Hi all - I have similar question as well. I read through some other threads and my understanding is that bank accounts are generally fine with Cad address, however for brokerage you need to liquidate. Is that true ? Would be great if someone helps with above questions. @sohran10 thanks for asking.
Hi @ck_2020 ! We moved to Vancouver recently. What we found out was this -
You can generally keep US bank accounts as is. BofA and Chase atleast do allow that.
For brokerage, if you live outside the US, the Sale for your investments freezes. Meaning, if you want to sell the investments, you need to call the brokerage and get it done. You cannot do it yourself. Hence we decided to open a brokerage account in Canada, and then transfer all of our investments here. The transfer happens as is. It is not treated as a sale in the US and re-purchase in Canada.
Hope that helped. Let me know if you have more questions.
Hi @sohran10: Thanks for the inputs. Very helpful. 2 quick clarifications.
When you say âsale of investment freezesâ, does that mean both âbuying & sellingâ of stocks freezes (or just sellng). Like, what if I donât want to liquidate the stocks, but just add more to my portfolio, letâs say if FANG stocks go low, can I do that ?
Transferring investments, is it like opening a a Scottrade account from Canada and then transferring full portfolio âas isâ, such that dollar values will reflect CAD and then you essentially operate it as they way you would do in US previously ?
Donât think âsale of investment freezesâ is the right interpretation of what happens here.
If you are a Canadian resident (or any country other than USA), as long as you can provide a W8BEN to your brokerage, you should be able to sell all your stocks/investments held in brokerage accounts. Submitting this form is asking your brokerage to not withhold the mandatory 30% tax on your proceeds (RSUs, stocks, etc).
Thanks @aman. I am hoping I can leave the 401K as is, without transferring into any canadian savings. Isnât that what normally people would do if they go back to India ? Like, donât touch 401K and just letit continue.
It seems like an option, but need to check if you would incur any taxes on it. You will have to declare it as an asset, i think. I am not sure what people do when they move back to India either. Probably easier to find tax loopholes in India, might be harder with Canada and USA.
Apparently, the brokerage firm in the US simply tells the new brokerage firm in Canada the cost basis for each of the investments.
I also heard (not sure yet, so donât quote me on this) that the new cost basis for these investments is essentially the price of that investment when it was transferred into Canada. The capital gains are calculated on top of that. So the gains you would have made while in the US are overlooked. Again, this is what I heard. So not very sure of how true it is.
Oh, I wasnât aware about this. This is definitely something to explore further for me.
I have kept most of my stocks/investments in the US brokerage account still, as my current employer (an american company with branch office in Canada) grants stocks in the same brokerage.
Actually my company offered me a free tax briefing on Canada taxes before moving here. I found out there. But I am yet to actually do it, hence called it âhear n sayâ
Should be any brokerage I guess. I think itâs a one-time benefit provided by CRA. The only caveat is you need to transfer assets within one year of moving, to avail this benefit, if I remember correctly from the tax briefing I had before coming here.
@sohran10 / @sysout / others, it has been 1.5 years. I hope some of you might have seen all this in action. Does the information shared by @sohran10 hold true? i.e. after transferring stocks, no one keeps track of US gains?
