Last updated: October 28, 2026

You become a non-resident of Canada for tax purposes when you leave Canada to live in another country and sever your residential ties here. No form makes you a non-resident. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) looks at the facts: your home, your family, your other ties and your plans. You then report the change on your tax return for the year you leave.

This guide walks through the steps in order: checking your ties, working out your departure date, deciding whether to ask the CRA for an opinion (Form NR73), telling the CRA and your Canadian payers, departure tax, your last return as a resident, and what happens to your Canadian income and accounts afterwards.

The steps at a glance:

Check your residential ties with Canada, and plan which ones you will end.
Work out the date you become a non-resident.
Decide whether you want the CRA's opinion on your status (Form NR73 is optional).
Tell your Canadian banks and other payers that you are a non-resident, and which country you now live in.
Work out the departure tax on your property, and list your property on Form T1161 if it is worth more than $25,000.
File your return for the year you leave, with your departure date on page 1. If you don't have to file, let the CRA know the date you left.
Plan for Canadian income you will still receive, and for your TFSA, RRSP and FHSA.

What makes you a non-resident of Canada?

Your Canadian tax obligations depend on your residency status, not your citizenship or immigration status. A Canadian citizen can be a non-resident for tax purposes, and a person without citizenship can be a resident.

The CRA generally treats you as an emigrant if you leave Canada to live in another country and you sever your residential ties with Canada. In the year you leave, you are taxed as a resident up to your departure date and as a non-resident after it. In later years you are a non-resident.

Two other outcomes are common for people who move abroad:

Factual resident. If you leave but keep significant residential ties in Canada, you usually remain a resident for tax purposes. You keep reporting your worldwide income in Canada, as if you never left. The CRA gives examples such as working temporarily outside Canada, teaching or studying in another country, and vacationing outside Canada. See Factual residents – Temporarily outside of Canada.
Deemed non-resident. If you would otherwise be a resident of Canada but a tax treaty makes you a resident of the other country, the Income Tax Act deems you not to be resident in Canada (subsection 250(5)). The same rules apply to you as to other non-residents, including departure tax, from that date.

Government employees posted abroad, members of the Canadian Forces and some others working abroad for Canada have separate rules, which can also apply to their families. See Government employees outside Canada.

Is spending fewer than 183 days in Canada enough? No, not on its own. The 183-day count is about how long you stay in Canada in a year. It mainly matters for people without significant ties here: staying 183 days or more in a year can make them deemed residents. If you are leaving Canada, the CRA looks first at whether you kept significant ties here. Its guidance says that unless you sever all significant residential ties when you leave, you will generally continue to be a factual resident.

The residential ties the CRA looks at

The CRA's Income Tax Folio S5-F1-C1, Determining an Individual's Residence Status sets out how it weighs your ties. The CRA's short version is on Determining your residency status.

Significant ties

These three ties will almost always be significant:

A home in Canada. A home that you own or rent and that stays available for you to live in is a significant tie while you are abroad. If you rent it to an arm's-length tenant, the CRA looks at all the circumstances and may not treat the home as a significant tie on its own. It can still count together with your other ties.
A spouse or common-law partner in Canada. If your spouse or partner stays behind, they will usually be a significant tie. This does not apply if you were already living apart because the relationship had broken down.
Dependants in Canada. Dependants who stay in Canada will usually be a significant tie.

If you plan to rent out your Canadian home after you leave, the tax on that rent works differently. See our guide to non-resident rental income tax.

Secondary ties

The CRA looks at secondary ties together, not one at a time. It says it would be unusual for a single secondary tie to make you a resident on its own. The Folio lists these secondary ties:

personal property in Canada, such as furniture, clothing, cars and recreational vehicles
social ties, such as memberships in Canadian recreational or religious organizations
economic ties, such as a job with a Canadian employer, active involvement in a Canadian business, and Canadian bank accounts, retirement savings plans, credit cards and securities accounts
landed immigrant status or work permits in Canada
hospital and medical insurance from a Canadian province or territory
a driver's licence from a Canadian province or territory
a vehicle registered in a Canadian province or territory
a seasonal home in Canada, or a home you have leased out
a Canadian passport
memberships in Canadian unions or professional organizations

The CRA can also look at smaller ties, like a Canadian mailing address, post office box or safety deposit box, Canadian phone listings, and Canadian newspaper and magazine subscriptions. These usually matter only when combined with other ties.

Your intentions, visits and ties abroad

If you keep some ties, the CRA also weighs:

Whether you meant to leave for good. No set length of time abroad makes you a non-resident. If your return to Canada was foreseen when you left (for example, you have a contract for a job in Canada when you come back), the CRA gives your remaining ties more weight.
How often you visit. Occasional visits don't affect your status once you have severed your ties. Regular visits, combined with some secondary ties, do count.
Your ties in your new country. If you don't set up significant ties abroad, the ties you keep in Canada can carry more weight.

The CRA also notes whether you dealt with departure tax and told Canadian payers you had become a non-resident. It treats both as evidence of your intention to leave permanently.

When you become a non-resident: your departure date

When you leave Canada to settle in another country, you usually become a non-resident on the latest of:

the date you leave Canada
the date your spouse or common-law partner and dependants leave Canada
the date you become a resident of the country you settle in

There is one exception. If you lived in another country before you came to Canada and you are going back to live there, you usually become a non-resident on the date you leave. This is true even if your spouse or partner stays behind for a while to sell your home, or your children stay to finish a school year.

This date matters. It splits your tax year in two. It is the date your property is valued for departure tax, and it is the date your Canadian payers should start withholding non-resident tax.

Form NR73: optional, and what it can and can't do

Form NR73, Determination of Residency Status (leaving Canada) asks the CRA for its opinion on your residency status. The CRA describes it as the form to complete if you have left or plan to leave Canada and need help determining your status, and "if you want the CRA's opinion".

You do not need Form NR73 to become a non-resident: your status comes from your facts, not from the form. The CRA's Folio says people leaving Canada "should consider" completing it, so it is a choice to weigh, not a requirement. Your departure-year tax return is not an alternative to it either. They do different jobs.

Before you send it, know what the opinion is:

It is based only on the facts you give. The CRA's Folio says it is "critical" to give all the details of your ties with Canada and abroad.
It is not binding on the CRA. The CRA can review your status in more detail later and ask for documents.
For certainty, there is a different route. In the right circumstances, the CRA's Income Tax Rulings Directorate may issue a binding advance ruling on residency, usually only when all the facts can be known before you leave.

Whether to send Form NR73 depends on your situation. It is worth talking it through with an adviser first, especially if you are keeping a home, family or other ties in Canada.

How to declare non-resident status to the CRA

There is no separate application to declare non-residency. You tell the CRA on your income tax return for the year you leave:

Enter your date of departure on page 1 of your return, in the "Residence Information" area.
If you don't have to file a return (you must file if you owe tax or want a refund), the CRA says to let it know the date you left Canada as soon as possible.

Telling the CRA matters for benefits too. As a non-resident, you are generally not eligible for the Canada child benefit or the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit.

Tell your Canadian payers. The CRA says you are required to tell your Canadian financial institutions and anyone else paying you from Canada that you are no longer a resident. Tell them your new country of residence too, so they deduct the correct non-resident tax.

Departure tax: the deemed disposition when you leave

When you become a non-resident, you are treated as having sold most of your property at its fair market value on your departure date, and immediately bought it back for the same amount. This is called a deemed disposition, and the tax on any gain is often called departure tax. Examples the CRA gives are shares, jewellery, paintings and collections.

What is not included. The main exceptions are:

real or immovable property in Canada, such as your Canadian home or rental property, and Canadian resource and timber resource property
Canadian business property, if you carry on the business through a permanent establishment in Canada
pension plans, RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs, FHSAs, RESPs, RDSPs and other "excluded rights or interests" listed in subsection 128.1(10) of the Income Tax Act
if you were a resident of Canada for 60 months or less in the 10 years before you left, property you owned when you last became a resident, or inherited after that

Excluded real property is not deemed sold when you leave, but selling it later as a non-resident has its own rules. See our guide to the section 116 certificate of compliance.

The forms:

Form T1243, Deemed Disposition of Property by an Emigrant of Canada works out the gains or losses. You carry them to Schedule 3 of your return.
Form T1161, List of Properties by an Emigrant of Canada lists all your properties inside and outside Canada, if their total fair market value when you left was more than $25,000. Leave out, among others, cash and bank deposits, registered plans such as RRSPs and TFSAs, and personal-use items (such as household effects, clothing and cars) worth less than $10,000 each. The late-filing penalty is $25 a day, with a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $2,500. You must send Form T1161 by your filing due date even if you don't have to file a return.
Form T1244 lets you defer paying the departure tax until you actually sell the property, with no interest. You can defer any amount, but you must make the election by April 30 of the year after you leave. If the federal tax you defer is more than $16,500 ($13,777.50 for former Quebec residents), you must give the CRA adequate security. The CRA asks you to contact it to arrange this before April 30.

When you later sell property that was deemed disposed, you report the actual sale to the CRA's Non-Resident T1 Adjustments section at the Winnipeg Tax Centre. Any deferred tax may then become payable. The CRA's page Dispositions of property for emigrants of Canada has the details.

Your tax return for the year you leave

Your return for the year you leave covers both parts of the year:

Before your departure date, you report your world income: income from all sources inside and outside Canada.
After your departure date, you pay Canadian tax only on Canadian-source income. Some of it goes on the return. Other types have non-resident tax withheld at source instead (see the next section).
Use the tax package for the province or territory you lived in on your departure date, and that province's Form 428.
Credits are limited. Your federal non-refundable credits are limited to the amounts that apply to each part of the year. You generally can't claim the provincial credits on Form 479 unless you were a resident on December 31.
Moving expenses for a move out of Canada are generally not deductible. The exception is full-time post-secondary students with a taxable Canadian scholarship or research grant.

You must file if you owe tax or want a refund. The return is generally due April 30 of the following year, or June 15 if you or your spouse or common-law partner carried on a business in Canada. Any balance owing is due April 30 either way. The CRA's Leaving Canada (emigrants) page covers each step.

Canadian income after you leave

As a non-resident, you pay Canadian tax only on income from Canadian sources. How it is taxed depends on the type of income.

Non-resident withholding tax (Part XIII). Canadian payers deduct this tax from dividends, rent, pension payments, Old Age Security, CPP and QPP benefits, RRSP and RRIF payments, annuities, retiring allowances and management fees. The usual rate is 25%, unless a tax treaty between Canada and your new country reduces it. When the correct amount is withheld, it is usually your final Canadian tax on that income. Interest from a payer you deal with at arm's length is generally exempt. See Non-residents of Canada.

Choosing to file instead:

Rent from Canadian property. You can elect to file a section 216 return and may get some of the withheld tax back. Our non-resident rental income guide covers Form NR6, the section 216 return and the deadlines.
Certain Canadian pension income. You may benefit from electing under section 217 to include it on a return.

Work or business in Canada, and property sales. If you earn employment or business income in Canada, or sell taxable Canadian property such as real estate, you may have to file a Canadian return for that income. For a property sale, see our section 116 guide.

Your TFSA, RRSP and FHSA when you leave

None of these accounts is deemed sold when you leave. Each has its own rules once you are a non-resident.

TFSA. You can keep your TFSA. Canada does not tax the earnings in it or your withdrawals from it. But:

You can contribute up to the date you become a non-resident. The annual limit is not prorated in the year you leave.
You get no new contribution room for any year in which you are a non-resident for the whole year.
If you contribute while you are a non-resident, you pay a tax of 1% a month on that contribution. It continues until you withdraw the full amount or become a resident again.
Withdrawals you make while you are a non-resident are added back to your room the next year. You can only use that room if you become a resident of Canada again.

The CRA's TFSA guide (RC4466) explains the non-resident rules. Your new country may tax a TFSA differently, so check its rules too.

RRSP and RRIF. Your RRSP or RRIF is not deemed sold when you leave. Payments from it to you as a non-resident are subject to Part XIII withholding: 25%, unless a tax treaty reduces the rate. If you participate in the Home Buyers' Plan or the Lifelong Learning Plan when you leave, special rules apply. See the CRA's pages on the Home Buyers' Plan and the Lifelong Learning Plan.

FHSA. The CRA says that if you become a non-resident after opening an FHSA, you can keep using it normally, with one exception. You cannot make a qualifying withdrawal to buy or build a home while you are a non-resident. Any taxable withdrawal you make as a non-resident has withholding tax deducted, at 25% unless a treaty reduces it. See Non-residents and FHSAs.

Health coverage and immigration status are separate questions

Citizenship, immigration status and provincial health coverage are each decided under their own rules. None of them decides your tax residency on its own. When you leave Canada, the CRA treats a Canadian passport, provincial health insurance, and landed immigrant status or work permits as secondary ties. They are weighed together with your other ties.

If you live in Ontario, OHIP coverage is decided by Ontario, not the CRA. Ontario's page on OHIP coverage while outside Canada covers temporary absences. For example, you can keep coverage for up to two years while you are away more than seven months in a 12-month period if you have a valid health card, make Ontario your primary home, and spent at least 153 days in Ontario in each of the two 12-month periods before you leave. If you are leaving permanently, check your coverage with ServiceOntario before you go, and keep in mind that an active health card is one of the ties the CRA looks at.

Returning to Canada

You become a resident of Canada again when you re-establish residential ties here. Ties such as a home, a spouse or partner, or dependants in Canada will almost always be significant. If you want the CRA's opinion when you come back, use Form NR74, Determination of Residency Status (entering Canada).

When you move back:

You are generally treated as having sold and bought back most of your property at its fair market value on the date you return.
If you left Canada after October 1, 1996, and you still own property that was deemed sold when you left, you can choose to "unwind" that deemed disposition. This can reduce or cancel the departure tax. Send the CRA a written request by your filing due date for the year you become a resident again, with a list of the properties and their fair market values.
If you deferred your departure tax, you may now have to pay it. Contact the CRA. If you gave security and you unwind the disposition, some or all of it may be returned.
On your TFSA, the 1% monthly tax on contributions made while you were a non-resident stops from the month you become a resident again.

Frequently asked questions

What if my new country also treats me as a resident?

Most of Canada's tax treaties settle this with tie-breaker rules in their Residence article. The first test is usually where you have a permanent home available to you, owned or rented. If you have one in both countries, for example a rented apartment abroad and a home in Canada that is still available to you, the next test is usually your centre of vital interests: the country your personal and economic ties are closer to. The treaty sets out further tests if that one doesn't settle it. If the tests favour your new country, the deemed non-resident rule above applies. In limited situations, the CRA's Competent Authority Services can help resolve a residency question with a treaty country.

How do I get the lower treaty rate on Canadian investment income or pensions?

Fill out Form NR301, Declaration of eligibility for benefits (reduced tax) under a tax treaty for a non-resident person and send it to the Canadian payer, agent or nominee who asked you for it. The payer is liable if it withholds too little, so it may want the form, or the same information, before it applies less than the full 25%. The declaration expires when your eligibility for treaty benefits changes, or three years after the end of the calendar year you sign it, whichever comes first. If your circumstances change, tell the payer right away and fill out a new form.

What if a payer withheld too much non-resident tax?

You can ask the CRA for a refund of the excess with Form NR7-R, Application for Refund of Part XIII Tax Withheld. This can happen when a payer did not apply your treaty's rate, or withheld tax from income that is exempt. Generally, you have to send the form no later than two years after the end of the calendar year in which the payer sent the tax to the CRA. Depending on your treaty, the period may be longer. See the CRA's guide T4058, Non-Residents and Income Tax.

I receive Old Age Security. Do I have to file anything extra?

Usually, yes. A non-resident receiving OAS generally has to file the Old Age Security Return of Income (OASRI). The CRA uses it to work out whether OAS recovery tax should be deducted from your pension, and Service Canada uses it to set the OAS it keeps paying you. Recovery tax generally applies to non-residents unless a tax treaty limits or eliminates it, and residents of some treaty countries don't have to file. The CRA's page lists those countries and the due date. In the year you leave, if you receive OAS after your departure date, the CRA asks you to contact it for the special rules on working out the recovery tax.

Leaving Canada?

GTA Accounting's non-resident tax services include completing Form NR73 and Form T1161, filing section 216 and section 217 returns, and filing departure tax returns. If you are planning a move, contact us before you leave.

How to Become a Non-Resident of Canada for Tax Purposes