Do I still file a Canadian return for the year I leave?
Yes. The year you go is a part-year resident year, and that return is what fixes your departure date and reports the deemed disposition on property not exempt from it. It does two jobs at once: it settles the Canadian tax on gains accrued up to the day you stopped being resident, and it tells the CRA the date from which your Canadian income becomes non-resident income. Getting that date wrong follows you, because every later withholding question and every treaty claim is measured from it. Keep the valuations that support the deemed disposition with the file, not only the figures they produced.
Will Canada keep taxing my Canadian pension after I emigrate?
Yes, but by a different method. Once you are a non-resident, Canadian pension and registered plan payments are no longer reported on an ordinary return by default. The payer withholds at source at a flat non-resident rate and remits it, and there is no return to file for that income unless you choose to file one. The flat rate takes no account of your personal circumstances, so it can collect more than the treaty and your actual income level would produce. Your new country of residence will usually tax the same payments and give credit for the Canadian tax, so the two sides have to be read together.
What is the elective return for non-resident pension income?
It is an optional Canadian return that lets you report certain Canadian-source pension and similar income on a graduated basis instead of leaving the flat withholding as the final tax. You work out the tax the ordinary way on the elected income, compare it with what was withheld, and claim the difference back where the ordinary calculation is lower. It is elective because it can go either way: with substantial Canadian pension income it usually helps, and with very little it can be neutral. The decision is arithmetic, and it is worth redoing each year rather than electing once and assuming the answer holds.
Can I get the withholding on my pension reduced up front?
Sometimes, yes. Rather than wait and reclaim, you can apply in advance for authorisation to have a lower amount withheld, supported by a projection of the income and of the deductions or treaty relief that apply to it. Where the application is accepted, the payer withholds on the reduced basis for the period covered, so the money is not sitting with the CRA for a year or more. The application is made before the payments are made, not afterwards. That is why it belongs in the year you leave rather than the year you notice the over-collection.
Is my Canadian house caught by departure tax when I move?
Canadian real property is one of the categories outside the deemed disposition on departure, so leaving does not by itself trigger a gain on it. What changes is everything afterwards. Rent from it becomes Canadian-source income of a non-resident, with its own withholding and reporting mechanism, and an eventual sale becomes a non-resident disposition with a clearance step of its own before the buyer's funds are released. So the house is not a departure-year problem. It is a set of ongoing obligations that begins the day you become non-resident and runs until you sell.
Do I have to tell my pension payer I have left Canada?
Yes, and it is the practical step most often missed. A payer withholds on the basis of the residence status it holds on record. If it still thinks you are resident it keeps deducting as though you were; if it knows you are not, it applies the flat rate and needs your country of residence before it can apply any treaty rate. Tell each payer separately, because none of them learns it from the CRA or from one another. Records that disagree across payers are what turn a straightforward year into a reconciliation exercise.
How do I claim the foreign tax credit?
You report the foreign income, the foreign tax paid on it and the category it falls into, then compute the limit — the credit cannot exceed your own country's tax on that same income. You need evidence the foreign tax was actually paid or accrued, not merely withheld on paper. The form differs by country: Form 1116 in the US, T2209 and T2036 in Canada, Form 67 in India, and the Indian form must be filed before the return. See Form 1116.
What happens if I have not filed for several years?
Missed years are handled as one package, not one at a time, because the route chosen for the first year determines the relief available for the rest. Each country has a disclosure or relief programme with its own conditions, and entering the right one — before the authority contacts you — is usually what keeps penalties down. Filing quietly outside a programme forfeits that protection. See catching up on missed returns.
