Moving to Greece from Canada

Form T1161 is needed if everything you owned was worth more than $25,000. You can defer the tax until you sell by electing by 30 April of the year after you leave, but the CRA asks for security if the federal tax deferred is over $16,500 ($13,777.50 for former Québec residents). Once you are a non-resident you pay Canadian tax only on Canadian-source income, and the CRA asks you to tell Canadian payers and financial institutions you have left. The convention was signed on 29 June 2009, entered into force on 16 December 2010 and has applied since 1 January 2011; the only earlier tax agreement we found is a 1929 exchange of notes on shipping income, which it ended. It taxes employment income where the work is done, unless you are present 183 days or less in any 12 months, the employer is not resident there and no local establishment bears the pay; it taxes independent professional income only in your country of residence unless you have a fixed base in the other, and presence of more than 183 days in a 12-month period creates one. The text we read has no clause letting either country tax its own citizens living in the other, but ask an adviser how the convention applies to you. This is a mechanism, not your bill.

The CRA's table shows form CPT54 for a certificate of coverage, with a maximum initial detachment of 60 months; the pages we read do not explain how it applies to a freelancer who moves to Greece, so ask the CRA and e-EFKA. A CPP retirement pension can be paid abroad with one valid contribution; OAS only with 20 or more years' residence in Canada; the Guaranteed Income Supplement for 6 months. Retraite Québec lists Greece among the countries with a Québec agreement but its page does not describe it, so Québec contributors should check it separately. This is a mechanism, not your bill.