Canadians continued their globetrotting activities in 2025 however, the places they are going to has significantly changed, according to Statistics Canada. Statistics Canada reported that Canadian residents returned from 3.9 million trips abroad in November of 2024. This was up 6.8% from the year before. And about half of these were trips to the United States and most of them – about 70% - were same-day trips. 

But things changed in 2025. The number of Canadian-resident return trips from the United States was down 25.0% year over year. In contrast, both the number of Canadian-resident return trips from overseas (+12.9%) and the number of trips to Canada by overseas residents (+14.1%) increased compared with the same month a year earlier.

When it comes to Snowbirds, however, there are no precise Canadian government statistics. A 2023 snowbirdadvisor.ca report found, however, that over 85% of snowbirds travel to the U.S., and of those, approximately one-half own their own U.S. real estate. The most popular U.S. winter destinations for Canadians are Florida, Arizona, California, and Texas. But of the newer snowbirds, 25% were looking at other foreign destinations including Portugal, Spain, Costa Rica and Panama.

It is also interesting to note that since January of 2025, Canadians are starting to sell the property they own in the U.S. A Royal LePage Survey found that 54% of Canadians plan to sell their property within the next year, ending August 2026. Of those who already have done so, 44% were influenced by the current political environment, 27% due to personal or financial reasons, and 22% due to extreme weather in the States. Such a dramatic swing in north - south travel is bound to come with important tax consequences, especially for Canadians who have investments in the US. 

In fact, Canadian residents are taxable on their worldwide income. But, non-residents of Canada are taxable only on their Canadian source income. There are some important definitions attached to those two basic premises. Today we are going to get specific about a number of interesting topics, like 

-        Tax Residency, Snowbirds

-        People wanting to retire into the U.S. or come back

-        Multijurisdictional families – what to watch out for 

-        The latest news on taxation of investments held in the US

-        Who is subject to estate taxation?

Dr. Dean Smith, PHD, is a prolific academic who also holds the CFP, TEP, CPA, CA, RWM™, FDFS™ designations. He is a partner with Cadesky and Associates LLP and the President of Cadesky U.S. Tax Ltd. Dean has been involved with expatriate tax work for over 25 years assisting companies moving employees around the world.  

Clients also include private individuals who have multiple jurisdictional filings, high net worth individuals with cross border needs, including Canadians individuals and corporations looking to invest in the United States and also American individuals and U.S. entities, looking to invest in Canada. He works primarily with Canada. He also is an expert in cross-border personal tax and estate planning – for Canada, U.S. and U.K. Dean is also a Faculty member and writer with Knowledge Bureau. 

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