In this episode of Passport To Wealth™, Arielle Tucker, CFP®, EA sits down with Aditi Kapadia, CFA®, CFP®, founder of Wealth IQ and a cross-border financial planner specializing in US and Canada financial planning.
Aditi shares her personal journey of moving to the US as a Canadian expat, navigating two tax systems, managing cross-border income, and rebuilding her financial framework from the ground up. Together, Arielle and Aditi break down the most common challenges globally mobile professionals face, including tax residency, investment alignment, compensation planning, and major life transitions across borders.
This conversation focuses on clarity over complexity and provides practical, plain-English insights for anyone managing finances between the US and Canada. Whether you are planning a move, already living abroad, or working across borders, this episode offers essential guidance to help you make confident, informed financial decisions.
For a trusted path to expert cross-border guidance don't forget to go to passporttowealth.com .
Takeaways:
Chapters:
Welcome back to Passport to Wealth.
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:I'm your host, Arielle Tucker, a certified financial planner and IRS-enrolled agent.
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:Today, we are joined by Aditi Kapadia, the founder of Wealth IQ and a cross-border
financial planner who specializes in helping globally mobile professionals navigate the
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:complex financial and tax systems of the United States and Canada.
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:Aditi brings not only technical expertise, but also deep personal expertise to her work.
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:She first moved to the US as an expat while continuing to be paid in Canadian dollars and
a permanent move to the US in:
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:she had to learn an entire new financial and tax system from the ground up.
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:I can relate to that.
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:I can totally relate to having to learn an entire system.
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:That lived experience shapes a DTE practical, plain English approach to financial
planning, especially for clients managing cross-border income, investments, and major life
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:transitions.
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:Her work focuses on clarity, confidence, and helping clients make smart financial
decisions no matter which side of the border they're on.
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:Aditi, welcome back to Passport to Wealth.
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:Thank you for having me.
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:I'm excited to be here.
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:Okay, so let's go back to the beginning.
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:You are Canadian, right?
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:Yes, I am a dual citizen of Canada and the US now.
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:But I was born and raised, well, I was born in the Middle East, in Saudi Arabia.
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:I immigrated to Toronto with my family when I was in high school.
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:And then as soon as I was done with college, I joined uh General Electric.
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:And GE at the time was one of the largest companies.
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:They had so many different divisions ah that I was lucky to be in their finance training
programs.
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:And that's really what brought me to the US.
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:ah So two years into my career at GE in Canada, they transferred me uh into their, yeah, I
moved to Connecticut.
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:uh
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:At that time, I moved on what we call an L1 visa.
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:ah So it's a visa that allows inter-company transfers uh into the US.
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:ah Like you said, I maintained my residency in Canada.
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:I got paid in Canadian dollars.
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:ah And I had the opportunity to travel the world with GE for a few years, which was
fantastic, because I got to live in Europe.
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:I got to live in Mexico and, of course, the US and just see so many different businesses.
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:from a finance point of view and that really shaped the rest of my career.
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:Now, what was the US dollar to the Canadian dollar when you first made that transition?
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:Was that a huge impact for you?
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:I know right now the US dollar is so much stronger than the Canadian dollar, but I
remember when I was little, because I grew up in New York, but on the other side, we were
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:only a couple hours away from Toronto, we would go up to Canada all the time.
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:We lived an hour from Niagara Falls.
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:So it'd be like, go hang out with your friends in Niagara Falls.
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:um
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:And it used to be that it was almost, you know, parody.
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:So what was it when you moved?
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:it was 92 cents.
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:So one Canadian dollar was 92 US cents when I first moved.
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:Then when I moved back to Canada, so I did a few year, five, six, five year stint outside
of Canada, I moved back.
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:At that time it was almost at parity.
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:So in 2009, 10, it was at parity.
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:And then again, now one Canadian dollar is almost like 70 cents in the US.
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:The exchange rate has moved a lot.
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:And that is a big part of financial planning too, is keeping an eye on how these rates
have moved.
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:Because it's hit a lot of Canadians who have assets in the US or travel to the US.
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:A lot of the snowbirds that go every year uh to Florida and spend the winters there.
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:uh But yeah.
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:your trip just got 30 % more expensive.
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:Exactly.
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:And it's been this way for a few years.
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:ah I think the only reason parity happened for a little bit is because oil prices were so
high and Canada was extracting all this oil.
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:So that helped with the, it made the Canadian dollar stronger.
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:uh
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:Yeah, no, know as cross-border financial planners, it's one of those things that we're
constantly thinking about, right?
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:It's so important to think where are your assets, what currency are those assets
denominated in, and what currency are you retiring in?
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:And sometimes those are completely different currencies or multiple currencies, and that
can get really complex.
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:um
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:Okay, let's keep staying back because I know we have so much to talk about and I get so
excited I keep jumping around.
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:But I want to go back to that transition when you first kind of decided to make a more
permanent move to the US and you described that move as feeling really kind of deceptively
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:easy at first because the US and Canada seem so familiar.
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:So when did you realize that the closeness actually made that transition for you harder?
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:Yeah, so I moved to Chicago the second time that I moved to the US.
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:And Chicago is a one hour flight from Toronto.
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:ah There is 30 flights a day.
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:You can literally decide I want to fly within the next hour and there is a flight
available.
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:So was super easy to move.
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:ah I didn't even pack all my things when I first moved.
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:I just took a few things.
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:My husband, uh
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:wanted, you know, we, he was the, his job is the one that triggered our move uh back to
the U.S.
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:And he, we had an apartment, we packed up, we moved, and I just kept flying back to
Toronto.
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:I didn't change anything for the first little bit.
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:And then the constant back and forth and having to, I think I realized at some point that
I can't keep doing this.
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:I think I just defaulted back to expat life, which is what I live the first time I moved
to the U.S.
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:And then I realized this was not gonna cut it in the long term.
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:So a couple of years later, I finally decided to wrap up all of my affairs in Canada.
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:ah But this is, you we'll dive into this, because this was one of the mistakes I had made.
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:And I wish I had made a cleaner exit as opposed to leaving a bunch of things behind to
clean up after.
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:uh
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:It was just exhausting to go back and forth and have to transfer money and pay have
multiple bank accounts still that existed in Canada that I was managing my brokerage
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:accounts and RSPs were still in Canada.
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:So I I brought it on myself and I would not recommend it to clients anymore that would,
that are considering a move from Canada to the U.S.
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:I think you make a really good point because you did live the expat life for a while and
when you are an expat, you know that that is going to be a certain or specific amount of
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:time, right?
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:That's what an expat is, right?
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:That's the difference between an expat and an immigrant.
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:An expat is, it's a set period of time, generally up to five years, and then you are
returning to your home country.
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:And so in, and you have some kind of protections a little bit uh from your company.
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:uh
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:and also just like logistically that you don't have to close up shop on your entire
financial life and move it to another country versus it sounds like the second time your
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:husband kind of like led that move and you're still trying to like live your life that
you've kind of created.
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:And so I can understand why that would be like a common mistake, right?
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:Like how long is this really gonna be for?
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:you know, are we really gonna be happy in the US?
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:Like, yeah, I can understand why even though like on paper maybe we haven't optimized
everything, but that's just how life happens, right?
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:Exactly.
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:That's so true.
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:Even my job was so easy.
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:I called GE and I said I want to move to Chicago and it took two days, three days maybe
like to transfer my role over.
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:ah However, there were some things that were hard, know, logistically I think the bank
account opening process.
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:I think I lost my mind when we were...
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:We walked into a chase, we opened a bank account and I just didn't have enough history to
open a bank account.
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:And I was like, yeah, that's why I'm opening.
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:Yeah, yeah, I had to get my husband to co-sign on my account because he had a lot of, he'd
been living in Chicago for over a decade.
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:So he had enough history.
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:he had to, we had to open an account together.
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:He had to show up with me.
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:I couldn't open one on my own.
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:um
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:credit card.
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:I thought it was a joke in the beginning when they were like, you're approved for $300.
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:I was like, what?
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:And then they even recommended getting a prepaid card before I was given the $300 limit.
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:So that took a bit of time.
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:I think I was fortunate in that
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:My husband had enough history that he was just able to add me to a lot of his accounts and
a lot of his credit cards.
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:So I didn't really have to use my $300 credit card and live with it.
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:But it was what I needed to do to build up history in the US.
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:And I've learned over time, it's that five year period that they really wanna see that
you've had a bank account for five years.
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:Like that's when you start to build credit history in the US.
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:It's a slow process.
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:credit history is so important.
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:Like everything in the US is dependent on your credit history.
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:And as an American, like I'm so aware of that.
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:Like I remember like having conversations, do we open, you know, do I become an authorized
user on my parents credit card, you know, in high school and uh or young getting my first
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:credit cards at 18.
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:And right.
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:And so it's just such it's such a big deal in the US.
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:It's like that number is so important and determines like your entire like financial uh
life in the US.
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:Is it similar in Canada?
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:mean, it's nothing like that in Europe.
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:So I'm curious, like, what do you do in Canada?
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:it is.
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:It's very similar in Canada.
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:I just didn't experience it because I had my first bank account open when I was 16 years
old in Canada.
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:I had a credit card when I was in college.
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:So, you know, I never went through this process of having to build it from scratch so
quickly.
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:Because when I moved the second time around, was moving as an experienced professional.
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:I was making good money.
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:I had expenses and I could not cover off all those expenses and using the credit card that
was originally offered to me at $300.
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:But ah then I had, know, when I moved to Chicago, we had this little community of people.
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:were...
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:all these Canadians that had relocated to Chicago and we all would joke about the same
thing.
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:So it was nice to have a community that experienced similar bureaucracies as we moved to a
new place.
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:It's important to be able to laugh at it because there is bureaucracy everywhere.
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:And it's also why when you're moving abroad, like you just have to have more cash.
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:Like you have to have a much bigger cushion.
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:Because even us here, when we first moved, you know, I had a good job, my husband had a
good job, and they were still like, your credit card limit is 500 francs a month, right,
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:about $500.
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:And you have to pay that off every month.
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:like it's not like it was acted more almost like a debit card than a credit card.
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:And we were like, what?
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:You know, coming from the US where you had like 20, 30, $40,000 in credit.
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:It's like, this is crazy.
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:No one is using credit in the same way.
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:There's no point.
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:It's a completely different system, even though it's a credit card.
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:Is that was do you think credit scores and and that is that one of the biggest
misconceptions that Canadians kind of have about how maybe things will be easy when they
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:plug into that?
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:into the U.S.
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:financial system.
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:There's a couple more things.
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:There is your financial life, which is a bit of a starter.
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:You're starting over.
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:For me, I thought the biggest challenge was navigating health care and health insurance.
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:The systems are so different between Canada and the US.
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:In Canada, our health expenses are paid for by the government.
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:And that's why there's higher taxes in Canada.
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:but you walk out with the doctors from the doctor's office, you show your health guard,
you're done.
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:In the US, what surprised me in the beginning was I would go to a doctor's visit and then
I would get a few different bills from the same doctor's visit because there is different
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:providers within the same office.
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:There is copays, deductibles, out-of-pocket taxes.
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:These things didn't exist for me.
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:So I had to learn that healthcare system from scratch, which was, I think, harder than the
financial system for me.
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:Maybe because of other history.
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:agree with that.
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:I mean, we moved back to New York for a couple of years and it was when we, you know, in
our early thirties and we hadn't really had to deal with US healthcare as like adults yet
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:before.
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:And I was shocked at how difficult it was and how frustrating it was and how much time I
would have to spend on the phone basically advocating for myself or advocating for my
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:insurance to like bill correct or like the doctors wasn't billing correctly.
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:We were, like, I had to, like, it was like, uh I don't know, what is it, a beautiful mine
where you, like, lays everything out and there's, the lines connected.
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:I mean, I felt like a crazy person trying to keep everything organized with two working
adults and two children.
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:It was just, it was a full-time job to manage US healthcare.
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:And I think it's important because at this point, you're working for GE, right?
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:So you have good health, like, my husband worked at GE, so I know they have, like, a
pretty good health plan, like.
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:you're kind of already coming in at like a higher tier than someone who's.
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:Yeah, it's a great health plan.
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:I'm now uh on my husband's uh health plan, very similar.
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:It's amazing when you're working with a company and you're moving over as an employee
that's well paid, you're in a good health insurance, but even still, you still have
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:deductibles, out-of-pocket maxes, and understanding in network, outside of network.
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:That was so new to me.
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:I remember thinking, wait, so some doctors can only build a certain insurance company?
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:Now that all feels normal.
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:But in the beginning, yeah, it was all brand new and a lot to figure out.
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:Yeah, no, I agree.
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:It's like one of the things that I'm so thankful for with our life outside of the US is
that I don't have to deal with like the insurance nearly as much oh as we did when we when
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:we used to live there.
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:So good for you for figuring that out.
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:I want to shift now to make sure we cover this.
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:uh You're kind of you've land you've laid out some landmines.
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:So let's shift into what you call the high efficiency low cost mistakes.
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:that people don't realize are costing them the most.
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:So the first landmine that you talk about is leaving finances as is.
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:So talk to us about what happens when people are leaving their accounts untouched after
moving, especially, and we've talked about P-Fix on this podcast so many times, um but
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:thinking about different foreign, and when I say foreign, I mean non-US investments, or
even estate planning gaps.
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:Yeah, you know uh when people move across the border, I feel like the simplest or some of
the biggest mistakes they make are they're not complicated tax strategies, but they're
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:really simple, simple things that, you know, one is just not consolidating all of your
accounts and moving.
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:oh
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:is.
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:This is a personal mistake that I made and I wish I had simplified my financial life in
Canada more before I moved to the US.
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:Consolidating bank accounts, retirement accounts, know simplicity is really an asset when
you're moving abroad.
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:ah And then related to PFIC.
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:When you hold, so for example, you have Canadian brokerage accounts and you're holding
ETFs or mutual funds in those Canadian brokerage accounts.
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:It's most likely that those are Canadian domiciled ETFs and automatically become subject
to PFIC rules.
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:Now, honestly, PFIC took me a long time to understand too, because it's complicated in the
way that it's described and the way that it's understood and also interpreted.
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:ah
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:the big, if I were to simplify it, it just adds to your compliance headache.
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:You have extra forms to fill out when you report your holdings to the IRS.
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:The treatment on when you buy or sell or get distributions or dividends from your holdings
is not subject to uh good tax treatment.
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:You don't get the benefits of
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:holding those same assets domestically ah when you move to the US.
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:So you want to pay attention to that to make sure that you don't leave behind brokerage
accounts with a whole bunch of Canadian domiciled ETFs and mutual funds before you leave.
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:uh With estate planning, the rules are so different.
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:ah In Canada, it's your taxed, it's a deemed disposition.
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:death.
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:So they essentially tax you out of your estate at death.
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:And then there's no transfer tax, so to speak.
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:But in the US, we have a transfer tax.
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:So it's just it's good to understand the differences before you move if you're sitting on
a lot of assets in Canada, ah just to just to make sure that you know, you have some kind
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:of planning done around.
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:your will or your trust is going to try to be more holistic with your assets across the
border.
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:ah That part really depends on how much wealth you have.
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:So I would keep it very practical and say if your wealth is above a certain level, you
want to work with somebody to say, it worth it for me to hold?
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:I would say maybe over a million dollars is when you want to.
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:or real estate.
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:if you're holding real estate in Canada, which can get, know, property prices, I've
appreciated a lot in Canada.
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:ah Maybe even a million dollars, I don't think is worth it with all the headache.
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:I would even increase that to five million bucks.
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:ah It might be worth it to sell all your brokerage accounts and just move them with you to
the US.
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:ah
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:Canadian capital gains tax though?
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:When you sell everything, if you go to liquidate everything?
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:Yeah, so when you exit the US, you have to do this departure process anyway, where you
fair value all your assets at that point.
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:So you're going to do that anyway.
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:So you might as well sell it and just move it to the US and invest it in your US brokerage
accounts.
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:Plus, think.
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:the tax rate in Canada when you sell?
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:the capital gains rate.
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:It's about 30%.
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:It's similar to the US.
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:It depends on whether you're holding it short or long term.
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:ah So the tax rates are not very different.
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:They are higher in Canada.
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:But you're paying that anyway when you exit, when you do your deem disposition.
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:So you might as well move.
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:sell out of your assets and hold them in the US.
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:Or you can work with some investment firms that allow you to hold US-based brokerage
accounts.
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:So you can transfer to those if you don't want to move the money physically to the US.
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:seen that.
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:I just want to point that out because if you have individual holdings, you will likely be
able to transfer those into a US brokerage account rather easily without having to like
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:to.
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:sell everything.
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:if Canadian capital gains tax is like 30%, I would be thinking maybe we could pay, you
know, 23.8%, which is like the US.
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:But you're right, it depends on what state you go to.
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:If you go to a state that also has additional capital gains tax, then you may end up
paying almost 30%.
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:So it really won't matter.
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:The other thing is that I wanted to just circle back on is you're talking about, you know,
call professional when you have a million or 5 million.
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:The issue that I see in cross border is
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:you can have not a lot of money and have a really complex case.
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:And so for me, think about there's like kind of almost like two tests.
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:So I think about, do you have enough assets where it makes like, I know I'm going to add
enough value to your situation, or do you have enough complexity where I know I'm going to
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:add value to your situation?
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:And that's really how I determine if we should work with someone, because if you're
self-employed, that's complex.
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:Even if you don't make a of money, that's still a complexity that you really have to think
through.
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:Yeah.
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:If you are involved in any foreign corporations in Canada or in the US, that's something
to think through.
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:um If you have complex family situations, maybe part of the family is staying back, um
that's something to think through.
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:If you, like you said, if you own real estate, that's something to think through.
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:Or even if you have family wealth that you're preparing to potentially inherit while
you're abroad, I think that's another reason to call.
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:So it doesn't necessarily have to just be don't call.
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:Aditya, Aditya, until you have $5 million.
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:It's like, think about it, you know, are you earning a million dollars a year, but you
don't have a million dollars in assets yet?
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:Because we see clients like that all the time, right?
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:Those high m income earners where they have the equity compensation that we have to think
about across borders, all of those types of things, still a reason to call.
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:And maybe it's not ongoing financial planning engagement.
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:Maybe it's a limited engagement to just do a quick check in.
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:What are the tax implications of moving?
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:across this border and have I truly optimized it or am I missing something?
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:Because if you have a million dollar investment management account, you could have
$100,000 $300,000 or more of capital gains tax exposure.
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:And so it's definitely worth to pay $10,000 to do a full review or whatever to think
through, have I really optimized this?
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:100%, I think the threshold that I was referring to is more on when do you feel like you
should leave your assets in Canada.
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:If you have a large amount of assets and you may not be able to transfer it all to the US
easily.
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:So that's a threshold.
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:But in terms of evaluating what is the easiest way for you to get down, I think you
absolutely want to consult somebody more for the efficiency.
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:And this was my landmine.
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:did not consult a cross-border accountant early enough in my process.
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:And I wish I had.
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:I wish I was working with somebody that understood the tax treaty better.
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:ah
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:So that I think I would have saved myself a lot of headache.
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:ah So I agree with you.
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:Even if you're moving with little assets, you should still consider talking to somebody to
make sure you're not leaving something behind that's not gonna cost you an extra form with
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:the U.S.
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:filing in the year that you're starting to do this.
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:Absolutely.
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:Okay, landmine number two, retirement accounts.
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:um What are some of the common mistakes that you're seeing for people who are moving
between Canada and the U.S.?
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:I think we have more Americans in Canada than in any other country.
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:So I'm assuming you're a really good treaty with Canada.
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:So what happens with retirement accounts?
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:So retirement accounts are, you just leave them, you stop contributing to them, leave them
as is, let them grow into the future.
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:But there's one type of account in Canada, it's called a tax-free savings account, the
TFSA.
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:This one, it's ideal you close before you move to the US.
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:The reason you do this is because it doesn't give you the same benefits in the US as it
did in Canada.
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:So a tax-free savings account almost works like a Roth.
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:where you put in money, it grows tax free.
323
:When you withdraw from it, it grows tax free.
324
:Except for the TFSA, you don't have to wait till retirement.
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:You can withdraw from it at any time.
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:So it's kind of a more flexible Roth.
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:ah
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:But the problem with the TFSA is it's treated as a trust in the US.
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:So the tax reporting becomes a headache.
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:So for most people that are moving, we want to close down your TFSA account before you
move.
331
:ah You don't want to hold on to it.
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:It's more work to do so.
333
:and I think it's also I just want to quickly uh point out and correct me if I'm wrong you
cannot take money from your retirement account in in Canada and move that into a US
334
:retirement account because I always get that question from people and it's important to
just remember there are two different countries two different Retirement plans you cannot
335
:combine those plans, but like you said for a lot of those standardized plans.
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:You can leave that in the country
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:And the same with the US one.
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:You would leave that one in the US, and you're not completely combining those plans.
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:Same with the Social Security as well.
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:You're not combining plans.
341
:You might get credits from uh both countries, but they're still separate.
342
:uh Landmine number three, Canadian property ownership.
343
:Yeah, this one's complicated because Canada doesn't have a uh citizen-based tax system
like the US does.
344
:So once you leave Canada, you can become a non-resident of Canada.
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:But if you are leaving back property in Canada...
346
:the CRA, which is the Canada Revenue Agency, just wants to make sure that you are going to
file your taxes for the income that you're earning on your real estate properties if
347
:you've rented it out, for example.
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:uh
349
:And if you do rent it out, they want you to withhold 25 % of your rental revenue, not your
income, your revenue, and remit it to the CRA.
350
:So this could become kind of a headache from a cash flow perspective, administrative
perspective.
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:So there's a couple of forms and some elections you need to make to ensure that you uh
file a form.
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:It's called the NR73 form.
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:uh
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:and you let them know, you let the government know what your estimated income is going to
be, and you're exempt from then sending 25 % of your revenue, you can send 25 % of your
355
:income, which is better.
356
:And then at the end of the year, you go through a...
357
:You consolidate, understand, you analyze how much you've earned, um and you pay your taxes
based on that.
358
:So the home ownership piece financially is not a big ah hit because you will pay
something, you'll get it back at the end of the year.
359
:It's just an administrative headache.
360
:So you just want to make sure you're talking to your cross-border accountant of having the
right elections filed before you move.
361
:Yeah, super, super important because yes, uh gross revenue versus net revenue, those
numbers can be very, very different.
362
:And I can see that being a a huge uh hassle on a cashflow if you tie up 25%, even if
you're just basically breaking even on a rental property.
363
:landmine number four, ignoring currency.
364
:Yeah, we started the conversation with this.
365
:uh The rates move.
366
:and they move frequently, uh you just want to ensure that you, if you're moving large sums
of money, you probably don't want to use your bank ah unless you have a relationship with
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:them.
368
:If you have a private bank relationship with your bank, they will help you get to a close
to spot exchange rate.
369
:Otherwise, you're just paying a lot in fees and exchange rate commissions.
370
:So it's easier to partner with, WISE is really good for small transfers across the border.
371
:I have a couple of firms that I work with that allow us to hedge.
372
:and log in a price for FX transfers.
373
:And then that is good for you too.
374
:You know exactly how much you're going to pay.
375
:They let you know when the rate is ideal for you.
376
:But you just want to bake that into your costs uh of living and transfer is the currency
movement and planning because it moves a lot.
377
:absolutely.
378
:Okay, final landmine number five, not hiring a cross-border accountant.
379
:Yeah, we talked about this as well uh already.
380
:ah This came to me, again, this was something I learned over time.
381
:At least the first year that you're moving and the first couple of years until you have
relieved yourself of all your ties of Canada, you really want to engage with a
382
:cross-border accountant.
383
:And if you're going to continue to keep the real estate property or if you're inheriting
property, like that's another great flag to make sure you engage a good cross border
384
:accountant, because now you're going to have obligations in Canada.
385
:So when you're transitioning, if you're inheriting or if you're moving from US to Canada,
you also want to do the same thing because there is similar landmines going the other side
386
:of the board, like going reverse, going from Canada to the US, which
387
:I believe is also happening a bunch right now.
388
:Yeah, with the accountant, do you have some tips for helping people find a good accountant
uh cross-border US for this?
389
:We're talking about tax prep, tax preparation.
390
:For tax prep, I think when you go online and you, uh if you are moving with your company,
ah you can negotiate with your firm to allow you to use an EY or Deloitte, one of the
391
:larger firms to help you.
392
:Just depends on how complex your situation is.
393
:ah If you don't have that opportunity, then, you know, there is Google searches and a lot
of these cross border accounts put out a lot of good content.
394
:ah
395
:on the website, they have YouTube videos about how they manage transfers, what are the
forms.
396
:So look for the cross-border accountants that are doing a good job educating you online or
have enough material out there.
397
:And then make sure you understand them and you guys are, you you and the accountant are
speaking the same language and that they're able to simplify some of the complexity for
398
:you.
399
:ah And I just like any other provider that you would hire, ah just make sure they're on
top of things and they're not dealing with too many files and you're lost in their case
400
:files.
401
:ah That happens, you don't want that.
402
:You want someone that's really paying attention to your situation.
403
:Yeah, I think those are great starting points.
404
:A couple of things that I want to just share from what I've learned in helping identify
good cross border accountants is don't be scared to interview at least three.
405
:Take your time and the best time to find a good accountant is outside of busy season.
406
:so do you, does Canada have like the similar tax filing deadlines as we have in the US?
407
:Yeah, so Canada, the US is April 15th.
408
:ah Canada is just 15 days after that, April 30th.
409
:Yeah.
410
:the 30th, okay.
411
:Yeah, so a great time to start interviewing for accountants is what we're, we're talking
about this in December.
412
:This is probably gonna go live in January, February.
413
:So I would say by February, you should definitely be interviewing.
414
:Don't call someone on April 1st to interview them.
415
:They are busy, they don't have time, and they don't wanna talk to you.
416
:I also loved your tip about looking, look for the educators.
417
:and look for the educators specific to the countries that you are living in.
418
:So there are a lot of really big firms that just do, we do international.
419
:International is great.
420
:There's a lot of countries to specialize in.
421
:I always like to go one step more and look for who is really talking about and educating
you on US, Canada issues, tax issues.
422
:um So again, look for three firms, see what those firms are, confirm what their prices or
their price ranges would be.
423
:Don't be scared to give them, you know,
424
:the prior year return so they have a really good idea of what your situation actually
looks like so they can give you a good quote.
425
:um So there's no major surprises at the end.
426
:Okay, Aditi, I know we're like over time, so I wanna ask our final question.
427
:If you could give one piece of advice for someone who's just beginning their US-Canada
cross-border journey, what would it be?
428
:would be to talk to people that have done it before or get a referral to talk to a
cross-border financial planner.
429
:and you know, if you're gonna DIY, then research and talk to as many people as you can.
430
:If you don't want to DIY and you want to outsource it, hire a cross-border financial
planner that's gonna help you navigate all the questions you need to ask before moving.
431
:Yeah, I think that's a great point.
432
:And you'd mentioned in the beginning, like you guys found your community of, you U.S.
433
:Canadian families living in Chicago.
434
:And I think that's always like the point that hits home in every single episode that we do
on Passport to Wealth is finding your community.
435
:And sometimes that's just other people who have shared lived experiences.
436
:And sometimes it's that community of people who can provide you with elevated support,
right?
437
:Financial planning, tax support, relocation, uh you know.
438
:real estate, uh language.
439
:There's so many considerations.
440
:Aditi, thank you so much for joining us today.
441
:It was such a pleasure.
442
:We'll have to have you back on to discuss more U.S.
443
:Canadian issues.
444
:Thank you, Ariel.
445
:Thank you for having me.
446
:you