What the foreign property statement is built from — and why it is a cost exercise rather than a valuation one.
What the foreign property statement is built from — and why it is a cost exercise rather than a valuation one.
The test is cost, in aggregate, at any time in the year — not market value and not per account. That is why a paid-off apartment abroad and a small foreign brokerage can together cross the line, and why the holdings inside Canadian registered plans have to be identified separately rather than counted.
Send what you have and we will tell you what is missing. A complete pack is usually the difference between a filing that takes a fortnight and one that takes a season. Ask before the move rather than after it, because most of the useful options expire on the date.
Read and approved for the 2025 and 2026 filing seasons by Udit Gupta, International Tax, Cross-Border Tax & Transfer Pricing Expert, Legal Quotient Consultants. Published as general information. For a position on your own file, call the 24-hour helpline.
The subject here is T1135, which is what people mean when they search for international tax accountant. This page covers who it applies to, the filings it produces, and the fixed fee agreed before work begins.
If a file needs something this practice does not do, you hear that at the start rather than after a bill.
Where a rate or a threshold appears in our writing it names the tax year it belongs to. Where it could not be confirmed, the page describes the mechanism and quotes no number.
Where you are resident for treaty purposes is a question with a method. We work through it and write down the answer, with the facts it rests on.
Individuals, expats and corporations across India, the USA, Canada and the UAE have filed with us — 15+ years of cross-border work.
The client had reported nothing abroad for years, on the basis that neither holding was large. An apartment received on a parent's death sat in one country and a modest brokerage account in another. Taken separately each felt immaterial; taken at cost and added together they were not. We established the cost of the inherited property and the cost of the securities in Canadian dollars, and set out the aggregate year by year. The engagement produced a documented cost schedule and statements for the years the aggregate was crossed, with the reasoning recorded for later years.
A client had listed every foreign security they owned, including those held in a Canadian registered plan and in a Canadian brokerage account, and arrived at a total that alarmed them. The custody question changes the answer. We rebuilt the list with the custodian recorded against each line, then separated the Canadian-held holdings from those held outside the country. The engagement produced a statement based on the correct population, a schedule showing what had been set aside and why, and a format the client can maintain rather than reassembling from scratch each spring.
Foreign securities and one property had been bought across many years and in three currencies, and earlier statements had used whatever rate came to hand. Because the measure is cost at acquisition, an inconsistent rate basis makes every later year inconsistent too. We fixed a single published source, applied it to the acquisition date of each holding, and recorded the rate and its source against every line. The engagement produced a cost schedule that reconciles from year to year, and working papers showing where each figure came from without repeating the exercise.
The client held cryptocurrency across two foreign exchanges and bullion stored outside Canada, and had assumed neither was the kind of property the statement was about. Both belong on the same list as the accounts and the shares, measured at cost. Transaction histories were exported from each platform while access remained, holdings were traced between platforms, and the storage arrangement for the metals was documented. The engagement produced a cost history for each holding with the platform and its location recorded, and a practice of exporting records annually rather than at the point they are needed.
A client mentioned in passing that they held a share in a family business abroad. It had never appeared on anything, because they thought of it as a family arrangement rather than as property. We obtained the partnership documents, the ownership record and the accounts, established what had been contributed and when, and worked out how the interest affected the aggregate cost for each year in question. The engagement produced a corrected position for the open years, and a note of what the client needs to provide annually for the interest to stay properly reported.
A client had been filing foreign property statements for years, covering accounts and shares only. A policy taken out before they moved to Canada, and an annuity bought at the same time, had never been considered. Both sit on the list the statement is built from. We obtained the policy documents, established what had been paid in and when, and converted those amounts at the rates applying at the time. The engagement produced a revised schedule including both, and a description of the holdings the client can carry forward without reassembling the history.
Cross-border retirement accounts are recognised by treaty, but the deferral usually has to be elected rather than assumed. The engagement checks whether the election was made, makes it where it was missed, and reports the account on whichever side requires it.
Read how this one runsA trust settled in one country and a beneficiary living in another produces reporting for the trust, the settlor and the beneficiary, on different forms and different dates. The engagement maps who files what before anything is prepared.
Read how this one runsAll case studies — every published engagement in one place.
Strategy and compliance for income, assets and families spread across borders.
Performance income is taxed where earned — Regulation 105 in Canada, withholding agreements in the U.S. — with special treaty articles overriding the usual rules.
Performance income is taxed where the performance happens, and the deduction is usually taken at source on the gross fee before expenses. Recovering the difference is a filing exercise in the other country, and it only works if the tour, the residency and the withholding certificates were documented while the work was being done.
The form tracks what you paid for the property, adjusted for currency and any additions, because that's what determines whether the reporting threshold and the account categories are met, not what the holdings are worth today. Current statements are still useful for confirming what you hold, but the figure that actually goes on the form is a running cost record, not a valuation.
Generally yes, once you're a Canadian resident holding it, and its cost is typically its value at the time you inherited it rather than what the original owner paid. Bring the estate documents that establish that value, since without them the cost figure has nothing to be built from.
Property used personally, such as a vacation home you use yourself rather than rent out, and property held inside a registered plan are the common exclusions, along with assets used exclusively in an active business. The exclusions turn on how the property is used, not on where it's located, so bring documentation of use alongside ownership records.
Include it. The form is based on the highest cost during the year and the cost at year-end, not on having held the account for the full year, so a mid-year account still needs its opening statement and its year-end statement to establish both figures.
Where our partners studied — CPA Canada (In-Depth Tax Program), AICPA, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.
