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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Fairlight Accounting · US + Canadian Tax Desks

1,423 guides

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Your Canadian Bank Closed Your Account Over FATCA: Why It Happened, What Was Already Reported, and How to Bank Again

September 17, 2026

Some Canadian institutions — especially investment dealers and online brokers — close or restrict accounts held by US persons rather than carry the FATCA and US-securities compliance burden. The closure is legal, disruptive, and often the first hard evidence that your US status has consequences. Here is why it happens, what the bank already sent to the CRA, where US persons can still bank, and the compliance question the closure forces.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Domestic or Foreign Streamlined? The Residency Test That Decides Your Track, and the 5% Penalty Only One of Them Carries

September 17, 2026

The streamlined procedures come in two tracks with one dividing line: the non-residency test. Pass it in any one of the three covered years and you file the foreign track — no penalty. Fail it and you file the domestic track — 5% of your unreported foreign assets, and only if you already filed returns. Here is the test, the day-counting, and the cases that fall between the tracks.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

FATCA for Canadians and Americans in Canada: What the Banks Report, What the CRA Forwards, and Who Should Care

September 17, 2026

FATCA is a US law with Canadian machinery: Canadian financial institutions identify US-person accounts, report them to the CRA, and the CRA forwards the data to the IRS every year. Most Canadians are untouched by it; every American in Canada is inside it. Here is what the regime actually does, what it exempts, what the reciprocal flow means for Canadians with US accounts, and how to tell whether it concerns you.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Form 3520-A: The Trust Files It, You File the Substitute, and the March 15 Deadline That Arrives Before Your Return

September 17, 2026

Form 3520-A is the annual return of a foreign trust with a US owner — and Canadian trustees have never heard of it. The form is due March 15 for a calendar-year trust, a month before the owner's own return, and when the trustee doesn't file it, the US owner must attach a substitute to their Form 3520 or face a penalty computed on the trust's assets. Here is who files what, when, and how the substitute works.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Form 8833: The Treaty Positions That Must Be Disclosed, the Ones That Are Exempt, and the $1,000 Penalty for Guessing Wrong

September 17, 2026

Claiming a Canada-US treaty benefit that overrides the Internal Revenue Code generally requires disclosing it on Form 8833 — but the regulations exempt a long list of routine positions, and the exempt list is where most of the confusion lives. Here is which positions must be disclosed, which don't need to be, what the form actually contains, and what the penalty is when you get it wrong.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Form 8891 Is Gone: How RRSP Treaty Deferral Works Now, and the One Case Where a Late Election Still Needs Paper

September 17, 2026

Until 2014, Americans with RRSPs filed Form 8891 every year to elect treaty deferral on the plan's growth — and those who missed it faced retroactive taxation. The IRS eliminated the form and made the deferral automatic for eligible individuals. Here is how the deferral works now, who is covered automatically, who isn't, and what an RRSP still requires on the US return.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Form 8938 and the FBAR Side by Side: Thresholds, What Each Counts, and Why Most Americans in Canada File Both

September 17, 2026

Two forms report the same Canadian accounts to two different agencies under two different rulebooks — the FBAR to FinCEN at US$10,000, Form 8938 to the IRS at US$200,000 for a single filer abroad. Filing one does not satisfy the other, and the asset definitions diverge in ways that catch RRSP holders, fund investors, and people with signature authority. Here is the side-by-side, and the annual routine that files both correctly.

U.S. Expats

The Non-Willfulness Statement: What Form 14653 Asks, What a Credible Narrative Contains, and the Sentences That Sink Submissions

September 17, 2026

Every streamlined submission rests on a signed certification that the failures were non-willful — negligence, inadvertence, mistake, or a good-faith misunderstanding of the law. The IRS asks for specific facts, not adjectives, and a narrative that argues rather than explains is the fastest way to lose the program's protection. Here is what the certification asks, how a credible one is built, and what to leave out.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Registered Accounts Inside a Streamlined Submission: How the RRSP, TFSA, and RESP Each Land on the Three Catch-Up Returns

September 17, 2026

A Canadian's streamlined submission is mostly about registered accounts, and each one is treated differently: the RRSP defers under the treaty with no form now required, the TFSA is a taxable account with a possible trust-reporting question, and the RESP is a taxable account the IRS may see as a trust — with grants and growth taxed to the subscriber. Here is how each account appears on the returns, the FBARs, and the certification.

U.S. Expats

The Streamlined Domestic 5% Penalty: Exactly Which Accounts and Which Year-End Balances It Is Computed On

September 17, 2026

The domestic streamlined track's 5% is not 5% of your tax, your income, or everything you own abroad. It is 5% of the highest aggregate year-end value, across the covered years, of the foreign financial assets that were not properly reported. Which assets enter the base, which years count, and how currency and closed accounts are handled decide the number. Here is the computation.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Streamlined Fixes the Federal Years Only: The State Returns the Program Never Touched and How to Clean Them Up

September 17, 2026

A streamlined submission repairs three years of federal returns and six of FBARs — and says nothing about the state. If any covered year included US-state residency, or state-source income, the state return for that year is still missing or wrong, and the state has its own penalties, its own statute, and in most cases its own voluntary disclosure program. Here is the state layer streamlined leaves behind.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Streamlined or the IRS Voluntary Disclosure Practice? Where Willfulness Moves You From One Door to the Other

September 17, 2026

Two IRS programs fix undisclosed foreign accounts, and the line between them is willfulness: streamlined for negligence, inadvertence, and honest misunderstanding; the Voluntary Disclosure Practice for conduct that was — or might be argued to be — deliberate. Choosing wrong in either direction is expensive. Here is how the two compare, the facts that move a file across the line, and the process for the harder door.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Unfiled US Returns With Only a Salary Behind Them: Whether Streamlined Is Still the Route When No Accounts Were Hidden

September 17, 2026

Not every unfiled American in Canada has a foreign-account problem. Some simply never filed, with employment income taxed in Canada and ordinary bank accounts below every threshold. Streamlined was built around offshore assets — so does the salaried non-filer use it, the delinquent-return route, or simply start filing? Here is the sort, and why the answer depends on which forms were actually owed.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

The Ways a Streamlined Submission Fails: Missing Signatures, Thin Certifications, Wrong Track, and the Fixes Before You Mail It

September 17, 2026

The IRS does not send acceptance or rejection letters for streamlined submissions — it processes them, or it doesn't, or it treats them as ordinary filings without the program's protection. The failures are procedural far more often than substantive: a form unmarked, a certification unsigned, FBARs filed the wrong way, a track chosen wrong. Here is the failure list and the pre-mailing checklist that prevents it.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

An American Buying Property in Canada: the Foreign Buyer Prohibition, the 25% Provincial Taxes, and the Purchases That Are Still Possible

September 15, 2026

US citizens face a wall of made-in-Canada rules before any tax planning starts: a federal prohibition on non-Canadian purchases of residential property (in force until 2027), Ontario's 25% Non-Resident Speculation Tax, and BC's parallel regime — plus the Underused Housing Tax, now eliminated for 2025 and later years but still a legacy issue for anyone who held in 2022–2024. Here is what's actually barred, what's exempt, and how the permitted purchases get structured.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Can the CRA Collect for the IRS — or the IRS for the CRA? Article XXVI A, the Citizenship Carve-Out, and What Cross-Border Debtors Should Actually Expect

September 15, 2026

The Canada-US treaty contains something rare: a mutual collection assistance article. Each country can ask the other to collect its finally-determined tax debts with the full domestic toolkit — subject to a carve-out protecting each country's own citizens for debts that arose while they were citizens. Here is how the machinery works and who it actually reaches.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

A Canadian Buying US Property: the Tax Checklist That Should Run Before Closing — Title, Future Taxes, and the Paperwork That Isn't Needed Yet

September 15, 2026

Buying US real estate as a Canadian triggers no US tax at purchase — the tax story is entirely about setup: how title is taken, what the property will do (personal use, rental, both), and which future regimes (rental withholding, FIRPTA, estate exposure) the purchase quietly enrolls you in. Here is the pre-closing checklist, item by item.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Civil Penalties vs Criminal Tax Evasion Across the Border: Where the Line Actually Sits, the Warning Signs, and When the Next Call Is a Lawyer

September 15, 2026

Almost every cross-border tax problem is a civil matter — money, penalties, interest, resolvable through the repair procedures. A small set cross into criminal territory, and the line is willfulness: deliberate violation of known duties. Knowing where the line sits, and the moments that demand privilege, protects people on both sides of it.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Double-Taxed by Canada and the US Anyway? The Mutual Agreement Procedure: When to Invoke It, How It Runs, and What It Actually Fixes

September 15, 2026

When both countries tax the same income and the credit machinery can't fix it — a transfer pricing adjustment, a residency dispute, mismatched sourcing — the treaty's mutual agreement procedure puts the two competent authorities in a room to resolve it, with binding arbitration as the backstop. Here is the relief of last resort, and how to preserve access to it before you need it.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Converting a Home to a Rental Across the Border: Canada's Deemed Disposition and Elections, America's Basis Rules, and the Conversions That Follow a Move

September 15, 2026

Turning a home into a rental is a tax event before it's a landlording one: Canada deems a disposition at fair market value with elections that can defer it and extend the principal residence years; the US resets the depreciation basis and starts the non-qualified-use and recapture clocks. Movers convert across two systems at once — and the election deadlines don't wait. Here is the conversion playbook.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

A CRA Review Letter vs an Audit: Which One You Got, What Each Can Do, and How Cross-Border Filers Should Answer

September 15, 2026

Most CRA letters are not audits — they are reviews: automated or desk checks asking you to support a claim or explain a mismatch, resolved by sending documents. An audit is a different animal with different powers. Cross-border filers draw more of both. Here is how to tell them apart and handle each.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

CRA Taxpayer Relief: When Canada Cancels Interest and Penalties, the Ten-Year Deadline, and Building an RC4288 That Gets Granted

September 15, 2026

The CRA can cancel or waive penalties and interest — not tax — where circumstances beyond your control, CRA delays, or genuine inability to pay caused or compounded the charges. Requests go in on Form RC4288 against a hard ten-year limitation, and outcomes track documentation quality. Here is the program, the grounds, and the request that works.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

The CRA's Voluntary Disclosures Program for Cross-Border Filers: Two Tracks, Five Conditions, and Coming Forward Before They Find You

September 15, 2026

Canada's VDP lets taxpayers correct past non-compliance — unreported foreign income, missed T1135s, unfiled returns — with penalty relief and partial interest relief, if the disclosure is voluntary, complete, and meets the program's conditions. Cross-border files add a second country's fix to coordinate. Here is how the program works and how to build a disclosure that qualifies.

Cross-Border Tax (U.S.–Canada)

Short-Term Rentals Across the Border: When Airbnb Income Stops Being Rental Income, the GST/HST Registration Trap, and the Lodging Tax Stack

September 15, 2026

Short-term rental income breaks the assumptions the long-term playbooks run on: in Canada it's a taxable supply that forces GST/HST registration past the threshold and can convert the property's character; in the US it can shift from Schedule E to self-employment, and the platform's tax collection covers less than hosts assume. Here is the STR overlay for cross-border owners.

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