Business inventory - emigrated Canada

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taxquestions
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2018 6:31 pm

Business inventory - emigrated Canada

Post by taxquestions »

I emigrated Canada 1/20/2020 to the USA had ~$10K sole-prop business inventory at this time.

Accountant response: "You are deemed to have disposed of all assets when you break residency. All inventory would be deemed to have been sold at fair market value, and then you'd have an offsetting deduction for the cost of said inventory. So it should be $0 the day you depart."

Confused on how to tackle this. FMV definition appears to be market value (not what I paid for it).

The inventory is located in Amazon FBA warehouses in Canada and never left Canada when I emigrated. I have no permanent establishment in Canada. I sell on Amazon.ca. My business never ceased when I emigrated, I simply continued to sell under my US sole prop.

I sell thousands of used items so the FMV can be very "fluid". Some are no longer worth what I paid since they are outdated and probably could have not sold (requiring destroying). Hypothetically I can sell the remainder of my inventory at a loss.

Whats the best way to handle the deemed disposition of my $10k of my inventory when I ceased residency in Canada? Should I sell the remainder at a loss? The price I paid for it? How aggressive is the CRA in such a scenario? Again the items are used items so the value is very "precarious". How would this deemed dispostion reflect on my US taxes?

Note: Im US/CA citizen. My US taxes mirror my Canadian taxes as a sole prop.
taxquestions
Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2018 6:31 pm

Re: Business inventory - emigrated Canada

Post by taxquestions »

Another user stated:

3 options.

Declare loss which may or may not lead to cra questioning it.
Declare zero - likely okay, CRA is not gonna spend time on valuing your used goods inventory unless it’s a decent sum.
Declare your average margin and pay tax- safest option

Im leaning towards option 2 "Declare zero". Do you think this is an appropriate action?

Do I have to file this form as well (or any other forms/elections)? https://www.canada.ca/.../forms.../forms/t2061a.html
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