Canadian snowbird — the substantial presence test: 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: the count weights the current year most heavily and includes fractions of the two preceding years.
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.
Am I a US tax resident just from wintering in Florida?
You can be. The substantial presence test is arithmetic, and it asks nothing about visas, employment or US income. It looks at the days you were physically present in the current year together with weighted fractions of the two preceding years, so a pattern of similar winters repeated year after year can reach the threshold even though no single winter would. Snowbirds are routinely US tax residents on the count alone. The question that follows is not how to argue with the arithmetic, but which of the two documented exits you file.
What is the closer connection exception and who can use it?
It is the statement you file when the day count is met but your tax home and your closer connections remain in Canada. It is available where the ties genuinely sit on the Canadian side, in the ordinary evidenced sense of a home, family, bank accounts, a driving licence and the place your affairs are administered. It is not automatic. It is a filing, made for the year in question, and it fails if it is not made or if the facts described in it are not the facts. It can also be unavailable in particular circumstances, so review it each year rather than assuming it.
Do I have to file in the US if I owe no tax?
Often yes, and this is where snowbirds come unstuck. Both of the exits from the day count are filings. The closer-connection statement is a filing. The treaty tie-breaker, used where the United States claims residence anyway, is also a filing, and it is made on a US return. Doing nothing does not put you outside the system; it leaves you inside it with your position unclaimed. The tax due may well be nil, and the obligation to put the claim on the record is unaffected by that.
I spend the same weeks every winter, so does that accumulate?
That is precisely the shape that catches people. The test is not a single-season test. Because it weights the current year most heavily and then adds fractions of the two years before it, a steady habit of the same trip each winter can cross the line in a later year even though nothing about the trip changed. Count the days you were actually present, including the days you arrived and left, and count them across the whole window the test looks at rather than looking at last winter on its own.
What happens if the US treats me as resident anyway?
Then the question moves from domestic day-counting to the treaty. The tie-breaker resolves dual residence by working through a sequence of tests, starting with where you have a permanent home available to you, then where your personal and economic relations are closer, then where you habitually live, and finally nationality, stopping at the first test that gives an answer. The outcome is claimed on a US filing with the supporting facts set out. It is a documented position, not a conclusion you keep to yourself.
Does keeping a home in Canada keep me out of US residency?
Not by itself. A Canadian home is evidence, and evidence matters in both exits, but the day count runs regardless of where you own property. The count is either met or it is not. What a Canadian home helps with is the claim you then file: the closer-connection statement, where your tax home and closer ties are the whole question, or the treaty tie-breaker, where a permanent home available to you is the first test applied. Keep records showing the home was maintained and used, not merely owned.
Is the 183 days in Article 15 of the OECD Model tax convention the same 183 days as the substantial-presence test?
No, and treating them as one number is a common and expensive error. The substantial-presence test is US domestic law and decides residence, using a weighted count that reaches back over three years — which is why a pattern of winters can cross it even though no single year looks close. Article 15 of the OECD Model tax convention is about employment income, and the relief it describes depends on presence in the other state not exceeding 183 days in a twelve-month period, together with who pays the remuneration and whether a permanent establishment bears the cost. Every treaty restates that article in its own words, so the wording in force between your two countries for your year is what governs.
How does the treaty tie-breaker work when both countries say I am resident?
As a sequence, stopping at the first test that gives an answer: where you have a permanent home available; if in both or neither, where your centre of vital interests is; then habitual abode; then nationality; and if all of those tie, the two tax authorities decide by agreement. It is evidential rather than elective — you do not choose your treaty residence, you demonstrate it, which makes the record of homes, family and time the substance of the claim. See tie-breaking dual residency.
