I am a US citizen living in Canada — do I give a W-9?
You give one to the payer rather than filing it with anyone. If you are a US person and a US payer is making a reportable payment to you, the W-9 is how you certify that status and give your taxpayer identification number, so the payment is reported rather than withheld as a payment to a foreign person. Living in Canada does not change that. Where you live decides where you are taxed and which treaty articles are in play; the certificate decides how the payer characterises and reports the payment. They are separate questions, and answering one does not answer the other.
Does a green card holder give a payer Form W-9 or a foreign form?
A lawful permanent resident is a US person for this purpose, so the W-9 is the right certificate even for someone who has not lived in the United States for years. Giving a foreign-status form instead creates a mismatch: the payer reports the payment one way while other records, the immigration status among them, say something else. Information exchange between administrations tends to surface that eventually. If the status has actually come to an end, that is a question to settle on its own facts first, and then certify to match the answer.
My Canadian bank asked whether I am a US person — same form?
It is the same question behind a different piece of paper. A financial institution outside the United States asks about US status for its own reporting obligations, not in order to withhold on a US payment, so it usually uses its own self-certification rather than the IRS form. The answer should be identical in both places. Someone who certifies US status to a US payer and non-US status to a bank abroad has created exactly the mismatch that later has to be explained, and explaining it years afterwards is much harder than getting it right at account opening.
What happens if I do not give my US payer a W-9?
The payer is left with an undocumented recipient and applies its default treatment, which generally means withholding rather than plain reporting. You then have to recover the difference through a return. Nothing is gained by silence, because the payment is reported either way, and the version reported without a certificate is the one that raises questions. If the reason for hesitating is that your status is genuinely unclear — a lapsed immigration status, or one recently acquired — settle that question first and certify to the answer you can support.
Does giving a W-9 mean I have to file a US tax return?
The two obligations are separate. The certificate tells a payer what you are so the payment is reported correctly; whether a return is due turns on your own circumstances. In practice, though, certifying US status makes the return question unavoidable, because the payment is now reported against your taxpayer identification number as a payment to a US person. People who have been abroad a long time often meet both questions at once. It is better to treat the certificate and the filing history as one piece of work than to answer one and wait.
Which US payments actually require a W-9 from me?
Reportable payments made by a US payer — and the payer is the one who decides a certificate is needed, and asks for it. Rather than working from a list, treat the request itself as the trigger: if a US payer has asked, the payment is one it must report, and the certificate is how it reports it as a payment to a US person. The question worth checking is not whether to answer, but whether the status you are about to certify matches what you have already told everybody else, including banks outside the United States.
How do I report the sale of a foreign property?
On your residence-country return, as a disposition, with proceeds and cost base converted at the rates for their own dates. Separately, the country where the property sits may require its own return and may hold back tax at closing until a clearance or certificate is issued — Canada does this for a non-resident vendor, and the United States withholds on a foreign seller of US real property. Those steps have their own deadlines, often before closing. See clearance certificates on a property sale.
Do I pay tax twice on a foreign dividend?
Not at full rates if the relief is claimed. The paying country usually withholds at source, capped by treaty where one applies and the paperwork is in place; your residence country then taxes the dividend and credits the foreign withholding against its own charge. Where the withholding exceeded the treaty rate because no declaration was filed, the excess is recovered from the paying country, not credited at home. See the dividends article.
