more →September 14, 2026
Any payment to a non-resident for services physically performed in Canada carries 15% withholding — from the US consultant's site visit to the touring speaker's fee — remitted by the Canadian payer, on account rather than final. Treaty-protected non-residents can recover it by filing, or prevent it with a waiver. Here is the regime from both sides of the invoice.
Read more →September 14, 2026
Keep the Canadian house as a rental after moving south and you enter Canada's non-resident landlord system: 25% withholding on gross rent by default, an NR6 election to withhold on net instead, a section 216 return to settle the real tax, and a US return that wants the same income with its own depreciation rules. Here is the machinery, end to end.
Read more →September 14, 2026
A Canadian who rents out a Florida condo faces the nonresident default — 30% of gross rent withheld by the tenant or manager — unless they elect to be taxed on net rental income, file a 1040-NR, and hand the property manager a W-8ECI. Here is both regimes, the election mechanics, and the depreciation rules that surprise Canadian landlords.
Read more →September 14, 2026
The RESP loses both engines at the border: no new grants without a resident beneficiary, and no US recognition of the deferral — the IRS taxes the plan's growth annually with trust-reporting questions attached. Withdrawals still work for US universities, but the grant clawback rules bite if the beneficiary is non-resident. Here is what keeps working, what breaks, and how families land it.
Read more →September 14, 2026
The RRSP survives a move to the US better than any other Canadian account: no departure tax, continued deferral in both countries, and a choice worth real money — leave it growing, convert to a RRIF for 15% treaty withholding on periodic payments, or collapse it at 25%. Here is how each path is taxed and how the US measures its share.
Read more →September 14, 2026
Canada offers arriving Americans a menu of registered accounts, and US tax law disqualifies most of the menu's advantages. The RRSP works cleanly under the treaty; the TFSA and FHSA are tax-free only to Canada; and the wrong investments inside any of them add PFIC filings. Here is the account-by-account verdict for a US citizen living in Canada.
Read more →September 14, 2026
The classic Canadian owner-manager arithmetic — salary or dividends, roughly integrated either way — breaks when the owner files a 1040: GILTI taxes the corporation's retained profit currently, dividends lose their US character advantages, and salary becomes the mismatch-free channel. Here is the compensation math with the American overlay, and the mix that usually wins now.
Read more →September 14, 2026
US acquirers change the deal's tax texture: they push for assets or step-up structures while your lifetime capital gains exemption wants a share sale; earnouts, escrows, and rollover equity each carry two-country treatment; and the closing mechanics add withholding questions. Here is the seller-side map for the exit that crosses the border.
Read more →September 14, 2026
Sell before you leave and the principal residence exemption usually makes the gain tax-free with no process. Sell after, and you are a non-resident vendor: the exemption still covers your resident years, but section 116 clearance applies, the buyer withholds 25% until the CRA certificate arrives, and the US may tax its share. Here is the before/after comparison and the clearance process.
Read more →September 14, 2026
The US home you left behind can usually be sold with little or no tax in either country — if it sells within the right window. The section 121 exclusion runs on a two-of-five-year clock from when you moved out, and Canada only taxes gain accruing after your arrival, measured from the arrival-date value. Here is the timing math and the traps for renters-out and procrastinators.
Read more →September 14, 2026
When a Canadian sells US real estate, the buyer must withhold 15% of the gross price under FIRPTA — a prepayment, not the tax. A withholding certificate can shrink it to the real liability, the 1040-NR settles the actual gain at capital gains rates, and Canada taxes the same sale with a credit. Here is the closing-table mechanics and the refund math.
Read more →September 14, 2026
Borrowing from your own corporation is routine planning domestically and a two-rulebook problem across the border: Canada's subsection 15(2) includes unrepaid shareholder loans in income with a one-year fuse, the US imputes interest and can find deemed dividends, and cross-border configurations add withholding and PUC angles. Here is the map for owners on either side.
Read more →September 14, 2026
For Canadian professionals, incorporation's case is deferral — earn at 12%, invest the difference, pay yourself later. For a US citizen, GILTI deletes the deferral and Form 5471 adds rent, so the classic advice inverts. Sometimes the corporation still wins: liability, partners, a genuine business. Here is the decision framework run honestly, factor by factor.
Read more →September 14, 2026
Moving to Canada does not forfeit Social Security — credits stay earned, benefits are payable to Canada, the totalization agreement fills qualification gaps, and the treaty hands taxation of the benefit exclusively to Canada, which exempts 15% of it. Medicare is the opposite story: it does not travel. Here is how the retirement-benefits picture reassembles north of the border.
Read more →September 14, 2026
The federal side of snowbird life is settled by the 8840 and the treaty — but states run their own residency and source rules, and neither instrument binds them. Florida, Arizona, and Texas ask nothing; California and New York can, if a snowbird's pattern meets their tests or their income touches their soil. Here is where state exposure actually comes from and how the classic destinations compare.
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