Do I file US taxes if I live in Canada with a green card?
Generally yes. Lawful permanent resident status makes you a US tax resident for as long as the status is valid, and it does so without asking where you actually live. That is the part that surprises people: the obligation attaches to the status, not to a house, a job or a day count. In practice it means a US return covering your worldwide income, alongside the Canadian return you are already filing, with relief mechanisms applied so that the same income is not taxed twice over. It also usually means annual reporting on accounts and assets held outside the United States.
I have not used my green card in years, so do I still file?
Probably, and this is a common misunderstanding on these files. The status ends when it ends in a way the rules recognise. Moving away, letting a card expire in a drawer, or simply not travelling are not, by themselves, that. Until the status ends properly, the US residence that comes with it continues, and so do the returns and the information reporting. A run of unfiled years is a known situation with known routes for putting it right, and the position is nearly always better if you open the conversation than if a letter opens it for you.
Does moving to Canada end my US tax residency?
Not on its own, if your US residence comes from permanent resident status. You will also become a Canadian resident on Canada's own tests, and for a period both systems will treat you as theirs. That is not a mistake to be fixed but a situation to be handled, with the two returns prepared together, relief for each country's tax applied in the right order, and the residence dates recorded consistently. Where both countries claim residence the treaty has ordered tests that can decide which claim yields, but taking a treaty residence position while holding the immigration status has consequences beyond tax, and belongs in a conversation rather than a checkbox.
Am I taxed twice on my Canadian salary as a green card holder?
Both systems can reach the same salary, but the mechanisms exist so that you are not paying full tax twice on it. Relief runs through credits for tax paid to the other country and, where relevant, the exclusions and treaty provisions that apply to your facts. What makes the difference in practice is order and timing: which return is prepared first, which country's tax is treated as creditable against the other, and whether the two returns cover the same period. Mismatched years are the usual reason a client ends up genuinely out of pocket, and they are avoidable if both returns are built from one set of working papers.
Do I have to report my Canadian bank accounts to the US?
A US tax resident generally has annual reporting obligations for accounts and assets held outside the United States, separately from the return itself. Holding permanent resident status puts you in that category regardless of where you live, so ordinary Canadian chequing accounts, savings, investment accounts and registered plans can all be reportable. Two points matter here. These are information filings, which can carry consequences even where no tax is owing. And registered savings plans that are perfectly efficient under Canadian rules are not always treated the same way by the United States, so the treatment of each plan is worth confirming rather than assuming.
Should I give up my green card to stop US filing?
It is a real option, and it is not a paperwork decision. Ending the status has its own tax consequences, which depend on how long you have held it and on the size and make-up of what you own, and it has immigration consequences that outlive any tax year. The sensible sequence is to map the tax position of ending the status, the position of keeping it and filing properly, and the cost of bringing any missing years up to date, before anything is surrendered. People who reverse that order sometimes find the exit was the expensive route.
How do I report a foreign pension on a US return?
As pension income, gross, with foreign tax available as a credit. Two extra layers catch people out. A treaty position on the pension may need to be taken and disclosed in its own right. And the plan itself can be a reportable foreign financial asset, sometimes with a further reporting regime if it is treated as a foreign trust — obligations keyed to holding the plan, not to drawing from it. Which layers apply depends on the country and the plan type. See the pensions and annuities article.
Do US citizens living abroad have to pay US taxes?
They have to file, every year, on worldwide income — the United States taxes citizens wherever they live. Whether they end up owing is a different question: the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion and the foreign tax credit frequently reduce the bill to nil while leaving the filing obligation fully intact. Foreign account and asset reports run separately and carry their own penalties. See US citizens living in Canada.
