Who We Help · Real Estate · Snowbirds
Snowbirds: enjoy the sun without adopting the IRS.
Five to six months a year in the US is enough to make many snowbirds US tax residents under the substantial presence formula — unless Form 8840 is filed every year. Add FIRPTA when the house eventually sells and a US estate-tax filing most families don’t know exists, and the paperwork matters as much as the sunshine.
By the AnalytIQ Accounting team · Last reviewed: August 12, 2026
At a glance · snowbirds
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The day-count math that catches people
You're a US tax resident if you spend 31+ days there this year AND this year's days + 1/3 of last year's + 1/6 of the year before totals 183 or more. A steady five-and-a-half months a year lands around 200 weighted days — over the line without ever hitting 183 actual days. The escape is Form 8840 (closer connection to Canada), filed every year, and it only works below 183 actual days in the current year.
Selling: start the paperwork before you list
FIRPTA withholding takes 15% of the gross sale price at closing (10% or 0% for cheaper homes a buyer will live in). Two clocks run: an ITIN takes 7–11 weeks, and a Form 8288-B withholding certificate takes the IRS about 90 days — start both when you decide to sell, not at the settlement table, or 15% of your sale sits with the IRS until next year's refund.
The Canadian surprises
Canada taxes the sale too — computed in CAD, so a home bought at dollar parity and sold today can show a Canadian gain even if the US price never moved. Two planning points most snowbirds miss: a mostly-personal-use US home is usually exempt from T1135, and the principal residence exemption can be designated on a US home — worth it when the US home's per-year gain beats your Canadian home's, since a family only gets one designation per year.
The estate filing nobody warns you about
| Situation | What to know |
|---|---|
| US-situs assets over US$60,000 at death | Form 706-NA due within 9 months — even when no tax is owed |
| 2026 US estate exemption | $15,000,000 — with treaty proration, most Canadian estates owe $0 |
| Why file anyway | The treaty credit must be claimed on a return; filing also secures the basis step-up |
| Holding the home in a corporation | Don\u2019t — CRA taxes the personal use as a shareholder benefit |
Sources: IRS — closer connection exception · CRA — T1135 personal-use property.
What we take off your plate
Cross-border tax for snowbirds, handled.
- FIRPTA withholding cut through a Form 8288-B application at sale
- Day-count log kept current against the substantial presence test
- Canadian and US returns prepared by one team
- Treaty positions and foreign tax credits lined up
- FBAR and T1135 foreign reporting
- ITIN applications certified in-house
Mistakes we fix
Three things that go wrong for snowbirds.
- Assuming a personal-use US home needs no records until the sale forces cost base to be rebuilt
- Missing Form 8840 in a year the day count crept toward 183, risking US residency by default
- Holding the US vacation home inside a corporation and paying an annual shareholder benefit on it
Recognise one? Book a call and we will tell you what it is costing you.
Services for snowbirds
Six services, one team that knows how snowbirds run.
Start with one. Add the rest when it makes sense; the books, payroll and tax already talk to each other.
Free proposal
A fixed fee for your cross-border tax work, in writing.
- Tell us about your business. The form takes about a minute.
- A short discovery call. Fifteen minutes to confirm what you need.
- A fixed fee in writing. We reply within one business day. No hourly surprises.
- Canadian and US filings under one roof
- Cloud-first: QuickBooks Online, Dext, Wagepoint
- Brampton, Ontario, with clients across Canada and the US
Common questions.
I spend winters in Florida but pay all my tax in Canada. Am I fine?
Only if the day-count math says so — and if it doesn\u2019t, Form 8840 filed annually is what keeps you a Canadian taxpayer. We run the calculation and file it with your return.
We rent the house out for a few weeks. Does anything change?
Possibly a lot — more than incidental renting can end the T1135 exemption and creates US rental income obligations. Tell us the numbers before assuming.
Should our US home be in a trust or corporation?
Almost never a corporation (CRA shareholder-benefit problem). Trusts and other structures can make sense for larger estates but must be set up before purchase — planning after the fact loses most of the benefit.
Related reading
Keep the sunshine. Skip the surprises.
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