Investment & trading (Transfer offshore shares to Canada)

[Arihant]

Hi, I am in this unique situation. I am an expat in EU member state and have stock investment in US stocks via a EU listed broker. I do not want to liquidate those investment and planning to transfer to a Canadian stock broker. I discussed with my EU broker and they have a process setup for this already and can do it but is it possible/feasible in Canada? Any suggestions for stock brokers for this purpose/or in general?

 

[steaky]

Hi, I am in this unique situation. I am an expat in EU member state and have stock investment in US stocks via a EU listed broker. I do not want to liquidate those investment and planning to transfer to a Canadian stock broker. I discussed with my EU broker and they have a process setup for this already and can do it but is it possible/feasible in Canada? Any suggestions for stock brokers for this purpose/or in general?

Why not continue keep the stocks with the EU broker?

 

[Arihant]

Thanks for revert. Being an expat, my residency status will change once I move to Canada (I do not hold citizenship/PR here in EU), basically terminate here in EU and I should not be able to keep the holdings with the broker.

 

[Arihant]

I just dug little deep in different kind of accounts, RRSP, TFSA and rules about loss not counting towards the transfer and got some understanding that if my securities transferred are at loss, then loss will not be registered and any appreciation on the price of securities from the time of transfer onwards will be taxed to me as gain, That is frightening, I will be so doomed if what I understood is right.

 

[Andreas Munzer]

Hi, I am in this unique situation. I am an expat in EU member state and have stock investment in US stocks via a EU listed broker. I do not want to liquidate those investment and planning to transfer to a Canadian stock broker. I discussed with my EU broker and they have a process setup for this already and can do it but is it possible/feasible in Canada? Any suggestions for stock brokers for this purpose/or in general?

Have a look at Interactive Brokers. They say this is a pretty decent broker.

 

[Canada2020eh]

Hi, I am in this unique situation. I am an expat in EU member state and have stock investment in US stocks via a EU listed broker. I do not want to liquidate those investment and planning to transfer to a Canadian stock broker. I discussed with my EU broker and they have a process setup for this already and can do it but is it possible/feasible in Canada? Any suggestions for stock brokers for this purpose/or in general?

I think you will have to liquidate and bring the funds to Canada and re-invest them, you probably have to pay taxes on your capital appreciation in the country where they are listed if applicable. I'm not aware of a way to just xfr to a brokerage here.

 

[Andreas Munzer]

I just dug little deep in different kind of accounts, RRSP, TFSA and rules about loss not counting towards the transfer and got some understanding that if my securities transferred are at loss, then loss will not be registered and any appreciation on the price of securities from the time of transfer onwards will be taxed to me as gain, That is frightening, I will be so doomed if what I understood is right. That is why I decided to start digging into trading robots. That is very interesting.

Agree with Canada2020eh that you will possibly need to reinvest the money into the Canadian economy.

 

[steaky]

Agree with Canada2020eh that you will possibly need to reinvest the money into the Canadian economy.

Disagree. You can park money offshore.

 

[Canada2020eh]

Disagree. You can park money offshore.

That is certainly an option, and then bring it to Canada as required but unless the OP would be getting a good return on investment or interest rate compared to Canada then there is no advantage in doing that because the are no tax implications on bringing the money here when immigrating. Having said that, Canadian residents are required to report worldwide foreign income which includes dividends, capital gains and interest. That income MAY be taxable in Canada unless taxes are paid in the country where the income was earned and have a tax treaty with Canada.

So unless the plan is to hold it offshore and try to cheat the tax man there generally wouldn't be an advantage to do so IMO.