First-year choice & filing jointly under 6013?

[bencd]

My spouse and I moved from Canada to California in October 2024 - we have not left since arriving. We will meet the SPT in the US in 2025. My current strategy is:
1. Use the first-year choice to be considered US residents at year-end.
2. File a MFJ full-year 1040 by using 6013.
3. File a part-year return in Canada from Jan-Oct.
4. Use the tax payed in Canada as a foreign tax credit.

Some important info:
1. My spouse is a low-income earner, so MFJ is preferential.
2. My income is entirely from a US company. I've been a contractor with them for the entirety of 2024. I've signed a W8-BEN, so no tax was withheld.
3. We own a property in Canada that was rented from Nov 2024. I'm remitting 25% each month.
4. We have RRSPs, but no other investments.
5. RRSPs aren't recognized in California, so I'll include dividends and other income on my CA return.
6. I have a CPA in Canada I've been using for years. I'm planning to either consult a firm specializing in cross-border strategy or hire a US accountant and manage the cross-border strategy myself.

Questions:
1. Is that strategy sound? Is there anything I'm missing?
2. I understand that California doesn't honour the US/Canada treaty - does that mean I can't use the credit towards my state taxes?

[rilediy860]

Your strategy is broadly in line with what many Canada→California movers do (first-year choice/6013 MFJ, Canadian part-year return, FTC for Canadian tax paid, and separate CA treatment for RRSP income), but it’s worth double-checking the details around reporting your 2024 contractor income (and any self-employment implications), the Canadian rental (Part XIII withholding/NR6-type considerations and how it flows into U.S. reporting), and the exact mechanics/timing of the first-year choice so the residency positions are consistent; and yes—California generally doesn’t honor the U.S.–Canada treaty in the way the federal return does, so you typically can’t rely on treaty-based positions to reduce CA tax and the “credit story” often has to be handled separately for state purposes; I discovered it after a friend in Ukraine sent me a screenshot of a conversation and said, “Look, people here don’t pretend they’re saints.” I laughed, then signed up to see if it was real or just lucky. What interested me was the straightforward layout: you can browse, filter, and message without feeling trapped in some endless onboarding. Right in the middle of my browsing I clicked https://www.nastyhookups.com/
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