US Citizen Wants to move to West Vancouver, Canada

the question follows.
David,
Christine Louw referred me to you for expert advise.

My boy friend and I are considering moving to
Vancouver from California. We are US citizens.

Here are a few questions we have to start with: Do we
need special visas or permanent residency in order to
live, work and/or buy property in Canada? What are the
tax consequences? We are writers and will be getting
paid by US publishers. We also have investment and
retirement, social security income from US sources.
Will we be able to qualify for public benefits like
medical care?

Thank you,
Emily

Note: Christine Louw is a realtor working in North and West Vancouver and
the West End of Vancouver in British Columbia. You can find out more about
her at: <http://www.christinelouw.com/>;
_

david ingram replies:

1. You can come and visit in Canada and even buy a home in Canada but you
cannot live here without a working visa or a landed immigrant or permanent
residence status.

You can find out more about living here as an immigrant or permanent
resident at the Canadian government's website at:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/index.html

This will give you a basic overview of what you need to qualify.

However, it is not always easy to qualify to come to Canada without a
specific job's having been offered to you in advance. For instance, our
recent Prime Minister, Jean Chretien would not qualify to immigrate to
Canada right now because of age if nothing else, I would not qualify
without the job offer and our present premier of the Province of BC does not
qualify, again, because of age.

It is therefore difficult to retire to Canada and we do that for a reason.
Our universal health care's only qualification is legal residence in Canada
and we would be really broke overnight if every senior in the world could
just move here.

You can evaluate your chances by filling out a self-assessment questionnaire

at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/skilled/assess/Education.asp

After that and assuming that you get landed status as a worker or as a
business investor (a refundable investment of over $400,000 Canadian or a
payment of about $130,000 Canadian), once you are in Canada, you will be
taxed on ytour world wide income.

As a US citizen, you are also required to file a US tax return on your world-wide income as long as you remain a US citizen.

Therefore, you will be filing a US return first, just as though you were
living in Las Vegas. Then you will file a Canadian Return reporting the same
income and have a tax liability to Canada.

At this point, there is more paperwork, but the process is not unlike living
in Los Angeles or New York and filing a US 1040 and a state return that
reports the same income but has different rules for thte taxation of capital
gains, rentals, depreciation, state bonds and so on.

There is a treaty between Canada and the US which deals with the taxation of
interest, dividends and pensions. These end up having a reduced tax rate on
your US 1040 by using the "redefined by treaty" provisions found on US
Schedule 1116.

Other items will be taxed at standard rates in the US.

Canada will then give you credit for the taxes paid to the US.

It is not unusual for you to pay exactly the same tax in West Vancouver or
Toronto that you would pay in a place like Carmel, California or Greenwich,
Connecticutt.

Take the self assessment test - Be honest because the numbers will decide
how we would process you into Canada.

When you have the results (it will only take ten minutes each), send me the
numbers and we will see what we can do for you.

David Ingram of the CEN-TA REALTY Group
US / Canada / Mexico tax and working Visa Specialists
US / Canada Real Estate Specialists
108-100 Park Royal South
West Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V7T 1A2
(604) 980-0321 - Fax 913-9123 [email protected]
www.centa.com www.david-ingram.com