Transferring Money from Canada to the US - any tax?

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ak111
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Transferring Money from Canada to the US - any tax?

Post by ak111 »

Hi,

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this, but I am new to this forum.

I have been living in the US (California) for about 3 years now and I'm looking to purchase a home.
I have some money that I had left in my Canadian Royal Bank (chequing account that doesn't bear interest) account which I would like to transfer down to the US in order to help with the down payment. I currently also have an RBC US account that allows me to transfer funds between Canada and the US RBC branches.

Hypothetically, if I were to transfer a large sum of money (say over $100K) from my Canadian to the US, would I incur any type of tax?
Anyone else have experience transferring large sums of money from Canadian bank accounts to US ones?

Assumptions:
- All ties to Canada have been severed.
- Money being transferred is all under my name. No other parties involved.

Thanks,
AK
OhGreatGuru
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Re: Transferring Money from Canada to the US - any tax?

Post by OhGreatGuru »

There shouldn't be any tax implications. If the money was in an investment that had accrued capital gains, you would have to pay tax on the capital gain. But it's just cash. It might be reportable by the bank to FINTRAC, but as both accounts are in your name, it shouldn't cause any problems.
DenisD
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Re: Transferring Money from Canada to the US - any tax?

Post by DenisD »

If the money is in Canadian dollars and is converted into US dollars, would there be a gain or loss to report to IRS?
ak111
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Re: Transferring Money from Canada to the US - any tax?

Post by ak111 »

Thanks for the response OhGreatGuru!

How about if the money is given to me by a relative? Is there any gifting tax laws that I should know about?

The assumption is all money changing hands has already accrued capital games as part of someone (either mine or someone else's) previous income.
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patriot1
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Re: Transferring Money from Canada to the US - any tax?

Post by patriot1 »

It might be that the money would have a cost base in USD set at the time you became a tax resident of the US (i.e. a deemed purchase), and if you now send it down and convert it to USD that's a sale that's treated as foreign currency trading. But it looks as though you'd be in a loss situation since the CAD was worth more in USD terms 3 years ago.
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Re: Transferring Money from Canada to the US - any tax?

Post by OhGreatGuru »

ak111 wrote: 29 Aug 2017 16:45 ...
How about if the money is given to me by a relative? Is there any gifting tax laws that I should know about?
...
There is no gift tax in Canada. If it is an inheritance, any taxes due are charged to the estate before it is disbursed. If the person making the gift is liquidating assets in order to send you cash, the tax liability for the liquidation is on the donor.
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