CA+US Parallel49
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Methodology & Sources

Sources & citations for every calculator·Verified August 2026

Every figure and rule each calculator on this site relies on is listed below, organized by tool and tied to the government source it comes from. This isn't tax advice: it's a record of where our numbers came from, so you (or your accountant) can go check them yourself. (For the story behind the site's name rather than its numbers, see Why Parallel49?)

How to read this page

Each item below carries one or both of two kinds of tag. Primary law links to the actual text of the relevant statute or regulation on the government's own site: the legal source everything else is an interpretation of. A second tag (CRA guidance, IRS guidance, SSA guidance, or Government guidance, depending which agency administers that program) links to the agency's own plain-English page or form, which is what most people actually reference and what determines dollar thresholds that change year to year.

CoastFIRE Calculator

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Return, inflation & withdrawal-rate assumptions

The calculator's 7% / 2.5% / 4% defaults are editable starting points, not predictions, sized to long-run historical averages and a widely-cited retirement rule of thumb, not a forecast this site is making.

  • Expected annual investment return (default 7%): US large-cap stocks have averaged roughly 10% nominal per year since 1928, including dividends. A more conservative real (after-inflation) range for a diversified stock/bond portfolio is commonly cited as 5–8%, the range the calculator's low/mid/high presets pick from, and the range this default sits inside.

  • Expected annual inflation (default 2.5%): both the Bank of Canada and the US Federal Reserve target 2% inflation over the long run, this default sits just above both as a mildly conservative planning assumption, not a prediction that either target will be missed.

  • Annual withdrawal rate (default 4%): the "4% rule" originates from a 1994 study finding that a 60/40 US stock/bond portfolio, withdrawing an inflation-adjusted 4% annually, survived every historical 30-year retirement window on record, later reinforced by the similarly methodologied "Trinity study." It's a rule of thumb calibrated to US market history, not a guarantee, and it doesn't account for investment fees or a cross-border tax drag.

How the IRS treats each account

  • RRSP growth isn't taxed annually to a US person: the IRS recognizes RRSP/RRIF tax deferral automatically, without a separate election. (Same rule cited in full under RRSP Withholding Tax below.)

  • PFIC (Passive Foreign Investment Company): a foreign corporation is a PFIC if 75% or more of its gross income is passive, or 50%+ of its assets produce passive income, a classification that can catch Canadian-domiciled mutual funds and ETFs and trigger punitive US tax treatment, reported on Form 8621.

Reporting thresholds

  • FBAR: a US person with foreign financial accounts totaling more than $10,000 at any point in the year must file FinCEN Form 114.

  • FATCA: US persons with specified foreign financial assets above a threshold that varies by filing status and residency: $50,000 (single) / $100,000 (married filing jointly) on the last day of the year, or $75,000 / $150,000 at any point in the year, if living in the US; $200,000 / $400,000 (last day) or $300,000 / $600,000 (any point in the year) if living abroad, must report them on Form 8938, on top of any FBAR filing. The Action Items page's FBAR/FATCA tracker checks a single current-balance figure against the lower "last day of the year" tier, since either test triggers filing and the tracker can't distinguish the two from one snapshot balance.

  • 2026 HSA contribution limits: $4,400 self-only coverage, $8,750 family coverage, plus a $1,000 catch-up contribution at age 55+.

OAS recovery tax & RESP grants

  • OAS is income-tested: once net world income passes an annually-indexed threshold (roughly $95,300 for 2026), OAS is clawed back at 15 cents per dollar above it, fully eliminated at a higher indexed threshold.

  • The Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) matches 20% of RESP contributions, up to $500 per year per beneficiary ($7,200 lifetime maximum).

What this calculator doesn't model

Every total here is a pre-tax planning target: no cross-border tax drag (TFSA/RESP taxability, PFIC treatment, withholding on benefits) is subtracted from the numbers shown. Accounts are pooled as one household total in spouse mode, not tracked per person against individual contribution limits. See the full guide for the plain-English walkthrough.

Departure Tax Estimator

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The mechanism

  • Deemed disposition: on ceasing Canadian residency, most property is treated as sold at fair market value the day before departure and immediately reacquired at that value.

  • What's exempt: registered accounts (RRSP, TFSA, FHSA, RESP), Canadian real estate, employer pension entitlements, CPP/QPP rights, and personal-use property under $10,000 are all excluded from the deemed disposition.

  • The 60-month short-term resident rule: property owned before you last became a Canadian resident is generally exempt if you were resident for 60 months or less in the 10 years before you left.

  • The spousal rollover: capital property can be transferred to a spouse or common-law partner at cost base before departure, deferring the gain until they eventually sell it.

The rate

Forms & deferral

What this calculator doesn't model

The marginal tax rate is a number you supply, not one we compute: it's not broken down by federal vs. provincial bracket, and provincial rates vary widely. Alternative Minimum Tax, treaty-based relief, and business-property valuation rules aren't modeled. None of this replaces a filing prepared by a cross-border accountant: see the full guide for the plain-English walkthrough, and the estimator's own "Also worth knowing" section for calculator-specific caveats.

RRSP Withholding Tax

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The treaty rates

  • Default non-resident withholding: Canada withholds 25% on RRSP/RRIF payments made to a non-resident, before any treaty relief applies.

  • The Canada-US tax treaty caps withholding at 15% of the gross amount for a "periodic pension payment": the rate that qualifying RRIF payments get, versus a lump-sum RRSP collapse.

  • What counts as "periodic": a RRIF payment loses treaty eligibility for the year once total payments exceed the greater of twice that year's CRA-mandated RRIF minimum, or 10% of the RRIF's fair market value at the start of the year.

RRIF mechanics

Section 217 election

  • Non-residents can elect under Section 217 to be taxed on eligible Canadian-source pension income (including RRIF payments) at graduated resident rates instead of the flat withholding rate, which can produce a refund of some of the tax withheld at modest income levels.

The US side

  • The IRS recognizes RRSP/RRIF tax deferral automatically: no separate election or Form 8891 filing is required, as long as you keep filing US returns and report distributions as income when taken.

  • Canadian withholding tax on the withdrawal generally becomes a Foreign Tax Credit against US tax on that same income.

What this calculator doesn't model

This estimator applies the flat 25%/15% treaty rate you select: it doesn't model the Section 217 refund math, the US-side Foreign Tax Credit limitation, or whether a given RRIF withdrawal schedule actually qualifies as "periodic" with your financial institution. See the full guide for the plain-English walkthrough, and confirm "periodic" status with your RRIF's carrier before withdrawing.

Benefit Claiming-Age Optimizer

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CPP (Canada Pension Plan)

OAS (Old Age Security)

US Social Security

  • Full Retirement Age (FRA) depends on birth year: 66 for people born 1943–1954, gradually rising to 67 for anyone born 1960 or later.

  • Claiming before FRA (as early as 62) reduces the benefit 5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months early, then 5/12 of 1% for each additional month; e.g. a 30% cut at 62 for someone with a 67 FRA.

  • Delaying past FRA increases the benefit by 2/3 of 1% per month (8% per year), up to age 70.

The Totalization Agreement

  • The Canada-US Social Security Agreement lets you combine CPP/QPP contribution periods with US Social Security work credits to qualify for benefits in either country, a qualification bridge, not a change to the per-country reduction/delay math above.

How the benefit is taxed once it crosses the border

  • Since a 1997 protocol to the treaty, CPP/QPP/OAS/Social Security paid to a resident of the other country are taxable only in the country of residence: CPP/OAS paid to a US resident is treated as US Social Security for tax purposes (up to 85% taxable); Social Security paid to a Canadian resident is treated as CPP, with 15% specifically exempt from Canadian tax.

The WEP/GPO repeal (January 2025)

What this calculator doesn't model

This estimator applies the standard adjustment formulas above to the amounts you enter: it doesn't estimate your CPP or Social Security amount from a work history, model the Guaranteed Income Supplement or spousal/survivor benefits, or compute the actual tax on the benefit once it arrives (see "How the benefit is taxed" above for which country taxes it and roughly how much). See the full guide for the plain-English walkthrough.

Drawdown-Order Optimizer

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US tax brackets

RRSP withholding

This tool taxes the RRSP slice of each withdrawal at the 15% treaty rate or the marginal US rate, whichever is higher: see the RRSP Withholding Tax section above for the full citation on that 15%/25% treaty split.

RRIF minimums & US RMDs (enforced in the simulation)

  • RRIF minimum withdrawal: once an RRSP converts to a RRIF, a minimum amount must be paid out every year, equal to the RRIF's fair market value at the start of the year multiplied by a prescribed factor: a fixed schedule from age 71 on (5.28% at 71, rising to 20% at 95+). This tool assumes the RRSP hasn't converted to a RRIF before 71 (conversion is optional before then), so nothing is forced below that age.

  • US Required Minimum Distributions: 401(k) and traditional IRA balances must begin distributing at the account owner's "applicable age": 73 for anyone reaching that age before 2033, 75 for anyone reaching it in 2033 or later, per the SECURE 2.0 Act's amendment to the required beginning date. The divisor applied to each year's start-of-year balance comes from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table (Pub. 590-B, Table III), in effect since 2022.

Both floors are enforced directly in the simulation, for every strategy: the RRIF minimum comes out of the RRSP/RRIF balance from age 71, and the RMD comes out of the 401(k) and IRA balances independently from the applicable age, regardless of what that strategy's own order would otherwise have withdrawn that year. When a forced withdrawal exceeds what's needed to cover spending, the after-tax leftover is reinvested into the taxable-brokerage balance rather than dropped from the simulation: the realistic outcome for RMD/RRIF money nobody spent.

What this calculator doesn't model

RRSP withdrawals are approximated with a simplified foreign-tax-credit assumption rather than actual Form 1116 basket/carryover mechanics. Capital-gains tax on taxable-brokerage withdrawals uses a flat rate applied to the full withdrawal, since this site doesn't track adjusted cost base. CPP, OAS, and Social Security are treated as entirely untaxed, though in reality Social Security can be up to 85% taxable and CPP/OAS are taxable income too. RRIF minimums and US RMDs are enforced per the account balances this tool already tracks, but not the 50% IRS excise tax for missing an RMD entirely, or multi-IRA aggregation rules for someone with more than one IRA. See the full guide for the plain-English walkthrough.

Moving Back to Canada

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The US exit tax

  • The US exit tax is a separate regime from Canada's departure tax: it can apply to US citizens who renounce citizenship, or to a "Long-Term Resident" (a Green Card holder in 8 or more of the last 15 tax years) who formally gives up that status.

  • A Long-Term Resident who expatriates is a "covered expatriate" (subject to the exit tax) if they meet any one of three tests: worldwide net worth of $2 million or more (not indexed); average annual net US income tax liability over the last five years above an inflation-adjusted threshold ($211,000 for 2026); or failing to certify five years of full US tax compliance on Form 8854.

CPP & OAS on return

CPP keeps accruing regardless of residency, and years of Canadian residency after you return continue counting toward OAS's 40-year full-pension calculation: see the Benefit Claiming-Age Optimizer section above for the citation on that 40-year rule.

What this calculator doesn't model

This tool tells you which US exit-tax tests apply and points you to the relevant forms: it doesn't calculate the tax itself (the exit tax's mark-to-market rules and exclusion amount are genuinely complex), and it doesn't model provincial healthcare waiting periods, which vary by province and aren't set by a single federal rule. See the full guide for the plain-English walkthrough.

US Estate Tax for Canadians

Read the full guide: there's no calculator for this one yet, only the guide.

The non-resident-alien exemption and US-situs property

  • A non-resident alien's estate gets a unified credit equivalent to a $60,000 exemption on US-situs assets (a small fraction of what a US citizen or resident gets) before the treaty-based Article XXIX-B credit (below) is applied.

  • US-situs property for a non-resident alien includes US real estate, tangible personal property located in the US, and stock issued by a US corporation, regardless of where the shares are held or the owner lives. Portfolio debt and most US life-insurance proceeds paid to a non-resident alien are generally excluded from US-situs property.

    • Primary law26 U.S.C. § 2104 · Cornell Legal Information Institute (situs rules)
    • Primary law26 U.S.C. § 2105 · Cornell Legal Information Institute (portfolio debt & life-insurance exclusions)

The treaty credit and the 2026 exemption amount

  • Article XXIX-B of the Canada-US Tax Convention lets a Canadian-resident estate claim a credit prorated by the ratio of US-situs assets to the worldwide estate, applied against the same basic exclusion amount a US citizen's estate gets: $15,000,000 for estates of decedents dying in 2026, permanent and inflation-indexed going forward. Article XXIX-B(3) adds a further marital credit when US-situs assets pass to a surviving spouse.

The paperwork

  • An executor must file Form 706-NA if the decedent's US-situs assets exceeded $60,000 at death, within 9 months of death (6-month extension available), regardless of whether the treaty credit reduces the tax owed to zero. US brokerages and title companies commonly withhold transferring US-situs assets to heirs until they see Form 5173 (Transfer Certificate) confirming estate tax matters are settled.

What this guide doesn't model

There's no calculator behind this guide yet: no tool on this site estimates a US-situs-to-worldwide ratio, applies the prorated Article XXIX-B credit, or computes an estimated tax owing. The worked example in the guide walks through the arithmetic by hand. See the full guide for the plain-English walkthrough.

Norbert's Gambit & FX Spread Calculator

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Unlike the tools above, this one isn't modeling a government rule: it's comparing market pricing across a few named products. The figures below are the closest thing each provider publishes to a citable source; none of them are live quotes, and all move with market conditions and trade size.

Reference spreads

  • Wise's CAD-USD transfer fee runs roughly 0.4-0.55% variable plus a small flat fee (around CA$1-1.60), this calculator uses a single rounded 0.5% figure as an all-in approximation.

  • Interactive Brokers' client-initiated currency conversion is priced at 0.002% commission (US$2 minimum), with no additional spread added to the prevailing rate, distinct from IBKR's "auto conversion" service, which adds roughly 0.03%.

  • DLR/DLR.U's combined bid-ask spread on a same-day round trip is commonly cited around 0.15-0.17%, this calculator's Norbert's Gambit spread assumption.

  • The DLR/DLR.U ETF pair (Global X's US Dollar Currency ETF) was previously branded under Horizons ETFs, which completed its rebrand to Global X Investments Canada in 2024; the ticker symbols and fund mandates were unaffected.

Tax treatment

  • Selling a security (including one leg of a Norbert's Gambit conversion outside a registered account) is a disposition for Canadian capital-gains purposes, reportable regardless of how small the resulting gain or loss is.

What this calculator doesn't model

The Wise and Interactive Brokers figures are fixed reference points, not live quotes: check current pricing before executing a real conversion. The break-even amount is a simplified comparison against your entered bank spread only, not against Wise or IBKR. See the full guide for the plain-English walkthrough.

PFIC Risk Checker

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This tool is deliberately qualitative: no dollar estimate is computed. A real Section 1291 excess-distribution calculation needs a fund's complete historical distribution and NAV data with daily-compounding interest, which isn't something to approximate with placeholder numbers. The citations below back the wrapper-by-wrapper risk classification and the three taxation regimes described on the page.

RRSP / RRIF exception

  • A shareholder who is a member or beneficiary of a foreign pension fund (or equivalent) under a US income tax treaty is not required to file Form 8621 for a PFIC held inside, if the treaty defers taxation of the fund's income until it's actually paid out to the shareholder: this exception is what covers a Canadian RRSP or RRIF, since Article XVIII(7) of the Canada-US treaty provides exactly that deferral (made automatic, without a separate election, by Rev. Proc. 2014-55).

RESP: foreign trust reporting relief (separate from PFIC status)

  • Rev. Proc. 2020-17 exempts an "eligible individual" from the Form 3520/3520-A foreign-trust reporting otherwise required for certain tax-favored foreign trusts, including Canadian RESPs and RDSPs, but this relief addresses trust reporting only. It has no bearing on whether a Canadian-domiciled fund held inside the RESP is a PFIC, or on the Form 8621 obligation that follows from that.

The three PFIC tax regimes

  • Absent an election, gains and "excess distributions" from a PFIC are allocated ratably across the shareholder's entire holding period; amounts allocated to years before the current year are taxed at the highest rate in effect for that year, plus a non-deductible interest charge for the deferral (the "excess distribution" regime under IRC §1291).

  • A Qualified Electing Fund (QEF) election requires a PFIC Annual Information Statement from the fund itself, providing the shareholder's pro-rata share of ordinary earnings and net capital gains; without one, a QEF election cannot be made, which is why it's rarely available for a typical Canadian-domiciled mutual fund or ETF in practice.

  • A mark-to-market election under IRC §1296 is available for "marketable" PFIC stock (broadly, stock regularly traded on a qualified exchange): the shareholder recognizes the year's change in fair market value as ordinary income (or, within limits, an ordinary loss) each year, avoiding the §1291 interest charge and retroactive rate allocation.

What this checker doesn't model

There's no ticker-level lookup: PFIC status is determined by answering per account wrapper, not by checking individual holdings against a maintained fund database. It also doesn't estimate a dollar amount under any of the three regimes, doesn't cover the separate $25,000/$50,000 Form 8621 filing thresholds, and doesn't address RESP/RDSP foreign-trust mechanics beyond flagging that they're a separate question from PFIC status. See the full guide for the plain-English walkthrough.

Sticky-State Residency Checker

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This tool is deliberately qualitative, like the PFIC Risk Checker: no single blended score. A bright-line day-count test (where one genuinely exists) and a facts-and-circumstances domicile checklist are reported independently, since either one alone can make a state continue to treat you as a resident.

New York: statutory residency

  • A New York statutory resident is someone who maintains a permanent place of abode in New York and spends in the aggregate more than 183 days of the taxable year in the state (i.e., 184 days or more), regardless of domicile. This is a fully separate test from common-law domicile.

Virginia: the 183-day "actual resident" rule

  • A person who, for an aggregate of more than 183 days of the taxable year, maintains a place of abode within Virginia is a Virginia resident for tax purposes, independent of domicile.

New Mexico: the 185-day physical-presence rule

  • An individual physically present in New Mexico for a total of 185 days or more during the tax year is a resident regardless of domicile; domicile is evaluated as a fully separate path to residency.

California: closest connections and the nine-month presumption

  • The Franchise Tax Board evaluates residency using a facts-and-circumstances "closest connections" test covering roughly 19 factors (home, family, professional and financial ties, days present, and documentary evidence like a driver's license or voter registration), with no single factor determinative.

  • Separately, an individual who spends more than nine months of the taxable year in California is presumed to be a resident, a rebuttable presumption rather than an independent bright-line test.

South Carolina: domicile-of-origin

  • Once South Carolina domicile is established, it persists until the individual establishes a new domicile in another state or country; simply moving away, without affirmatively establishing a new domicile elsewhere, does not by itself end South Carolina domicile.

What this checker doesn't model

There's no ticker-level day-tracking or calendar import: the day count and each tie are self-reported. It also doesn't cover every US state individually; "Other" uses the same generic domicile-factor checklist without state-specific legal framing. See the full guide for the plain-English walkthrough.

Offer & Relocation Comparator

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CPP / CPP2 (Canada)

  • 2026 base CPP: 5.95% on pensionable earnings between the $3,500 basic exemption and the $74,600 first ceiling (YMPE). CPP2: an additional 4% on earnings between $74,600 and the $85,000 second ceiling (YAMPE).

EI (Canada)

FICA / Medicare (US)

Provincial income tax (Canada)

  • 2026 federal brackets: 14% to $58,523, 20.5% to $117,045, 26% to $181,440, 29% to $258,482, 33% above, reflecting the lowest-rate cut to 14% (Bill C-4, effective July 2025, applies in full to 2026). Basic personal amount: $16,452 (the phase-out to $14,829 for income between $181,440 and $258,482 isn't modeled). All 13 provinces/territories' own brackets and basic personal amounts are modeled the same way. Quebec residents additionally get a 16.5% federal tax abatement (compensation for opting out of certain federal transfer programs), worth several points of combined marginal rate, so it's applied to Quebec's federal portion specifically.

State income tax (US)

  • All 50 states' 2026 brackets are modeled: the nine with no wage income tax (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming; note Washington taxes capital gains separately, not wages), the 15 flat-rate states, and the 26 with graduated brackets, for both single and married-filing-jointly status.

What this calculator doesn't model

Federal tax on the US side applies the federal standard deduction; state brackets apply to gross wages directly: no state-specific standard deduction is modeled, so state tax is somewhat overstated at lower incomes in states that have one. On the Canadian side, only the basic personal amount (and, for Quebec, the federal abatement) is modeled: provincial surtaxes (notably Ontario and PEI) and non-BPA credits aren't. Cost of living is a single self-reported adjustment, not sourced city-pair data. Employer retirement matching (RRSP or 401(k)) isn't included: this compares take-home cash only. See the full guide for the plain-English walkthrough.

Spot something that looks outdated or wrong? The figures above are checked against the sources listed here, but tax rules change; always confirm against the current CRA, IRS, and Justice Laws pages before filing.