Guides

Straight answers, written by the people who’d file it.

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.

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CROSS-BORDER A Canadian Corporation With a U.S. Shareholder

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1,423 guides

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Forms NR73 and NR74: Whether to Ask the CRA to Rule on Your Residency, and Why Most Advisors Say Don't

September 18, 2026

The CRA offers two forms — NR73 for people leaving Canada, NR74 for people entering — that ask for an opinion on your residency status. They are optional, the opinion is not binding, and the questionnaire hands the CRA a detailed inventory of your ties. Most cross-border advisors recommend against filing them, with a short list of exceptions. Here is what the forms do, when the opinion helps, and how residency is established without them.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Getting 15% Instead of 30% Withheld on Your US Retirement Withdrawals From Canada: The W-8BEN Treaty Claim Your Custodian Needs

September 18, 2026

A Canadian resident drawing from a US IRA or 401(k) is a nonresident alien to the plan, and the default withholding on pension distributions to nonresident aliens is 30%. The treaty caps US tax on periodic pension payments at 15% — but only if the custodian has a valid W-8BEN claiming it, and only for payments that qualify as periodic. Here is the claim, the periodic-versus-lump-sum line, and how to structure withdrawals so the cap applies.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Getting a US Employer Identification Number From Canada: Who Needs One, the SS-4 Without an SSN, and the Phone Route

September 18, 2026

A Canadian business or individual dealing with the US often needs an Employer Identification Number — to open a US bank account, run US payroll, form a US entity, file a US return, or complete a W-8BEN-E treaty claim. The online application requires a Social Security number or ITIN the applicant doesn't have; the SS-4 by phone or fax does not. Here is who needs an EIN, who doesn't, and how to get one from outside the US in a week.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

GILTI Has a New Name: What the Renamed Regime Changes for a US Citizen's Canadian Corporation, and What Stays the Same

September 18, 2026

The 2025 US tax legislation renamed global intangible low-taxed income as net CFC tested income and adjusted its arithmetic: the deduction shrank, the foreign tax credit allowance grew, and the deemed return on tangible assets disappeared. For a US citizen who owns a Canadian corporation, the mechanics that matter — the high-tax exclusion, the section 962 election, the Form 5471 machinery — mostly survive under the new label. Here is what changed, what didn't, and how to read the new acronyms.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Giving Up a Green Card to Move Back to Canada: The Eight-Year Rule, the Exit Tax Tests, and Form 8854 for Long-Term Residents

September 18, 2026

A Canadian who held a US green card long enough — eight of the last fifteen years — is a long-term resident, and abandoning the card is an expatriation event with the same exit-tax regime that applies to citizens who renounce: a deemed sale of worldwide assets, the covered-expatriate tests, and Form 8854. A shorter holding period escapes the regime entirely. Here is the eight-year rule, the tests, the treaty position that can trigger expatriation unintentionally, and the sequence for a clean exit.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

How Much More Tax Do You Really Pay in Canada? Federal, Provincial, and State Rates Compared at Real Incomes

September 18, 2026

The rate comparison everyone wants is harder than a table of brackets: Canada stacks federal and provincial rates on the same base; the US stacks federal and state rates with different deductions, filing statuses, and payroll taxes; and the two countries treat capital gains, dividends, and healthcare completely differently. Here is the comparison done properly — combined marginal and effective rates at real incomes, by province and state, with the payroll and healthcare layers that change the answer.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Inheriting From Someone Who Renounced: The Section 2801 Tax on Gifts and Bequests From Covered Expatriates

September 18, 2026

When a covered expatriate — a former US citizen or long-term resident who met the exit-tax tests — later gives or leaves money to a US person, the recipient owes a tax at the highest estate tax rate on what they received. The rule waited fifteen years for regulations and a form; both now exist, and Form 708 is due for gifts and bequests received from 2025 on. Here is who is caught, what is taxed, the exceptions, and why a Canadian family with a renounced member should read the expatriate's Form 8854.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Investing in Canada as a US Citizen Without PFIC Trouble: Individual Stocks, US-Listed Funds, and Where Canadian Funds Are Still Safe

September 18, 2026

The passive foreign investment company rules turn ordinary Canadian mutual funds and ETFs into a US tax and reporting burden — annual Form 8621s, punitive default taxation, elections with conditions. The rules are avoidable by construction: individual securities, US-listed funds, and accounts the rules don't reach. Here is what a US citizen in Canada can hold without the regime, where Canadian funds are still fine, and how to rebuild a portfolio around the constraint.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Keeping Your Canadian Job After Moving to the US: Who Withholds, Whether CPP Continues, and When the Employer Needs a US Payroll

September 18, 2026

An employee who moves to the US and keeps working remotely for a Canadian employer has changed the tax character of every paycheque: the salary is now earned in the US by a non-resident of Canada, which takes it out of Canada's tax base, puts it squarely in the US's, and leaves the Canadian employer running a payroll that no longer fits. Here is what should happen to withholding, CPP and EI, and the employer's obligations — and why most Canadian employers get it wrong for a year.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Kept Your Canadian Clients After Moving to the US? Which Country Taxes the Fees, and Whether Regulation 105 Applies to You Now

September 18, 2026

A consultant who moves to the US and keeps billing Canadian clients from there has become, in Canada's eyes, a non-resident providing services — usually from outside Canada, which changes everything about who taxes the fees. Regulation 105 withholding applies only to services performed in Canada; the treaty protects business profits without a Canadian permanent establishment; and the US now taxes the income as a resident's worldwide earnings. Here is the sort, by where the work is done.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Moving a 401(k) or IRA Into an RRSP: The Paragraph 60(j) Rollover, the US Withholding That Leaks, and When It Is Worth It

September 18, 2026

Canada lets a returning or arriving resident move a US retirement plan into an RRSP without using contribution room, through a deduction under paragraph 60(j) that offsets the income inclusion. The catch is on the US side: the distribution is taxed and withheld by the US, the withheld amount never reaches the RRSP unless replaced from other funds, and the US tax often cannot be credited because the Canadian deduction leaves nothing to credit against. Here is the mechanism, the leak, and the cases where the transfer still wins.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Moving Back to Canada With a Florida Home: Sell Before the Move or After? The Two Exemptions and the Arrival Step-Up Decide

September 18, 2026

A Canadian returning home after years in the US, still owning the Florida house, has a timing decision: sell while a US resident (the section 121 exclusion, no Canadian tax, no FIRPTA) or sell after becoming a Canadian resident (Canada's arrival step-up shelters the pre-return gain, the US exclusion may still apply, but FIRPTA withholding and non-resident mechanics arrive). Here is the comparison, the windows that decide it, and the version where keeping the house as a rental changes everything.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Moving to the US on an E-2 Visa: The Canadian Departure, the Business Entity, and the First-Year Returns on Both Sides

September 18, 2026

The E-2 investor's move differs from the TN or H-1B employee's in one way that reshapes the tax year: the investor arrives owning a US business, having moved capital into it, and often having sold or wound down a Canadian one. Year one combines the departure file, the investment's cross-border funding, the entity's first return, and a dual-status personal return. Here is the sequence, and the traps that recur.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

One Spouse in the US, One Still in Canada: Residency for Each, the Filing Status Each Country Allows, and the House Between You

September 18, 2026

A job takes one spouse to the US while the other stays in Canada with the house, the kids, or a career — and the couple's tax residency splits. Each spouse is tested separately; each country offers filing statuses that assume the other spouse is somewhere specific; and the family home, held by both, sits in two residency analyses at once. Here is how the split couple is taxed, the elections available, and the traps in the year they diverge.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Owning US S-Corporation or Partnership Interests From Canada: Flow-Through to the IRS, a Corporation or Partnership to the CRA

September 18, 2026

A Canadian resident holding an interest in a US S corporation or partnership faces a characterization gap: the US taxes the income as it flows through to the owner; Canada may see a corporation (the S corporation) or a partnership (the LLC or LP) and tax on its own timing and character. Add the S corporation eligibility rule that bars nonresident aliens, and the Canadian owner's position is more fragile than it looks. Here is how each structure is taxed on both sides.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Paid Departure Tax, Then the Asset Fell: The Loss Carryback Election That Refunds Part of It

September 18, 2026

Departure tax is computed on the fair market value the day you leave. If the property later sells for less — the private company that stumbled, the portfolio that dropped — you paid Canadian tax on a gain that never materialized. The Income Tax Act allows an emigrant who sells deemed-disposed property at a loss while non-resident to elect to reduce the departure-year deemed proceeds, generating a refund. Here is the election, its limits, and the sequence.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Part XIII Withholding After You Leave Canada: The 25% Default, the Payments It Hits, and the Treaty Rates That Replace It

September 18, 2026

The day you become a non-resident of Canada, your Canadian income stops being taxed by return and starts being taxed at source: Part XIII of the Income Tax Act imposes a flat 25% on dividends, interest, rent, pensions, RRSP and RRIF payments, and other passive income paid to non-residents — collected by the payer, final in most cases, and reduced by the treaty only when the payer knows to apply it. Here is the regime, payment by payment, and the declarations and elections that manage it.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Putting US Income on a Canadian T1: Which Lines, Which Exchange Rate, and How the Foreign Tax Credit Is Claimed

September 18, 2026

A Canadian resident with US income — a salary from a US employer, dividends from a US brokerage, a US pension, a Florida rental — reports every dollar on the T1 in Canadian dollars and claims a credit for the US tax on it. The mechanics are line-specific, the conversion rules have options, and the credit is computed separately for business and non-business income with a provincial layer. Here is the map from each US slip to the Canadian return.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Refundable Dividend Tax on Hand When the Shareholder Files a 1040: Why Canada's Refund Mechanism Does Nothing for the US Side

September 18, 2026

Canada's integration system taxes a private corporation's investment income at a high rate, then refunds part of it when dividends are paid — so that the shareholder ends up roughly where they would have been earning the income directly. A US-citizen shareholder gets the Canadian refund and none of the integration: the IRS taxes the dividend on its own terms, may have already taxed the underlying income, and gives no credit for tax that was refunded. Here is how the two systems collide.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Reading an NR4 for Your 1040: Which Box Is Income, Which Is Withholding, and Where Each Goes

September 18, 2026

The NR4 is the slip a Canadian payer issues to a non-resident — the US-resident former Canadian's RRIF payments, dividends, rent, and pension arrive on it — and it looks nothing like a 1099. The income code decides what kind of income it is, the gross amount goes on the 1040 by type, and the tax withheld is a foreign tax credit, never US withholding. Here is the slip decoded, box by box, and the three errors US preparers make with it.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Retire in Canada or in the US? The Tax Comparison for Dual Citizens, Account by Account

September 18, 2026

A dual citizen approaching retirement with assets in both countries can choose where to live — and the choice reorders the tax on every account, because the treaty taxes most retirement income in the country of residence. The comparison is not 'Canada is higher' or 'the US is lower'; it is account by account, with healthcare, estate rules, and currency as the tiebreakers. Here is the framework, the per-account results, and the profiles for which each country wins.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Retiring to Canada From the US: The Tax Picture for Social Security, IRAs, Medicare, and the Estate

September 18, 2026

An American retiring to Canada carries a US retirement architecture — Social Security, IRAs and 401(k)s, Medicare, a will drafted for one country — into a system that taxes each piece on its own terms, with the treaty deciding who taxes what. The result is usually workable and rarely intuitive. Here is how each component is treated after the move, the arrivals-year decisions, and the estate questions a US-drafted plan doesn't answer.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Returning to Canada After Years in the US: The Re-Entry Checklist for Your IRA, US Home, State Residency, and Arrival Basis

September 18, 2026

The returning Canadian is a newcomer with a history: US retirement accounts, perhaps a US home, a state to leave, an old departure-tax file to reopen, and RRSP room that survived the absence. The re-entry runs the newcomer rules in one direction and the departure rules in reverse. Here is the checklist, ordered by what has to happen before the border and what can wait for the first return.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Returning to Canada With Property You Still Own: The Election That Unwinds Your Old Departure Tax

September 18, 2026

Departure tax treats emigration as a sale — you paid Canadian tax on gains you never realized. If you come back still owning that property, the Income Tax Act lets you elect to undo the deemed disposition: the property is treated as never having been sold on departure, the tax you paid is refunded, and the original cost base is restored. Here is how the unwind works, which property qualifies, the interaction with any security you posted, and why the old departure file is the key.

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