Moving to the Philippines from Canada

If you cut your ties and become a non-resident, you are treated as having sold most property at fair market value on the day you leave; Canadian real estate, RRSPs, TFSAs and pensions are among the exceptions. Form T1161 lists your property if it is worth more than $25,000, Form T1244, due by April 30 of the year after you leave, lets you defer the tax, and Form NR73 asks the CRA for its opinion on your residency status before you go. If you stay a Canadian resident and own specified foreign property, including funds held outside Canada, costing more than $100,000 at any time in the year, you file Form T1135. This describes the mechanism, not your bill.

On coverage, the text says an employed person working in one country is covered only by that country's scheme; an employee sent by the same employer to work in the other country stays under the first country's scheme for up to 60 months, longer with both authorities' consent; and a self-employed person who ordinarily resides in one country and works for their own account in the other is covered only by the country where they ordinarily reside. Whether a remote worker who moves on their own counts as sent by an employer, or as still ordinarily resident in Canada, is not stated on the pages read, so ask the Canada Revenue Agency. An employer must deduct CPP for an employee working abroad who normally reports to its Canadian workplace, or who is a Canadian resident paid from it; otherwise the employer can extend cover with Form CPT8, or the employee can elect with Form CPT20. We found no official page on CPP for freelancers living abroad. CPP benefits can be paid outside Canada; the Old Age Security pension abroad needs 20 years of residence in Canada after age 18, and payments may stop after more than 6 months outside Canada unless you qualify to receive them abroad. Whether Philippine social security contributions reach someone paid from abroad is not covered by the sources read.

Your provincial plan may not follow you: Ontario lets you keep OHIP for up to 2 years when you are away more than 7 months in 12 if Ontario stays your primary home and you spent at least 153 days there in each of the two 12-month periods before you leave, while British Columbia ends MSP at the end of the month you leave permanently; other provinces differ. PhilHealth, the national insurer, lets foreign citizens with a valid ACR I-Card enrol through a Local Health Insurance Office; its 2017 circular set the premium at PHP 17,000 a year, which may have changed, and whether someone on a visitor ACR I-Card can join was not confirmed. The Embassy of Canada is in Makati, with an honorary consul in Cebu.

Canada's advice adds that if you have been in the Philippines six months or more you must get an emigration clearance certificate at least 72 hours before you leave. Extensions must be authorised before the stay you were given ends.

An SRRV deposit must arrive as an inward remittance to a PRA-accredited bank. If you stay a Canadian resident, specified foreign property costing more than $100,000 at any time in the year, which can include money in a Philippine account, is reported on Form T1135.

Canada has an honorary consul in Cebu.

Canada's advice says to avoid all travel to listed provinces in western Mindanao and to avoid non-essential travel to listed provinces in central and eastern Mindanao; its list names Davao del Sur excluding Davao City, so Davao City is outside that list.