Snowbird season: the tax to-do list before you drive south

Every snowbird tax problem we untangle in the spring was decided the previous fall: how many days the calendar allowed, whether a form was diarised, whether the condo was rented, whose name the US bank account was in. None of it is complicated, but all of it has to be settled before the car is packed. This is the checklist we run with clients across Brampton, Mississauga and the GTA each October, in the order the decisions come up.

Budget your days with the three-year formula, not this winter's calendar

The IRS treats you as a US resident for tax purposes if you are physically present at least 31 days in the current year and your weighted total reaches 183: every day this year, plus one-third of last year's days, plus one-sixth of the days from the year before. Any part of a day counts as a full day, including the day you cross and the day you leave. A snowbird who spends 130 days in Arizona every year sits at 130 + 43 + 22 = 195 and meets the test annually.

The safe steady-state figure is about 120 days a year, which lands at 180. If last winter ran long, this winter has to run short, because last year's excess is baked into this year's arithmetic at one-third weight. Canada and the United States now exchange land-border entry and exit records, so both governments hold the same count; keep your own log anyway, because the burden of proving a date falls on you. Our answer on how many days a Canadian can spend in the US works through more examples, and our snowbird tax rules guide covers the residency framework as a whole.

The six months a Canadian visitor is normally admitted for is an immigration allowance, not a tax safe harbour. Separately, as at the time of writing, US registration rules introduced in 2025 can apply to visitors who enter by land without an I-94 record and stay 30 days or longer; confirm the current requirement with US Customs and Border Protection before you drive down.

Diarise Form 8840 for June 15 and decide now whether you will qualify

If the formula puts you at 183 or more but your actual days this year stay under 183, you can file Form 8840, Closer Connection Exception Statement for Aliens, and remain a non-resident for US tax purposes. It is due by June 15 of the following year, goes to the IRS by mail, one per spouse, and asks where your permanent home, family, belongings, bank accounts, driver's licence and voter registration are. A Canadian home, an Ontario licence and OHIP coverage answer most of those questions the right way. File late without a good reason and the IRS can refuse the exception. Our answer on Form 8840 and when a snowbird should file it covers the questions line by line.

If your actual days reach 183 in a single year, Form 8840 is off the table. The fallback is a treaty tie-breaker claim on a Form 1040-NR with Form 8833, which is heavier, pulls in additional US information reporting and invites scrutiny of where your life is centred. A medical condition that arose in the US and prevented you from leaving can be excluded from the count using Form 8843; a pre-planned procedure does not qualify. If you are on track for 183 actual days this winter, the cheapest fix is a flight home in February.

OHIP, travel insurance and the two houses

Ontario's rule, as at the time of writing, is that you must be physically present in Ontario for at least 153 days in any 12-month period to keep OHIP, which is where the often-quoted limit of 212 days out of the province comes from. This is a provincial rule with its own counting method, so confirm the current version with ServiceOntario rather than assuming the US day count covers it; a snowbird who also travels in summer can breach the OHIP limit while staying under the US formula.

OHIP has paid essentially nothing toward emergency care outside Canada since its out-of-country travellers program ended in 2020, so private travel medical insurance is not optional. Check that the policy's per-trip day limit matches the planned stay and that the stability period for pre-existing conditions is satisfied by the departure date, since a medication change in the weeks before you leave can void coverage.

US property tax is assessed by the county, and a Canadian owner is not eligible for the residency-based exemptions and assessment caps that locals enjoy. In Florida, for example, bills go out in November with discounts for early payment that shrink each month until the March 31 deadline, so paying on arrival is cheaper than paying before you leave in the spring. On the Canadian house, most home policies impose conditions once the property is unoccupied for more than a few days, commonly a regular check by someone you trust or the water shut off for the heating season; miss the condition and a burst-pipe claim can be denied.

If you rent the US home, the paperwork changes before the first tenant

Rent paid to a non-resident of the US is subject to 30% withholding on the gross amount unless you elect to be taxed on net income under section 871(d). The election lets you deduct property tax, insurance, condo fees, repairs, management fees and depreciation on a Form 1040-NR. To stop the property manager or tenant withholding, give them Form W-8ECI, not the W-8BEN used for bank accounts, and obtain a US ITIN on Form W-7 so you can file. Some states tax the rent as well: Florida does not, Arizona and California do. We explain the election in how the 871(d) net election works.

The same rent is taxable in Canada in the year earned, reported on Form T776 in Canadian dollars with a foreign tax credit for the US tax paid. Renting also changes the property's status for Canadian reporting: a personal-use vacation home is not specified foreign property, but a rental property is, which brings the T1135 into play. And when you eventually sell, the buyer must withhold 15% of the gross price under FIRPTA unless you reduce it in advance; see how Canadians reduce FIRPTA withholding. Owners who never rent should still read how a US vacation home is taxed for Canadians, because the sale and estate rules apply either way.

The US bank account, the T1135 and the estate question

Form T1135 is required when the total cost of your specified foreign property exceeds C$100,000 at any point in the year. A US chequing account, a US brokerage account and a rented US property all count; a condo used only by you and your family does not. Many snowbirds are pushed over the line not by the property but by a US investment account opened for convenience, and the penalty for a late form runs to $25 a day up to $2,500 even when no tax is owed. Our T1135 guide covers the simplified and detailed methods.

US estate tax applies to the US-situs assets of a Canadian who dies owning them, and the domestic exemption for non-residents is only $60,000. The Canada-US treaty rescues most people by allowing a prorated share of the full US exemption, which as at the time of writing is roughly $15 million for 2026, in proportion to US assets over worldwide assets; confirm the current figure with the IRS. In practice a Canadian whose worldwide estate is below the US exemption owes nothing, but the estate must file Form 706-NA to claim the relief. Run the numbers with our Florida condo estate tax example.

If you bought this year

• Record the purchase price and closing costs in Canadian dollars at the exchange rate on the closing date; that is your cost base for the Canadian capital gain years from now.
• Decide whether the property is personal use or rental before December 31, because the T1135 answer depends on it.
• Do not move it into a US LLC on a neighbour's advice; the CRA treats an LLC as a corporation and the result is double tax. See how Canadians should hold US real estate.

Overstay for long enough and Canada may treat you as gone

Meet the US test without a Form 8840 and you are resident in both countries, which sends the question to the treaty tie-breaker: permanent home, then centre of vital interests, then habitual abode. If the Canadian house has been sold and the Florida one is where the grandchildren visit, the tie-breaker can land in the US, and the Income Tax Act then deems you a non-resident of Canada from that date. That triggers departure tax: a deemed sale of most of your property at fair market value, reported on Forms T1161 and T1243, plus the loss of TFSA contribution room and OHIP. Nobody plans this; it accumulates from several 200-day winters and a downsizing decision. Our departure tax guide and how the treaty tie-breaker works explain the mechanics, and if a permanent move south is what you actually want, planning departure tax before you leave Canada shows how to do it deliberately.

The snowbird tax calendar

Our cross-border tax team prepares the Canadian return, the Form 8840 or 1040-NR and the T1135 as one file, and for owners the snowbird US property tax page sets out what we handle from purchase through to sale.

Sources: IRS — Substantial presence test · IRS — About Form 8840 · CRA — Form T1135.