1,407 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.
October 4, 2026
Locked-in retirement accounts after moving to the United States: the non-residency unlocking rule, the two-year wait and CRA confirmation, Part XIII withholding and the treaty rate, lump sum versus periodic payments, U.S. taxation and the basis step-up, and whether to move it to an RRSP first.
Read more →October 1, 2026
A business owner who moves between Canada and the United States takes retirement savings built under one country's rules into the other's: a Canadian owner's individual pension plan and RRSP, a U.S. owner's 401(k) and cash balance plan. The treaty recognizes most of them and defers the tax, but contributions after the move, the plan's administration across the border, and the withdrawals each need planning. Here is each plan's treatment in the other country.
Read more →October 1, 2026
RRSP over-contributions explained: the 1 percent monthly tax on excess contributions above the C$2,000 buffer, Form T1-OVP, how to withdraw the excess and claim the offsetting deduction, the waiver request, and why people who move to the U.S. often over-contribute by mistake.
Read more →October 1, 2026
The section 217 election explained: how a non-resident of Canada receiving Canadian pensions, RRSP or RRIF payments, CPP, or OAS can file a Canadian return to have that income taxed at graduated rates instead of the flat Part XIII withholding, when it reduces tax, and the June 30 deadline.
Read more →October 1, 2026
Spousal RRSPs after a move to the U.S. explained: the three-year attribution rule, the exception when either spouse is a non-resident, how withdrawals are taxed in Canada (Part XIII) and the U.S., and using a spousal RRSP to equalize income in the years after the move.
Read more →September 29, 2026
RSP vs RRSP explained: why banks say RSP and the CRA says RRSP, how the registered retirement savings plan works — contribution room, the deduction, tax-deferred growth, withdrawals — and how the United States treats an RRSP for a Canadian who moves south.
Read more →September 29, 2026
Severance pay tax in Canada explained: how a retiring allowance is taxed, the lump-sum withholding rates (10, 20, 30 percent), the RRSP transfer for pre-1996 service, the difference between severance and salary continuance, and the non-resident and cross-border treatment when the employee has moved to the United States.
Read more →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.
Read more →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.
Read more →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.
Read more →September 18, 2026
The RRSP and the 401(k) are cousins — tax-deferred retirement accounts funded from earned income — and the cross-border mover treats them as interchangeable at their peril. Contribution mechanics, employer involvement, withdrawal rules, and the treaty's treatment of each in the other country differ in ways that decide whether to keep, collapse, or transfer. Here is the side-by-side, and what each account turns into after a move.
Read more →September 18, 2026
The Registered Disability Savings Plan is Canada's most generous savings vehicle — government grants and bonds that can exceed the holder's own contributions — and it depends on Canadian residency in ways the RRSP and TFSA do not: grants and bonds stop when the beneficiary becomes a non-resident, contributions are barred, and the US sees an account it has no treaty provision for. Here is what happens to an RDSP when the family moves, and how to decide whether it stays open.
Read more →September 18, 2026
A non-resident's Canadian pension, RRSP, and RRIF payments are taxed by flat withholding — 25%, or 15% for periodic payments under the treaty — with no return required. Section 217 lets the non-resident file a Canadian return instead and pay graduated rates, which can cut the tax sharply for retirees with modest world income. Here is how the election works, the world-income catch, the NR5 that reduces withholding in advance, and who should use it.
Read more →September 18, 2026
Both countries deny a capital loss when you sell and buy back too soon — the US wash sale rule and Canada's superficial loss rule — but the rules differ in scope (securities versus identical property), in who counts (a spouse and controlled corporation in the US; an expanded affiliated-person list including your own RRSP and TFSA in Canada), in what happens to the denied loss, and in whether crypto is covered. A cross-border investor harvesting losses runs both tests on every trade. Here is the side-by-side.
Read more →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.
Read more →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.
Read more →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.
Read more →September 15, 2026
Real estate exposure through REITs swaps property-level tax problems for securities-level ones: US REIT distributions carry their own withholding quirks (return of capital, capital gain distributions, and rates that differ from ordinary dividends), Canadian REITs are presumptively PFICs for US persons, and the RRSP/TFSA/taxable location decision moves after-tax yield by whole percentage points. Here is the map.
Read more →September 14, 2026
A 401(k) survives the move to Canada intact: the treaty defers Canadian tax on its growth, and distributions are taxed where you live when you take them. The real questions are whether to roll it to an IRA, whether an RRSP transfer ever makes sense, and how withdrawals will be taxed on both sides in retirement. Here are the three options with the tax mechanics of each.
Read more →September 14, 2026
Canada's departure tax is a deemed sale: leave, and most of your property is treated as sold at fair market value the day you go, with the accrued gains taxed on your final return. But the biggest asset classes — your home, your RRSP, your pension — are exempt, so many movers owe far less than they fear. Here is what is in, what is out, and how the bill is computed.
Read more →September 14, 2026
A cross-border divorce runs one settlement through two tax systems that disagree about almost everything: Canada deducts spousal support the US no longer does, the treaty referees payments that cross, property transfers roll over differently, and dividing an RRSP or a 401(k) each has its own machinery. Here is the map for separating couples with a border between them.
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 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 →The content on this page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional tax, accounting, or legal advice. See our full legal disclaimer.
