The rules for leaving Canada
Canada has no compulsory departure form. You self-assess the date your residential ties ended, file a final part-year return for that year, and report a deemed disposition of most of what you own. Form NR73 is optional and the CRA's answer is not binding on it. Getting the file right before you leave is what protects you later.
Home, spouse, dependants — then everything else.
You stop being a resident of Canada when you sever your residential ties. Income Tax Folio S5-F1-C1 names three that will almost always be significant: a dwelling place in Canada, a spouse or common-law partner in Canada, and dependants in Canada. Keep any of them and you will usually remain a factual resident.
Secondary ties are weighed collectively: personal property such as a car or furniture, social memberships, economic ties (employment, a business, bank accounts, credit cards, retirement savings), provincial health coverage, a driver's licence and vehicle registration, a seasonal dwelling, a Canadian passport, and union or professional memberships. Your non-residency date is the latest of the day you leave, the day your spouse and dependants leave, and the day you become resident where you settle.
CRA: Income Tax Folio S5-F1-C1, Determining an Individual's Residence Status ↗183 days in Canada makes you a deemed resident for the whole year.
Under paragraph 250(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act, a person who sojourned in Canada for periods totalling 183 days or more in a calendar year is deemed resident in Canada for that entire year — and any part of a day counts as a day. Plan return visits with that arithmetic in view.
The rule cuts the other way too. If you are resident in Canada under domestic law but also resident in your new country, the tie-breaker in Article IV of the relevant tax treaty (permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality, competent authority) decides — and subsection 250(5) then deems you a non-resident of Canada. That only works where a treaty exists. Canada has treaties with the UAE, Malta, Cyprus, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, but not with Panama, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Georgia, the Bahamas or the Cayman Islands — there you must rely on the ties themselves.
Income Tax Act s. 250 (Justice Laws) ↗Form NR73 is optional — and the CRA's answer is not binding.
Form NR73, Determination of Residency Status (Leaving Canada), is for people who have left or are planning to leave Canada and want the CRA's opinion on their status. Nothing requires you to file it. The Folio states plainly that the opinion is not binding on the CRA and may be subject to a more detailed review later. Sending it before your facts are settled invites the wrong answer; sending a well-documented file, if you send one at all, is the point of this tool.
CRA: Form NR73 ↗One part-year return, filed with the package for the province you left.
For the year you leave, you use the income tax package for the province or territory where you resided on the date you left, enter your departure date, and report world income for the resident part of the year and Canadian-source income only after that. The return is due April 30 of the following year (June 15 if you or your spouse carried on a business in Canada, with any balance still due April 30). Forms T1161 and T1243 go in with it; the T1244 deferral election has the same April 30 deadline.
CRA: Leaving Canada (emigrants) ↗Departure tax,
without the guesswork.
When you cease Canadian residency, subsection 128.1(4)(b) of the Income Tax Act deems you to have sold most of your property at fair market value and immediately bought it back — Canada's departure tax. Canadian real property, property of a business carried on through a permanent establishment in Canada, and 'excluded rights or interests' such as RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs, RESPs, pensions and employee stock options are left out, as is property you already owned when you last became resident if you were resident 60 months or less in the last 10 years. You report the gains on Form T1243, list your property on Form T1161 if the total fair market value exceeds $25,000 (late filing costs $25 a day, minimum $100, maximum $2,500), and can elect on Form T1244 to defer the tax until you actually sell — with security if the federal tax deferred exceeds $16,500. Each of these is a decision, and each needs a number behind it.
CRA: dispositions of property — emigrants ↗Why the facts matter more than the flight
Canadian tax obligations depend on residency. Residents report world income; non-residents pay Canadian tax only on Canadian-source income, largely through a flat Part XIII withholding. The CRA decides which you are by looking at the ties you kept and the ties you cut, not by your departure date alone.
Where is your home?
Whether you sold, leased out or kept your Canadian dwelling available is the first significant residential tie the CRA looks at.
Where is your family?
A spouse, common-law partner or dependants staying in Canada is a significant tie — and your non-residency date does not start until they leave too.
What does daily life look like?
Work, banking, RRSPs, provincial health coverage, a driver's licence, memberships and time in each country tell the story the secondary-ties analysis is asking about.
Read the CRA's residency guidance ↗
Official sources checked 8 September 2026. Rules and thresholds change; confirm before you rely on them.
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