Do I file Form T2062C even if no tax is owed?
Information return obligations of this kind are generally required on the facts rather than on the tax result, so a nil position does not remove one. Non-resident sellers whose gain is exempted or protected by a treaty and who still owe the notification.
What happens if I have missed Form T2062C for several years?
Missed years are dealt with as a package rather than one at a time, because the route chosen for the first year affects the relief available for the rest. We map the years and the obligations before anything is filed.
Is Form T2062C the same as the other reports I already file?
No. The notification of a disposition of certain treaty-protected property, filed instead of a full clearance application. Satisfying a different obligation, even one covering the same accounts or entity, does nothing for this one.
Do I still have to file if the treaty exempts my gain?
Yes. Treaty protection removes the tax, not the process. The notification exists precisely to document that the exemption applies, and it is filed instead of a full clearance application. If nothing is filed there is no record for the purchaser to rely on, and the purchaser is left exposed to the same withholding the treaty was meant to make unnecessary. In practice that means the money sits in a solicitor’s trust account while everyone waits for paperwork that was never prepared. The sensible order is to establish the treaty position first, file the notification, and let the closing proceed on documented ground rather than on an assurance.
What happens if the notification is never filed at all?
The exemption does not disappear, but the evidence of it does. A purchaser with no filed notification to point to has to assume the worst and withhold, because the liability for getting that wrong sits with them rather than with the seller. The seller then recovers the money the slow way, through a return filed after the year ends, having lost the use of it in the meantime. There is also the separate question of the seller’s own Canadian filing obligations for the year of the sale, which the notification does not replace. Filing on time turns a recovery exercise into an administrative one.
Who is actually liable for the withholding, the buyer or me?
The purchaser. That is the whole reason the process feels adversarial even when both sides are co-operative: if withholding should have been made and was not, the CRA looks to the purchaser, who has already paid the full price away. No purchaser’s solicitor will accept a seller’s statement that a treaty applies, because that statement is worth nothing to them if the CRA disagrees. What they can accept is a filed notification and the CRA’s response to it. Understanding whose neck is on the line explains most of what happens at closing and stops the negotiation feeling personal.
Is T2062C the same as applying for a clearance certificate?
No. The clearance route is the general one, used where the gain is taxable in Canada and the amount to be withheld has to be settled before closing. The notification is the treaty route: it is filed instead of a full clearance application, and it is about documenting that the gain is exempted or protected rather than computing tax on it. Choosing the wrong one costs time, because the CRA does not silently convert a filing into the other kind. The decision turns on whether the treaty genuinely protects the gain on this particular property, which is a question to settle before anything is filed.
My solicitor is holding funds from the sale, why?
Because until the section 116 position is documented, releasing the full price makes the purchaser personally answerable for withholding that may still be owing. The hold is not scepticism about your treaty position; it is the only protection available to the other side. It ends when there is a filed notification and a CRA response the solicitor can put on file. If the notification has not been started, the hold simply continues, which is why the paperwork should be underway well before the closing date rather than after it. We prepare the filing and correspond with the CRA so the solicitor has something to rely on.
Does the notification also cover my Canadian tax return?
No, and treating it as though it does is a common and expensive assumption. The notification deals with the disposition and the purchaser’s withholding exposure. Whether a Canadian return is also required for the year of the sale is a separate question, decided by the nature of the property, the treaty article relied on and the seller’s other Canadian income. A treaty-protected gain can still sit alongside a filing obligation. We settle both questions at the same time, because discovering the second one a year later means correspondence with the CRA that a single properly planned filing would have avoided.
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.
Is the sale of foreign property taxable where I live?
For a resident, yes — worldwide gains are taxable, and the gain is computed in your own currency, so the exchange rate at purchase and at sale changes the number even when the local-currency price did not move. The country where the property sits usually taxes it too, often with a withholding or clearance step before closing, and that tax becomes a credit. A principal residence relief may apply to a home abroad on the same terms as one at home. See principal residence and foreign property.
