There's an order to selling your US place. Get it wrong and it costs you.
If you're a Canadian selling a home in Florida or Arizona, you're dealing with two tax systems, not one. On top of that, there's a US withholding rule that can take 15 percent of your sale price right at closing if the paperwork isn't done in the right order.
Most of it can be sorted out, but only if the steps happen in the right order, and two of the deadlines go by before most sellers even hear about them. This page covers the basics. The free checklist is the one-page version you can actually work from.
Download the free checklistFree. No email needed, it downloads straight from this page. A one-page PDF, dated November 2026.
Work out the withholding on your sale
At closing, the buyer withholds a percentage of the gross sale price under FIRPTA (the US Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act) and sends it to the IRS. It's a percentage of the price, not of your gain. The standard rate is 15 percent. It drops to 10 percent, or to nothing at all, in some sales where an individual buyer is buying the place to live in. Try it with your own numbers:
US$65,625 withheld at closing - 15 percent of the price, the standard FIRPTA rate.
Estimated US tax on that gain: about US$18,000. That's a rough illustration only: a long-term gain taxed at a flat 15 percent federal rate, with no state tax and no depreciation recapture. Your real tax depends on your whole US tax situation. The full kit works from your actual filed figures, not from an estimate like this.
That leaves about US$47,625 withheld above the estimated tax. A withholding certificate applied for on or before your closing date is how that excess gets reduced, or held back from the IRS while the application is decided, instead of coming back through a US tax return filed the following year. That deadline is the first trap on the checklist below.
Your key dates
- Certificate application (Form 8288-B): on or before - closing day.
- The buyer's filing (Forms 8288 and 8288-A): due by - the 20th day after closing.
- ITIN application (Form W-7): start between and - the IRS says allow 9 to 11 weeks when you apply from Canada. The IRS won't take the application before you have a binding sale contract.
- Any excess withholding: it comes back only through a US tax return filed the following year.
The numbers filled in above are the worked example from the checklist. US$437,500 is the National Association of Realtors' median purchase price for Canadian buyers, and we're using it as a stand-in for a typical sale price, which is an assumption on our part. Change any of the numbers to match your own sale.
How the withholding works
Closing day
The buyer withholds a percentage of the gross sale price under FIRPTA - of the price, not of your gain.
15%of the sale priceCertificate in by closing day
Form 8288-B is submitted on or before closing, with written notice to the buyer, and the buyer holds the withheld money while the IRS decides.
about 90 daysfor the IRS to act on the applicationIf the window is missed
The full amount goes to the IRS, and the excess over your real tax comes back only through a US tax return filed the following year.
next yearthe slow way backThe 5 traps
1. The withholding certificate has a closing-date deadline
If your real US tax will be less than 15 percent of the price, Form 8288-B asks the IRS to reduce or eliminate the withholding.
The catch is the timing. The application has to go in on or before the closing date, with written notice to the buyer that same day. If it does, the buyer holds the withheld money back from the IRS while the IRS decides, and the IRS says it will normally decide within 90 days.
Miss the window and the full 15 percent goes to the IRS, and the excess comes back only through a US tax return filed the following year.
2. Renting it out "just for a few weeks" before you sell
The day a personal-use property starts bringing in rent, Canada treats you as if you'd sold it and bought it back at fair market value. No cash changes hands, but the gain on paper still gets reported that year, unless an election applies. The election has conditions, so it's worth getting advice before you count on it.
Renting can also change your foreign-property reporting. A personal-use US home is excluded from Form T1135. A rented one that cost over C$100,000 may not be. The CRA's own example is a Florida condo rented eight months of the year.
3. Title held in a Canadian corporation
If a Canadian corporation owns the place and you use it yourself, the CRA counts that use as a taxable shareholder benefit. It's usually valued at fair market rent for the time the property is available to you, and it's added to your personal income.
The corporation gets no deduction for it.
If title is in a corporation, get cross-border advice before you list, not after you sign.
4. The ITIN: you can't get it early, and you can't file without it
Claiming the credit for the withholding means attaching your stamped Form 8288-A to a US return, and the IRS won't stamp it if your US taxpayer number isn't on the form.
Most Canadians need an ITIN, which you apply for on Form W-7. The IRS will turn down an application sent in before there's a binding sale contract. If you apply from Canada, the IRS says to allow 9 to 11 weeks.
There's a faster route if you ask for the ITIN together with a withholding certificate application. Line it up with the sale, not after it.
5. Canada taxes the same gain, in different dollars, on a different clock
Canada taxes the gain in the year you sell, computed in Canadian dollars: your cost converted at the exchange rate from when you bought, your proceeds at the rate from when you sold. A weak Canadian dollar can make the Canadian gain bigger than the US one.
And the foreign tax credit only counts your final US tax, not the amount withheld at closing.
Sellers get squeezed both ways: Canadian tax due in year one while the US refund lands in year two, or a credit claimed on the full withheld amount and corrected later.
What the free checklist is
One page. It covers the five traps above, each with the deadline or the form you need for it, and a checkbox line for each one: done, does not apply, or need advice. Every rule in it comes from the IRS and CRA pages themselves, which are named right on the page, and it's dated November 2026. It won't file anything for you. What it does is tell you what has to happen before closing, at closing, and after, in that order.
Download the free checklistFree, November 2026. Rules change; check the current version before acting on any step.
What the full kit will be
The checklist is the warning list. The full kit takes your own sale and lays the steps out in order:
Your timeline, first
You give us your closing date, your state, how you've used the property, and how title is held. We give you back a dated list of steps, planned backwards from your closing date, with the state deadlines in it, like Arizona's return due April 15.
The paperwork pack, second
The buyer notice letter, a script for the email to the title company, questions to ask the closing agent, a closing-day checklist, notes that walk you through the ITIN application, and a one-page summary for your Canadian accountant.
The rules, third
Every step on your timeline links to the rule behind it, written in plain language, with the IRS or CRA source named, so if you want to know why a date is what it is, you can check it yourself.
The Canadian worksheet
Your gain worked out the Canadian way. The foreign tax credit built from your final US tax, never from the amount withheld at closing. A four-question check that tells you whether Form T1135 applies to you. And a flag for any year the property changed from personal use to rented.
Reminders, and a refund watch
Emails timed to your dates: before closing, 20 days after, around the certificate decision, and into both filing seasons. Then we keep an eye on the excess you're owed, and tell you what to check first if it stalls.
Check-my-professional mode
The questions to ask whoever you hire, and the published fair-fee range to judge their quote against. Either way, we keep the certificate deadline in front of you. It's the one everyone assumes someone else is looking after.
Seller-reported wait times
How long certificates and refunds actually took, by state, reported by sellers who've just been through it. This starts out empty, and we'll say so. Any figure we show will have the number of reports behind it printed beside it.
Kept current
The rules in this area change often, so we re-check them against the IRS and CRA sources every month, and updates are included. If a rule changes in the middle of your sale, we update the step it affects with the new date, and we date the change so you can see what moved.
Already sold? Tell us how long the IRS took.
See inside - a sample timeline (SAMPLE)
SAMPLE. Generated for a Florida sale at US$437,500, closing Wednesday, June 30, 2027, by a seller with no US taxpayer number yet. Yours is generated from your own answers, and every document named here is in the paperwork pack.
- Mon, May 3, 2027 - Contract signed. Your ITIN eligibility opens today; the IRS will not accept a Form W-7 before a binding contract exists.
- On or before Wed, June 30, 2027 - Withholding certificate application (Form 8288-B) submitted. Your written notice to the buyer goes on that day or the day before.
- Wed, June 30, 2027 - Closing day. Confirm the amount withheld and the rate applied, and leave with copies of everything, including your copy of Form 8288-A as filed.
- By Tue, July 20, 2027 - The buyer files Forms 8288 and 8288-A (the 20th day after transfer). That filing produces your stamped copy B.
- By about Tue, September 28, 2027 - The IRS normally acts on a complete certificate application within 90 days.
- Following tax season - Canadian return for the year of the sale: Schedule 3 in Canadian dollars, and a Form T2209 credit for your final US tax - not the amount withheld. The worksheet holds your figures until the US side settles.
- Thu, June 15, 2028 - Form 1040-NR due. Stamped copy B attached; the amount withheld is credited, and any excess over your actual tax is refunded through this return.
Cross-border firms publish most of these facts for free, usually at the bottom of an article that ends with "hire a professional." What we couldn't find anywhere was the whole thing laid out in order for a Canadian doing this once, kept up to date, and built around your own closing date. So that's what we're making. Planned price: C$149.
One sale, three numbers
The bars are drawn to scale against the amount withheld. The currencies are different on purpose: the point is the size of each number, not a conversion. The professional range comes from one Toronto firm's published sample fees for FIRPTA work, and the firm is named in the kit. Firms charge about C$3,000 to C$5,000 for the FIRPTA and clearance work alone, before the two tax returns.
Want the kit when it's ready?
One email when it launches, nothing else.
Who is behind this
Snowbird Exit Kit is a small Canadian business in Vancouver, BC. We made this for Canadians selling a home in the US, and we know selling a place you've spent winters in is a big job before the paperwork even starts. Our part is the paperwork. We're not accountants or lawyers. What we do is check every rule in the checklist against the IRS or CRA source itself. The sources and the date we checked them are printed right on the page, and we re-check the whole file every month, because these rules do change. If you find a mistake, email us and we'll fix it and date the fix.
Questions
Is this tax advice?
No. This is general information only, checked against IRS and CRA sources in November 2026. It explains the rules and the order they come in. Your sale has its own facts, and a cross-border accountant or tax lawyer is the right person to advise on them.
Can't my accountant just do all this?
Yes, and for a complicated sale, you should hire one. Cross-border firms charge about C$3,000 to C$5,000 for the FIRPTA and clearance work alone, before the two tax returns. This kit is for sellers who want to handle the steps themselves and understand them as they go, and for sellers who already have a professional and want to make sure nothing on the calendar gets missed. Plenty of people will use it both ways.
My buyer is a person who plans to live in the home. Does the withholding still apply?
Maybe not, or not at 15 percent. If an individual buyer is acquiring the property for use as a home and the price is US$300,000 or less, no withholding is required. Between US$300,000 and US$1,000,000 with the same personal use, the rate drops to 10 percent. Above US$1,000,000, or if the buyer is not an individual buying a home, the 15 percent rate applies. The checklist covers how to raise this with the title company before closing, not after.
Which states does this cover?
The US federal rules and the Canadian rules apply to a sale in any state. We checked the state rules for Florida and Arizona, where most Canadian snowbird properties are. Florida has no state income tax for an individual seller. Arizona taxes the gain and has its own nonresident return, due in April. Other states have their own rules, and some withhold at closing, so check yours before you rely on the checklist alone.
I already sold this year. Is it too late?
For the certificate deadline, yes. That window has closed. For everything else, no. The US return, the ITIN if you still need one, and the Canadian credit are all still ahead of you, and that's where the expensive mistakes are now. The full kit will include a path for people who've already sold.
What does the kit cost, and when does it open?
The planned price is C$149, one payment, with updates included as we re-check the rules. It opens after a professional has reviewed the full kit. The free checklist doesn't need that step. A paid product does. Leave your email above and we'll let you know the day it opens.