US estate tax exposure for Canadians — where does doing it myself start to cost money?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: US real property and shares in US corporations are US-situs assets whoever holds them and wherever they are held.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
I own a condo in Florida. Does my estate owe US tax?
Possibly. US estate tax for a non-resident is decided by where the asset sits, not by where the owner lived or held citizenship. Real property in the United States is US-situs property whoever owns it and however it is held, so a Florida condominium is inside the US system even for an owner who has never filed a US return. Exposure is not the same as tax: the exempt amount available to a non-resident is far smaller than the one a US person receives, and the Canada-United States treaty closes part of that gap. What matters is establishing, while the owner is alive, what the estate would actually be holding at death.
Do US shares held in my Canadian brokerage count as US assets?
For estate purposes, shares in a US corporation are US-situs assets whoever holds them, no matter where the account is. The custodian's address does not move the situs: a US-incorporated company's shares sitting in a Canadian account, in a Canadian dollar sleeve, with a Canadian adviser, remain US property in the estate tax analysis. This surprises people who think of their portfolio as Canadian because the statements are. The practical step is to read the holdings line by line and separate what is genuinely US-situs from what is not, before an executor is administering a list nobody prepared.
I have never lived in the United States. Why would US tax apply?
Because the test is where the assets are, not where the owner was. US estate tax reaches US-situs property held by a non-resident who never had a green card, never filed a US return and never spent a winter there. Residence and citizenship determine how much passes without tax and which treaty relief is available; they do not determine whether the tax system applies at all. That is why an ordinary Canadian estate with a holiday property or a handful of US shares can find itself with a US filing obligation nobody anticipated when the assets were bought.
Does the Canada US treaty remove US estate tax for Canadians?
It narrows the mismatch rather than removing the tax. Left to domestic law alone, the exempt amount a non-resident may pass is far smaller than the amount available to a US person, which is why modest US holdings can produce a real liability. The treaty is what closes part of that gap, and claiming it is a position taken on a filed return with the supporting figures behind it. It is not relief that arrives in the background. Treating it as a reason to ignore the exposure altogether is how estates end up filing under pressure.
Does owning the US property through a company avoid the problem?
Not by itself, and sometimes not at all. Shares in a US corporation are themselves US-situs property whoever holds them, so interposing a US entity moves the question rather than answering it. Any structure has to be judged on what the estate would actually own at the moment of death, and on what it costs to run and to unwind in both countries in the meantime. Structures put in place for one reason often create a different exposure. The work is to look at the holding as it stands, then decide whether changing it is worth the cost, rather than assuming a company settles it.
How do I work out whether my estate has US assets at all?
Start with an inventory rather than an opinion. Read the deeds, the brokerage holdings and any partnership or private company interests, and ask of each one where the asset itself is situated, because that is the test. Real property in the United States and shares in US corporations are the obvious entries; other holdings have to be looked at individually. Doing this while the owner is alive means the answer can still change the plan. Doing it afterwards means an executor is reconstructing a position from paperwork they have never seen, on a timetable they did not choose.
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.
Can I set up a trust that works in two countries?
You can, but the two systems classify and tax trusts differently enough that a structure which is efficient in one is often a reporting problem in the other — a Canadian family trust with a US beneficiary, or a US revocable trust holding Canadian property, are the classic pairs. Canada's twenty-one-year deemed disposition, the US grantor rules and each country's reporting have to be read together, before drafting rather than after. See cross-border wills and trusts.
