Residency determination

[tinmark50@gmail.com]

hello,

I moved to the USA in the middle of April last year for work. I do not have a home, or spouse in Canada. Would i be considered a non resident for tax purpose ?

I filed as non resident this year. I missed the departure tax forms. I am working on them now to get them in ASAP. Turbo tax did not support those forms.

I was wondering if i am allowed to keep my TFSA, and non registered account open. Would this affect my residency status ?

Does CRA audit all departure taxes, the tax situation is quite stressful. I have hired a CPA to assist me in this endeavor.

[tinmark50@gmail.com]

tinmark50@gmail.com wrote:
> hello,
>
> I moved to the USA in the middle of April 2025 for work. I do not have
> a home, or spouse in Canada. Would i be considered a non resident for tax
> purpose in Canada ?
>
> I filed as non resident this year. I missed the departure tax forms. I am
> working on them now to get them in ASAP. Turbo tax did not support those
> forms.
>
> I was wondering if i am allowed to keep my TFSA, and non registered account
> open. Would this affect my residency status ?
>
> Does CRA audit all departure taxes, the tax situation is quite stressful. I
> have hired a CPA to assist me in this endeavor.

Are there a lot of questions from them typically on departure date to calculate the deemed disposition ?

[nelsona]

For 2025, you were supposed to file as an EMIGRANT, which means a return as a resident of your last province of residence, but with a departure date in April. This affects some of your deductions. Filing as a non-resident results in an incorrect tax calculation, and bypasses the departure requirements.

That may be why you could not access the departure forms, but it is possible that they are not included. Most filing an emigrant return must file a paper return.

From April on you are a non-resident of Canada, You CAN keep your TFSA (but it is taxable in US), but your investment accounts should be closed. You can transfer most stocks, some ETFs to a US brokerage, but you would need to sell any mutual funds.

Holding these accounts however, does not impact your residency.

[tinmark50@gmail.com]

Thanks for the message nelsona.

I don't agree with this idea of the departure tax when i did not sell any of my investment.

Do i have to sell and close them, I was planning to return to Canada after 3 to 4 years.

Does CRA return my security deposit or do they keep it with them?

Do they return it back to me if i sell them while living in the USA ?

[tinmark50@gmail.com]

Does CRA return my security deposit when i sell all my investments this year and file my taxes next year, I want to look for a market correction and sell them in Canada and my new ones in the USA.

Can i leave US dollar denominated ETF in the brokerage or do they need to be closed.

[nelsona]

Agree or not, when you leave Canada, your cap gains (and losses) becomes due. Then you are done with any future gains and losses for Cdn tax purposes.

As to what to do with your investments, your Cdn brokerages is no longer able to deal with you, by law. other than for retirement accounts. You may, when you discuss with them, be allowed to sell in the near future, but you can't keep this long term.

What you can move to US should be moved to a US broker, what can't should be sold at some point soon. But either way, you are deemed to have sold last April. The new broker will be able to easily tell you what can and cannot be transferred to US. Transferring actual investments to US does not in itself trigger another cap gain calculation in either US or Canada.

If you decide to post security instead of immediately paying your departure tax, then you can request the release of those funds as soon as you pay the tax that was previously determined for those investments. You aren;t likely to file a CDn tax return for 2026, unless you have a busines in Canada, and you would be including any reporting of your investments, since your departure retur took care of that (if it didn't you need to correct your old return).