Does my cost base reset when I move to Canada?
For most property, arriving as a resident gives you a tax cost equal to the property's value on the day you arrive, so growth from earlier years is left outside the new country's reach. That is the rule that matters most to people who have owned shares or a home for years before moving. The catch is evidentiary: the reset is only as good as the valuation you can show for that date, and the date is fixed by when residence began rather than by when you decided to move. Establishing both in the year you arrive is much easier than proving them later.
What exchange rate do I use for cost base on foreign shares?
The cost is fixed in your reporting currency on the day the property was acquired, and the proceeds are fixed on the day it was sold. Because those are two different rates, currency movement between them forms part of the gain or loss, even where the price in the foreign currency never moved. Converting both ends at one rate — usually the rate at sale, because that is the one you know — quietly removes that element and produces a figure that cannot be reconciled to either country's records. Each acquisition lot needs its own rate.
What happens to my cost base when I leave the country?
On emigration most property is treated as sold at its value on the day you cease to be resident, whether or not anything was actually sold, and the gain to that point falls into the departure year. Your cost for anything you keep becomes that same value. The difficulty is that the country you move to may not accept the new figure, and may measure a later sale from your original cost instead. That is one asset with two cost bases, and the overlap is what treaty relief has to be built around, using valuations made at the time.
Why is the other country taxing a bigger gain than mine?
Almost always because the two countries start counting from different costs. One may have given you a fresh cost on arrival or a deemed cost on departure; the other may still be working from what you originally paid, many years earlier, in its own currency. Neither is wrong on its own terms. What matters is that you know both figures before you sell, because relief for the tax the other country charges is limited by category and by country, and a gain recognised in one year and not the other can strand that relief entirely.
How do I prove the cost of property I bought years ago?
With whatever was contemporaneous: the purchase contract, the bank transfer, the broker's confirmation, the completion statement, and for improvements the invoices rather than a later estimate. Where nothing survives, the honest position is a reasoned reconstruction, documented as such, rather than a round figure entered on a return. For property held through a period of arrival or departure, a valuation prepared at the time is worth more than the same exercise done under examination. The evidence you can produce, not the amount you remember spending, is what fixes the cost.
Do reinvested distributions change the cost base of my units?
Yes, and this is a common reason a gain is overstated on a return. Distributions that are reinvested buy more units, and the amount reinvested is added to your cost; distributions that are a return of capital reduce it. Both are reported to you annually and both are easy to ignore for years. By the time the holding is sold the running total sits in a stack of annual slips rather than on a statement, and the figure a broker prints may reflect neither. Rebuilding it is only arithmetic, but it has to be done year by year.
How many days can I spend in a country before I become tax resident?
It depends on the country, and a day count is only ever the start. Many use a threshold in a tax year, some also look at averages across several years, and some have no day test at all and decide on where your home and life are. Two countries can both conclude you are resident, which is what the treaty tie-breaker exists to settle. Counting days without checking the tie-breaker is how people end up filing as resident nowhere. See the residency tie-breaker.
Do I pay tax when I inherit property abroad?
The inheritance itself is often not income to you, but three other things can create tax: the estate may owe tax where the deceased or the property was situated, some countries tax the recipient directly, and the gain from the date you inherit to the date you sell is yours. Reporting obligations can also attach to holding the asset. See inheriting property abroad.
