Canadian Citizen and Non-Resident Fiancee Looking to Buy Home

[Wolfie]

Hello. I am a Canadian citizen and I have a non-resident fiancée and we are looking to buy a home and rent it out. We are planning on buying the home and renting it out before we get married. But is it possible for us to sign papers before we actually close on the house if it changes anything.

The way I understand it, normally non residents renting out property is subject to 25% withholding tax. My question is, does it make a difference if I am the co-owner or if we sign papers prior to the closing or does she have to wait for her landed immigrant status to be approved before she is no longer subject to the withholding?

 

[scylla]

I would leave her off the deed until she is a PR. It just makes life less complicated.

My husband is American and we looked into adding him to the deed for my property here before he became a PR. It proved to be too complicated (mainly from a US tax perspective). I think the situation becomes even worse if it's a rental rather than your primary residence. To this day, I'm still not on the deeds (by choice) of our rental properties in the US (too many complications from both a US and Canadian tax perspective).

Just my perspective...