Do I file T2062A or the plain capital property form for a rental?
It depends on what the property is, not on how you think of it. Form T2062A is the clearance application for depreciable property and resource property. A rental building is depreciable property, so it usually belongs here rather than on the plain capital-property form. The reason is recapture: depreciation you claimed against Canadian rental income in earlier years is brought back into income when you sell, and that recapture forms part of the certificate computation alongside the capital gain. Filing on the capital-property form alone leaves the recapture out of the figures the CRA is asked to approve, and the application has to be redone. Land sold with the building is a separate element of the same disposition.
I never claimed depreciation on my Canadian rental. Does T2062A still apply?
The form follows the character of the property rather than your claim history. A rental building is depreciable property whether or not you ever deducted capital cost allowance against the rental income, so the depreciable-property clearance route is still the one to use. Not having claimed depreciation changes the arithmetic, not the paperwork: there is no recapture to bring back into income, so the computation reduces to the capital gain and the certificate is easier to support. Check the earlier Canadian returns rather than relying on memory. Agents and property managers sometimes claimed capital cost allowance on a non-resident owner's behalf without the owner ever noticing it on the return.
Does Form T2062A cover the sale of a Canadian mineral claim?
Resource properties sit on this form alongside depreciable property, so a disposition of a Canadian resource interest by a non-resident goes through the same clearance route rather than the plain capital-property one. What that means in practice is that the supporting file looks different. A resource interest usually has a cost history assembled from staking, exploration and development spending rather than a purchase price on one closing statement, and the CRA is being asked to accept that cost base before it will issue a certificate. Gather the historic expenditure records first. An application carrying a cost figure nobody can trace back to documents is where these files stall.
Why does the buyer's solicitor keep asking about my clearance certificate?
Because the purchaser carries the withholding exposure, not you. On a disposition of taxable Canadian property by a non-resident, the buyer is the one the CRA can look to if the correct amount is not remitted, so the solicitor holds funds back until the certificate arrives. That is a commercial problem as much as a tax one: the money sits in trust, the closing statement stays open, and both sides wait. Filing promptly after the terms are settled, with a supportable cost base and the recapture computed, is what shortens the wait. Tell the solicitor early which form the disposition goes on, so the holdback is calculated against the right figure.
Can my Canadian property manager file Form T2062A for me?
Someone can prepare and submit it for you, but the obligation stays with the non-resident who disposed of the property. That distinction matters when things go wrong, because the CRA corresponds with the person named on the form and the consequences of a missing or unsupported application land on the seller. Two practical points. Whoever files needs authority on file to deal with the CRA on your behalf, or the correspondence simply stops. And they need the full depreciation history, not just the sale agreement, because the recapture element comes out of years of rental returns rather than the closing documents. A manager holding only the current year's records cannot complete the computation.
I am a non-resident selling a Canadian farm with buildings. Which form?
Split the disposition into its elements before choosing. Buildings are depreciable property and belong on the depreciable-property clearance application, together with any recapture arising from capital cost allowance claimed against Canadian income in earlier years. Bare land is not depreciable and is dealt with as capital property. Quotas, equipment and standing inventory each have their own character again. A single sale agreement with one price on it is common, and the work is in allocating that price across the elements in a way the CRA will accept, because the allocation drives both the recapture and the gain. Do the allocation before the application, not after a query arrives.
What is FIRPTA withholding?
FIRPTA is the US regime that treats a foreign person's disposition of a US real property interest as taxable and makes the buyer withhold on the gross proceeds to secure it. Because the deduction is on the price rather than the profit, it routinely exceeds the real tax — sometimes on a sale made at a loss. A withholding certificate applied for before closing can reduce it to something closer to the actual liability. See the FIRPTA withholding certificate.
How is rental income from a foreign property taxed?
Twice over, then relieved. The country where the property sits taxes the rent — often by withholding on the gross amount, with an election available to file on the net result instead. Your residence country also taxes it, generally on net income under its own rules, and credits the foreign tax. Because the two countries compute "net" differently, the numbers rarely match without work. See the section 216 election.
