A few general questions - moving from USA to Canada

[dahauntz]

Hi everyone! My partner and I are both living in the States currently (full details in signature), and we’re getting everything ready to move whenever my PR comes through. I’ve browsed around a bit, but I had a couple questions I couldn’t answer adequately with forum searches and google - if anyone has any input, many thanks in advance!

1. I have two credit cards and a checking/savings account here in the States. Would I be able to cancel the credit cards without ruining my credit in Canada? How does credit work in Canada? Is it the same?
2. When I move, who do I need to notify? Is there a departure tax or something similar here? Do I let the IRS know? Social security? Etc?
3. Regarding taxes in general - I’ve secured a US tax advisor who says they know how to deal with this situation, but I haven’t been able to find much information myself. How does the US to Canada tax thing work? How long will I have to pay taxes in the States?
4. Lastly, can I bring my own mattress, or will I have to get rid of it? I’ve found a lot of conflicting information on this one, so wanted some second opinions.

 

[Hurlabrick]

I can help you on a couple of these.

How does credit work in Canada? Is it the same?

Not certain about the USA, but coming from the UK, we basically had to start again as regards credit history. But yes, it kinda works the same, Canada seems to use Equifax extensively for credit scoring, but the 'scale' seems different, certainly from the UK scale.

Lastly, can I bring my own mattress, or will I have to get rid of it? I’ve found a lot of conflicting information on this one, so wanted some second opinions.

Yes, you CAN bring your own mattress. There is a distinction between brining mattresses in as 'settlers effects' and 'commercial imports'. Settlers effects do NOT need fumigation, if importing for commercial purposes, then it does. Some useful information with links to the official CBSA rules are here:

https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Mattress_Fumigation

Would be a good idea to print out the official CBSA rules for settlers effects as I have found CBSA agents to be often unaware of their own rules!​

 

[ashpash22]

Hi everyone! My partner and I are both living in the States currently (full details in signature), and we’re getting everything ready to move whenever my PR comes through. I’ve browsed around a bit, but I had a couple questions I couldn’t answer adequately with forum searches and google - if anyone has any input, many thanks in advance!

1. I have two credit cards and a checking/savings account here in the States. Would I be able to cancel the credit cards without ruining my credit in Canada? How does credit work in Canada? Is it the same?
2. When I move, who do I need to notify? Is there a departure tax or something similar here? Do I let the IRS know? Social security? Etc?
3. Regarding taxes in general - I’ve secured a US tax advisor who says they know how to deal with this situation, but I haven’t been able to find much information myself. How does the US to Canada tax thing work? How long will I have to pay taxes in the States?
4. Lastly, can I bring my own mattress, or will I have to get rid of it? I’ve found a lot of conflicting information on this one, so wanted some second opinions.

You might want to try posting in the “Moving To Canada from the US” section of this forum for these questions. https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/forums/permanent-residence-in-canada.57/

For your first question, I just did a google search and found what I thought was the case, which is that no your credit history doesn’t count in Canada.
I don’t know anything about 2&3.
4. Once you’ve been approved for PR, you’re allowed to bring your goods with you, you’ll have to fill out a form and declare them but yes you can bring a mattress.

 

[canuck78]

Unfortunately will be stuck paying the IRS if you keep your US citizenship

 

[mrs_december]

1. Credit works the same in Canada, but you will be starting from zero. They do not recognize your credit rating from another country.
2. There is no one that you are required to "notify" but it might be prudent to contact the IRS, the SSA, or any other pertinent agency to see if they have procedures for registering an international address. There is no exit tax.
3. You will be obligated to file a US tax return every year for the rest of your life, regardless of whether you reside in the US. You only have to pay tax on your foreign income if it exceeds a certain threshold. Your tax advisor should be up to date on what the current regulations are. The only way you can avoid filing and/or paying US tax is to revoke your US citizenship. All this is in addition to filing a Canadian return and paying any pertinent tax in Canada.
4. As long as you declare the mattress in your goods when you go through the landing process, you can bring it, and any other personal possessions you please, from the US duty-free.

 

[may_dec]

1. I have two credit cards and a checking/savings account here in the States. Would I be able to cancel the credit cards without ruining my credit in Canada? How does credit work in Canada? Is it the same?

If you happen to have an American Express credit card, you can use it to obtain a Canadian Amex card. You might have to spend a lot of time on the phone getting to the correct people. This would bootstrap your Canadian credit profiles at Equifax and Transunion. A friend of mine actually applied for an Amex card in Canada and then immediately converted it to a US card. As far as I know, this would work in the opposite direction, too.

I would actually suggest that you might want to keep your US accounts open, unless there are significant costs associated with doing so. Do you have an address (a relative, perhaps) where you could park your accounts ? I'm Canadian, but I've found it useful to keep US accounts open for things like buying digital music, and for travelling in the US.

 

[dahauntz]

Lots of great information here, thanks everyone! Especially appreciate that thorough explanation of the rules on mattresses, the wording on that rule was very confusing, lol.
And thanks ashpash for the link, I embarrassingly didn't even notice that section was there! Awesome - thank you for all your help, guys.

 

[noonnabi]

Unfortunately will be stuck paying the IRS if you keep your US citizenship

This isn't necessarily true. You're required to file a tax return, but you're allowed to deduct a certain amount of earned income (around 100k). There are also tax treaties between the two countries to prevent double taxation, if it comes to that. It's a pain in the ass, and I would recommend consulting an accountant, but it's unlikely OP will end up needing to pay taxes in both countries.

 

[KBH]

Great advice already shared here, just want to add in regards to the tax info, brush up on the FBAR reporting requirements as well. Each year, you are required to declare all your foreign bank accounts to the US (via the FBAR form) if at any point in the year the total balance in all your accounts was over $10k.