Can i transfer social security money from US to Canada?

[yanik34]

Hello everyone, im moving to Canada next week and i paid 10 years tax in the usa already. can i transfer my social security money from US to Canada? how?

[AmericaninQuebec]

I don't believe so. Instead I think you will receive a SSN payment from the U.S. for those 10 yrs of taxes paid in once you reach the age of retirement. Under the tax treaty between the U.S. and Canada you would not be taxed by the U.S. on that income if you are a PR or Canadian citizen living in Canada at the time of those benefits payments, but rather you would be taxed by the Canadian government as though those benefits were coming from Revenue Canada directly. http://www.fin.gc.ca/treaties-conventions/usa_-eng.asp

I don't see any info on that page stating that Revenue Canada will recognize payments made to the U.S. SSN as payments made to Revenue Canada instead, but I didn't look to see if there was other material on the website.

[computergeek]

This site won't allow me to post links to the relevant documents, so all I can do is point you in their general direction.

The US and Canada have what is known as a "totalization agreement".  If you search for the term "us canada totalization agreement" you will find links for both the Social Security Administration (www-dot-ssa-dot-gov-whack-international-whack-Agreement_Pamphlets-whack-canada-dot-html) and Service Canada (www-dot-servicecanada-dot-gc-dot-ca-whack-eng-whack-isp-whack-ibfa-whack-countries-whack-overview-whack-usa-dot-shtml)

Basically, you will get credit from the system where you retire for the contributions to the system where you worked, but you don't need to "do anything" until you file for CPP (Canada) or Social Security (USA).