What should I sort out before moving back to Canada?
Three things, in this order. The date residency will restart, because everything else is measured from it. The evidence of what your foreign holdings are worth on that day, because the reset that puts a decade of growth abroad outside the Canadian gain lives or dies on it. And the treatment of any foreign plan or savings arrangement, because some of the choices there exist only before arrival. None of the three is easier after the move, and two of them are materially harder.
When does my Canadian tax residency start again after moving back?
On arrival, as a matter of fact rather than of paperwork: residency restarts when your life does. In most files the date is obvious, but it is worth pinning down rather than assuming, because it is the day your foreign holdings are treated as acquired at market value and the day the part-year return begins. Where the move is staged, with one spouse arriving first, a home bought later and a job starting later still, the date deserves an actual decision, supported by documents that show the sequence.
Should I sell foreign investments before or after returning to Canada?
The arrival day is the dividing line, so the question is which side you want the growth on. Hold, and the asset comes in at its arrival-day value, with everything earned abroad before that day outside the Canadian gain. Sell before arriving, and the disposition is dealt with where you were then living, under that country's rules. Neither is automatically the right answer. What usually decides it is the other country's treatment and whether the arrival-day value can be properly evidenced.
What documents should I gather before I return to Canada?
Dated valuations or price records for each foreign holding as at the arrival day. Statements and plan documents for any retirement or savings arrangement built up abroad. And your original departure filing, with its schedules, because the cost bases you carry back in and any deferred amount still outstanding come from it. Collected before the move, that is an afternoon's work. Collected years later, when a sale finally happens, it becomes a reconstruction, and the weaker the evidence, the less the reset is worth.
Can I keep my overseas retirement savings when I move back?
Usually the plan itself can stay where it is, but its Canadian treatment should be established before arrival rather than discovered afterwards. Steps that are open to you while still non-resident may not be open once residency has restarted, and a plan restructured in the wrong order can be difficult to put back. The practical rule is to look at the plan while the move is still in front of you, take a position, write down the reasoning, and then file consistently with it every year.
I have already moved back, is it too late to fix this?
No, but the work changes character. The arrival day is fixed, so what remains is evidence rather than choice: establishing what your holdings were worth on that day from records that still exist, and documenting the basis where a direct price does not. Anything that depended on acting while still non-resident has gone. It is worth doing promptly, because valuation evidence for a past date gets harder to obtain each year, and the reset is only worth what you are able to support.
I have not filed for several years while living abroad — what are my options?
Both countries have routes back, and using one before they contact you is what preserves the relief. On the US side there are procedures aimed at taxpayers whose failure was not wilful, including one designed for people living outside the country, and separate procedures for late account reports and information returns alone. Canada has its voluntary disclosures programme and taxpayer relief for penalties and interest. Filing quietly and hoping is the one approach with no protection attached to it. See catch-up filing.
How long do I have to be out of the country to stop being resident?
There is no single period that settles it. Canada looks at whether your ties were actually severed, not at a day count; the United States taxes citizens regardless of where they live; India applies day-count thresholds with a second limb reaching back over earlier years. Time abroad is evidence, not a rule — what decides it is where your home, family and economic life sit. See tax residency.
