Do I have to file at home while living in Mexico?
Residence decides it, and residence is a question of facts rather than of where your post arrives. The one exception is US citizenship, which carries the filing obligation with the person wherever they go. So the first thing we establish is which system still claims you.
Is there a treaty between my country and Mexico?
Possibly, and the version in force for your year is the one that matters — protocols and multilateral-instrument positions change what a treaty does without changing its name. We check it against the authority rather than a summary. Where no treaty applies, domestic relief takes over.
I own property in Mexico. Where is the rent taxed?
In Mexico, because that is where the property sits. The complication is the base: gross-rent withholding takes no account of mortgage interest, tax or repairs, so a leveraged property can face tax on turnover. An election onto net profit, where it exists, is what fixes that — and it has its own timing.
Will my pension still be taxed at home if I retire in Mexico?
Payments from a home-country pension to someone living abroad are normally taxed by deduction at source rather than through a return. The administrator withholds before the money reaches you, and how much it withholds depends on whether it has accepted that you are non-resident and whether the treaty gives that class of payment a reduced rate. None of that happens by itself. Until the payer holds evidence of your status and whatever declaration the treaty procedure requires, it will keep deducting on the footing that you never left, and correcting it afterwards means claiming through a return instead of at source.
Do I have to tell the CRA I have moved to Mexico?
Residence is not changed by giving an address abroad. It is decided on your ties — where your home is, where your family lives, where your belongings, memberships and banking arrangements sit — and the tax office forms its own view of the date those ties were cut. The practical steps are a final return covering the part of the year you were resident, a stated departure date, and a reckoning of the property you are treated as having disposed of on leaving. Pension and investment payers need telling separately, because they deduct on the status they hold, not the one you have.
Is the bank trust on my Mexican house a trust for tax?
That is the question to settle before anything is filed. Mexican property bought by foreign buyers is commonly held through a bank trust arrangement, and your home country will either look through it and treat you as owning the house, or treat you as holding an interest in a trust. The two readings lead to different reporting: one is foreign property disclosure, the other brings trust rules with their own returns and their own consequences for distributions. The deed and the trust instrument have to be read together, in translation, before the position is taken.
Should I take money out of my retirement plan before moving?
You can, and the timing changes who taxes it and how. A withdrawal taken while you are still resident goes into that year's return with the rest of your income and is taxed on the graduated scale. One taken after departure is generally taxed by deduction at source, and treaties frequently treat a single lump sum differently from a regular monthly pension, so collapsing a plan can lose relief that instalments would have kept. Which is better depends on what else falls in the year of departure. It is worth modelling both before the plan is touched.
Does Mexico tax a pension I have already paid tax on?
Both countries can have a claim on the same payment, and the treaty decides which one yields. Relief normally arrives as a credit for foreign tax rather than as an exemption, which means the pension is reported in both places and one of the two gives ground. Mexico runs a calendar year with payments made in advance during it, so money often leaves you before the return that reconciles it exists. Keep every withholding statement from the home payer. A credit is only as good as the evidence of tax actually paid, and reconstructing that evidence later is slow.
What happens to my Mexican property when I die?
Two systems apply at once. Locally, the property passes under Mexican succession formalities, and where it is held through a bank trust arrangement that instrument may name who takes it, which can sit oddly beside a will written at home. At home, a Canadian is generally treated as having disposed of capital property on death, so the gain is brought to account in a final return, while a citizen of the United States faces an estate regime that looks at the value of what is owned rather than the growth in it. Both readings need the same document set, gathered early.
What is a totalization agreement and how do I use one?
A social security agreement that stops you contributing to two systems for the same work, and lets periods in both count towards benefit eligibility in either. Which system you stay in depends on the agreement's rules for your situation — a seconded employee usually remains in the home system for a set period, a locally hired one usually joins the host system. You evidence it with a certificate of coverage obtained before or shortly after the assignment starts. See certificates of coverage.
What is Form 1042-S and what do I do with it?
The statement a US payer issues to a non-resident showing US-source income paid and tax withheld — the non-resident counterpart to a 1099. Use it two ways. In your own country it evidences the US tax paid for credit purposes. And where the rate withheld was higher than your treaty entitlement, or the income was not taxable at all, the way back to the money is a US non-resident return claiming the refund. Check the income and exemption codes before assuming the rate was right. See Form 1042-S.
