Canadian moving to the USA - tax and money questions

Amber · Post by **Amber** » Fri Jul 27, 2012 7:54 pm

Hello and thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

I am a Canadian citizen (never married, childless) who is in the process of obtaining a visa to marry an American and will be living down there. I have a few questions about the process and how it affects my taxes and investments.

1- How big of a difference in income tax returns can occur based on moving down in the last week of December versus the first week of January? If at all possible I'd like to move down at the end of December to have some planning time for the January wedding but I've heard you can lose thousands in tax refunds due to not being a resident on the final day of the year.

- Is that true? If so, what kind of items are affected? Is there a way to get credit for being a resident for 11 of the 12 months of the year or is it an all or nothing kind of deal?

2- Taxes and mutual funds - from various readings it seems like having Canadian mutual funds and TFSAs can cause great tax confusion in the future. Am I legally allowed to continue to own them? Should I be selling them and buying American based funds? How urgent is it that these should be exchanged - aka before or after the wedding?

Thank you once again!!

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:51 am

1, There isn't much difference. there is nothing that you would 'miss out" on by leaving one month earlier or later, including jan/Dec. In fact, by leaving in DEcember, you will not have to fiel a 2013 Cdn return.

What you do need to do is make sure that you stop your GST rebate when you leave.

You should close your TFSA as you leave, since it is not sheltered in US, and is a repoting nightmare.

Same for any non-RRSP account you might have. Move them to US once you leave.

Amber · Post by **Amber** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:01 pm

Thank you so much for your help!! That is really good news for my flexibility in moving down there.