Do I pay Canadian tax on my crypto when I leave?
If you hold it as capital property, yes. Departure triggers a deemed disposition of property you own on that day, and crypto is inside it. Nothing is sold, no cash arrives, and the tax still falls in the departure year. The property you owned on the day also has to be reported. The practical difficulty is rarely the rule itself; it is proving what the holding was worth on that single day, which is why the valuation file is the part worth doing properly and doing at the time.
What price do I use for my coins on my departure day?
A defensible one, chosen deliberately and recorded. Unlike a listed share there is no single closing price to look up, so you are selecting a source rather than reading one off. Decide which venue or index you are using and why, fix a time of day and apply it consistently across every holding, and keep the raw data you took the figure from. Two reasonable people can reach slightly different numbers here, and that is survivable. What does not survive examination is a figure with no method behind it.
Which exchange should the departure-day value come from?
Choose by where the asset actually traded in meaningful volume, not by whichever venue shows the most convenient figure. For a widely traded coin, a major venue or a recognised composite is straightforward to justify. For a thinly traded token the choice needs more thought and more documentation, because the spread between venues can be wide. Whatever you pick, apply it consistently, record the venue, the timestamp and the raw quote, and note why that source was appropriate for that particular asset.
Does my crypto go on the list of property I owned when I left?
The reporting of property owned on the departure day includes it, so it has to be inventoried rather than assumed away because no exchange issued a slip. That means every wallet and every account, including holdings you had forgotten about and balances locked in staking or lending arrangements. Build the inventory from the chain and from account statements rather than from memory. The inventory and the valuation are the same exercise approached from opposite ends, and doing them together is considerably faster than doing them apart.
How do I value coins held in my own wallet?
Self-custody changes the evidence, not the rule. The holding is still yours on the departure day and still has to be valued, but no third party will confirm the balance for you, so the chain record has to do it: the addresses, the balance as at that point, and a note tying the addresses to you. Then value the balance using the source and timestamp you chose for the rest of the portfolio. Capture all of this while you still have access to the wallet and the software that reads it.
What happens when I sell the coins years later abroad?
The departure-day value becomes the reference point for everything that has happened since, and your new country will usually want to know what you paid, or what you are treated as having paid, for the holding. If the departure file was built properly, that question is answered by opening a folder. If it was not, you are reconstructing a historical price under pressure, in a second country, with a different authority asking. This is the main reason the valuation work is worth doing at the time rather than later.
What is Canada's departure tax?
On the day you stop being a resident, you are treated as having sold most of your property at market value and are taxed on the resulting gain, even though nothing was sold. Several categories are excluded, including Canadian real property, registered plans and certain pension interests. Payment of the tax on the deemed disposition can be deferred by election with security, and property above a value threshold is listed on a departure schedule. See departure tax on leaving Canada.
Do I pay Canadian tax if I live abroad?
Only if you remain a Canadian tax resident. Residency follows your ties rather than your address, so leaving while your home and family stay usually does not end it. Non-residents remain taxable on Canadian-source income — employment or business income earned in Canada, dispositions of taxable Canadian property, and passive amounts subject to withholding. The year you leave is its own exercise, with a deemed disposition and its own schedules. See leaving Canada.
