Canadian receiving a foreign gift — do I need an adviser, or can I do it alone?
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: Canada does not tax gifts received, but it does tax the income and gains the gifted property later produces, from a cost base equal to its value when you received it.
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.
My parents abroad sent money for a house deposit — is it taxable?
A gift is not income in Canada, so the transfer itself does not go on your return as income and no tax arises on receipt. What follows it does matter. The property the money buys enters your reporting from the day you own it, and any income or gain it produces is taxable in the ordinary way. The practical risk is not the gift but the absence of evidence that it was one: an unexplained deposit found years later is easily characterised as unreported income. Get something in writing from the family member at the time.
Do I have to report a gift from my family overseas?
Canada does not tax gifts received, and a gift of money is not itself reportable as income. That is not the end of the question. If the gift is made in property held abroad, or the money is left in a foreign account or used to buy a foreign asset, reporting obligations can attach to what you now own even though the gift itself was tax-free. So the answer usually turns on where the funds went rather than where they came from. List the assets you hold after the gift, not just the transfer.
What proof should I keep when a relative abroad gives me money?
Contemporaneous evidence of intention and of source. A short signed letter from the giver describing the transfer as a gift, dated when it was made, is worth considerably more than an explanation composed years afterwards. Keep the bank records on both sides showing the funds leaving an account in the giver's name, and whatever the giver holds showing where that money came from. If the gift is property rather than cash, record its value at the date you received it, because that value becomes your cost base for everything that follows.
The gift was shares held abroad — what do I report each year?
Ownership starts the day the shares are transferred to you, and from that day the distributions are your income and any gain is measured against the value at receipt. So each year you report what the holding pays, and if it is foreign property you may also have reporting obligations on the holding itself. Keep the valuation from the transfer date on file permanently. It will be needed on a sale that may be decades away, and it is much harder to establish after the fact than at the time.
My bank asked where transferred funds came from — will the CRA see it?
Assume the movement is visible. Funds arriving from abroad pass through institutions that report, and account information is exchanged between tax authorities as a matter of routine. That is not a reason for concern if the transfer was a gift and you can show it. It is a reason to document the transfer when it happens rather than when someone asks about it. The question a reviewer puts is a simple one — what was this payment for — and a dated letter from the family member with the sending account's records answers it.
What cost base do I use for property gifted to me from overseas?
Its value when you received it, expressed in Canadian dollars at that time. That figure governs the gain on an eventual sale and the capital cost position if the property is rented, so it is worth establishing properly at the outset: a valuation, comparable evidence, or a professional appraisal kept with the gift documentation. Where the gift was made years ago and nothing was recorded, the value can often still be evidenced from contemporaneous sources, but it takes longer and the result is weaker than a document written at the time.
Are US-listed ETFs US-situs property for a non-resident's estate?
Shares issued by a US company are generally US-situs for estate tax purposes, and a fund domiciled in the United States is a US company however global its holdings. A fund domiciled elsewhere that holds the same underlying stocks generally is not. That distinction — the domicile of the wrapper rather than the location of the investments — is why cross-border portfolios get restructured, and it should be confirmed against your own holdings before anything is sold. See US estate tax exposure for Canadians.
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.
