Moving Canadian Investments to the US

[pgamadden]

I'm a Canadian citizen who moved to the US about 25 years ago, now married and have a green card. When I left Canada, I expected to return at some point but now expect that I will not go home. I have been US resident for tax purposes and Canadian non-resident for tax purposes for more than 20 years.

I have an investment account in Canada that I have left pretty much untouched and whose value has grown. I'd like to move that account to the United States.

- Do I need to pay capital gains in Canada if I move the stocks without selling them and if so, what costs basis will the US use?

- From a capital gains tax perspective, am I better off liquidating and reinvesting through a US firm?

Thanks for any advice.

[nelsona]

You would have paid whatever tax you owed 25 years ago as departure tax. That was the final obligation to Canada.

Transferring will not triger any US gains. Only sales. Cdn mutual funds can't be transferred. Some other CDn stocks and ETFs may not be able to be transferred. Those would be sold, trigeering cap gains in US.

Of course, this account, and perhaps some of the investments, would have been subject to reporting and perhaps even US tax (dividends, etc) over the years, but I won't bother to go into that now.