When does the CRA consider me to have actually left Canada?
There is no form that makes you a non-resident. The date is a conclusion drawn from facts: where your home is, where your spouse and dependants live, and which ties you have kept or cut. The day you fly is evidence among others rather than the test. Because the deemed disposition and the switch to non-resident withholding both hinge on that day, it is worth settling it deliberately and assembling the evidence as it arises rather than reconstructing it later. Sale or letting of the home, retention or closure of accounts and memberships, and the timing of the family's move all belong in that file.
What should I sort out before I leave rather than after?
Three things, in this order. Fix and document the intended departure date, because everything else is measured from it. Then list every asset and mark which are reached by the deemed disposition and which are not, since that tells you whether the departure year carries a tax bill at all. Then tell each Canadian payer of pension or plan income, and decide before the first payment whether to apply for a reduced amount to be withheld. Each of those is cheaper before the date than after it, and the third is only available before the payments are made.
Should I sell my investments before or after leaving Canada?
It depends on the accrued position on each holding, which is why the inventory comes first. The departure day is treated as a disposition of the non-exempt holdings whether or not you sell, so the question is not whether a gain is recognised but in which year and against what. Losses realised while still resident can be set against gains in the same resident period; the same losses realised afterwards may have nowhere useful to go. The answer is specific to the portfolio and to the timing of the move, and it cannot be reached from a rule of thumb.
Can I defer paying the departure tax if I have no cash?
There is a mechanism for it. Because the deemed disposition can create tax in a year with no sale and no proceeds, an election can be made to postpone payment on the deemed gain until the property is actually disposed of. Security may be required, depending on the amount involved. It is an election, so it is made with the departure-year return rather than raised when the assessment arrives. Whether it helps depends on how long you expect to hold the property and on what the new country of residence will do with the gain when you eventually sell.
Which country taxes my pension once I have moved abroad?
Both will look at it, and the treaty decides which claim yields. Canada taxes at source because the pension arises here; the new country taxes on residence because you now live there. The treaty between them allocates the right to tax each type of payment, and state pensions, employer pensions and payments out of registered plans are not always treated alike. The country that gives way usually does so by allowing credit rather than by exempting. The practical consequence is that the Canadian side cannot be planned in isolation: read the article for each stream, then set the withholding.
Do I need to close my Canadian bank and investment accounts?
Not as a tax requirement. Accounts are evidence of ties rather than a trigger in themselves, and keeping a Canadian bank account is ordinary for someone drawing a Canadian pension. What matters more is what sits inside them and how the institution treats you once you are non-resident. Some registered and managed products cannot be held or traded from outside Canada under the provider's own rules, and discovering that after the move forces sales at a time you did not choose. Ask each institution what it will and will not administer for a non-resident before the date.
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.
Does hiring one remote employee in another country create a tax presence?
It can, on two separate fronts, and the second applies even when the first does not. A permanent establishment may arise if the employee has a fixed place of business there or concludes contracts for you. Independently of that, employing someone locally generally brings payroll registration, wage withholding and social security contributions in their country from the first payroll — obligations that do not wait for a permanent establishment finding. Contractor paperwork does not by itself avoid either. See remote work and tax exposure.
