New green card holder, moving to border town

rabtahi · Post by **rabtahi** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:27 pm

Hi. We received our green card a few months ago. Decided to move to a border town in the us and continue working for the canadian company. This is our situation:
Planning to move to the new home at the end of the month.
2 kids registered in us for school.

Wife will be living in the us, commuting to work to canada 2 days a week. work one day from home. The company has a us counterpart, and might be able to transfer job to the us side. I have not discussed this with the company yet.

Husband work is too far to be able to commute. He is going to rent a place in canada and come visit us on the weekends. He is also a business franchise owner. He is planning to move his franchise to a place closer to border once there is an opening.

Assets:
No homes in canada. RRSPs all in cash. TSFA and some savings account.

We are planning to buy a house in the us in the next year.

Questions:
1. what are the actions we need to take before moving?

2. will we be considered us residents or canada residents or both for tax purposes?

3. Is it a good idea for the wife to ask the company to transfer her to the us payroll?

4. Does husband need to take any actions with the business?

5. Can we keep our health cards in canada? Husband job pays for the health benefits for the entire family.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 4:11 pm

1. Close TFSA
2. US residents.
3. Yes, if she will work in US
4. Probably needs to roll it up and sell.
5. Yoiu can't, he can

rabtahi · Post by **rabtahi** » Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:41 pm

Thank you very much for your response.

Everything makes sense. I just have a questions about residency. So in our next year tax return, both husband and wife will claim us resident and canada non resident, even though they work in Canada, and husband is mostly living in Canada?

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 2:58 am

She will be a departing resident the instant she moves. You will not untiul you spend more time in US than Canada.

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Tue Aug 14, 2012 3:08 am

You have 2 overlying issues. Now that you have GC's you are fully subject to IRS taxation regardless of where you live, so many Cdn investments which are simple in canada become a reporting and taxation nightmare in US.
second, as GC-holder, you BOTH are obliged to be living in the US. Your remaining in canada predominantly threathens YOUR GC; if it confiscated, then you will have ahrd time getting it back, since your spouse is not a US citizen. I'm assuming from your post that you both got GCs.

You need to be making your life in US at this point, or very shortly.