France–Canada taxes in the year you move: what to file where

The year you leave France for Canada, you file two income tax returns, and each country only taxes its own part of the year. France taxes your income from January 1 to the day you leave (filed in spring 2027 for a 2026 move), then only your French-source income. Canada taxes your worldwide income from the day you become resident, on a return due by April 30, 2027. In Quebec, that Canadian return comes with a second, provincial one.

This applies to French people moving to Canada to live and work, whether on a Working Holiday visa (PVTPermis vacances-travail (Working Holiday permit)The French name for the Working Holiday permit: an open work permit for French citizens aged 18 to 35, issued under International Experience Canada.), a work permit or as permanent residents. If your spouse, children or home stay in France, or you’re only going for a few months as a visitor, you probably remain a French tax resident and the rules change (see dual residence below). To work out which status to apply for, start with the guide to visas for living in Canada.

What throws most people is the order: you file in Canada before you file in France, under rules that ignore the French household return and the quotient familial (the French system of dividing income by family size).

What is the tax calendar if you move on July 1, 2026?

Say you leave Lyon on June 30 and land on July 1, 2026, as in the example below. Your Canadian return is then due first, about a month before the French one.

What do you report in France, the year you leave and after?

Your French return for the year you leave is an ordinary online return. It covers your income from January 1 to the day you leave on form 2042, along with your departure date and Canadian address. Those six months of salary go through the usual French brackets, so they land in lower bands than a full year would.

You add form 2042-NR for French-source income received after you leave, such as rent, a pension or a bonus paid by your former employer. That income stays taxable in France, and as a non-resident you pay at least 20% (30% above €29,579 of net taxable incomeSource: impots.gouv.fr, the threshold for 2025 income). If your average rate on your worldwide income works out lower, you can ask for that rate instead.

In later years, if you still have income in France, your file moves to the tax office for non-resident individuals (SIP-NR) and you file a 2042-NR every spring. If you have none left, say so in the additional information section of your departure-year return, and you won’t have anything more to file in France.

After that, the France–Canada tax treaty of 1975Source: impots.gouv.fr decides who taxes what. Rent is taxed first where the property is, a salary where you work, and your country of residence then deducts the tax already paid in the other. Quebec also has its own tax agreement with France, which does the same job for Quebec income tax.

What do you report in Canada, and why two returns in Quebec?

For the Canada Revenue Agency (CRACanada Revenue AgencyThe federal tax authority, the equivalent of France’s Direction générale des Finances publiques., the Canadian counterpart of France’s DGFiP), you become resident on the day you establish significant residential ties in Canada, such as a home, or a spouse or children living with you there. That’s usually your arrival date. From then on, you report your worldwide income in Canadian dollars. That means your Canadian salary, but also interest on your French accounts, rent from an apartment in France or dividends from a PEA (a French share savings plan).

In your arrival year, you’re only resident for part of the year, so some tax credits are prorated to your days of residenceSource: CRA. That includes the basic personal amount, the slice of income that isn’t taxed (C$16,452 federally in 2026). Arrive on July 1 and you’re resident 184 days out of 365, which gives you about C$8,290. Other credits stay whole, such as those for pension and employment insurance contributions, or the Canada employment amount.

In Quebec, you file two returns: the federal one (T1) with the CRA and the provincial one (TP-1) with Revenu Québec, both by April 30, and Revenu Québec also scales down its credits to your period of residence. In return, Ottawa gives Quebec residents a 16.5% abatement on their federal taxSource: CRA. In Ontario (the province of Toronto), British Columbia, Alberta and elsewhere, one return is enough: provincial tax is worked out on a schedule of the federal return.

The tax year runs from January to December, just like in France. Almost everything else is different, starting with your very first return.

Your first return also asks for your worldwide income from before you arrived. The CRA doesn’t tax it, but uses it to work out your benefits. And if you keep savings in France, you don’t have to file form T1135 (the list of foreign property costing more than C$100,000) for the year you become residentSource: CRA.

How much tax in Montreal or Toronto? A worked example

Assumptions for this fictional example: Julie, single, no children, employed in Lyon until June 30, 2026 with €24,000 of net taxable salary over six months; resident in Canada from July 1, 2026, employed at C$40,000 gross from July to December (C$80,000 a year); no other Canadian income; 2026 brackets and amounts; €1 = C$1.60, a rounded rate, whereas the CRACanada Revenue AgencyThe federal tax authority, the equivalent of France’s Direction générale des Finances publiques. asks for the Bank of Canada rate. We compare the same Julie in Montreal and in Toronto.

In Montreal, Julie pays about C$3,170 in federal tax (after the Quebec abatement) and C$4,010 in Quebec tax. In Toronto, about C$3,820 federal, C$1,540 to Ontario and C$450 for the Ontario Health Premium. On top of that come the contributions taken off each paycheque (pension, employment insurance and, in Quebec, parental insurance): about C$3,100 in Montreal and C$2,900 in Toronto.

As a share of salary, income tax comes to about 18% in Montreal and 15% in Toronto. Over a full year at C$80,000, the Toronto rate would climb toward 18%, because in the arrival year only half the salary goes through the Canadian brackets. To run the numbers with your own salary, including take-home pay and cost of living, use the France–Canada salary calculator. To weigh taxes, rents and language from one city to the next, read the guide to choosing a province.

On the French side, Julie’s form 2042 only covers her €24,000. After the 10% deduction for work expenses, €21,600 is taxable, which comes to about €1,100 of tax before the décote (the French low-income reduction) using the brackets for 2025 income. The tax already withheld at source will be deducted. The exact brackets for 2026 income won’t be known until the 2027 finance act.

Julie also keeps a Livret A (France’s tax-free savings account) and rents out her studio in Lyon for €650 a month from July. Here’s how that income is split between the two countries.

The rent shows how the treaty works. Under the micro-foncier regime (France’s flat-rate scheme for small rental income), France taxes 70% of the €3,900, or €2,730, at the 20% minimum rate. That’s about €546, plus social levies. Canada adds the converted rent to Julie’s income, minus deductible expenses, then takes the French tax paid on that rent off its own tax (form T2209 federally, TP-772 in Quebec). So Julie pays roughly the higher of the two taxes, never both added together.

Which first-year mistakes cost the most?

• Livret A and LDDS: these French savings accounts are tax-free in France, but their interest is taxable in Canada as soon as you’re resident there.
• Assurance-vie and PEA: you can usually keep these French savings products, but Canada may tax gains every year that France only taxes on withdrawal. Don’t make any withdrawal in the year you leave without advice from a tax adviser who knows both countries.
• Assets you already own: Canada treats your shares and other investments as if you’d bought them at their value on the day you arrived. Keep a statement from that date, because it’s your cost base in Canada.
• The French exit tax: if you hold more than €800,000 in securities, or at least 50% of a company, your unrealized gains are calculated when you leave. Payment can be deferred under certain conditions, but you still have to report them.
• Dual residence: if your family or home stays in France, the treaty decides between the two countries (permanent home, centre of vital interests, nationality). Moving only halfway can leave you a French tax resident.

So before you leave, two things: ask your bank for a statement of your investments as of your departure date, and book a tax adviser who knows both countries before you touch any savings. The appointment costs far less than one badly timed withdrawal.

What can you save tax-free from the day you arrive?

The TFSA (Tax-Free Savings Account, whose interest and gains are never taxed) opens with a SINSocial Insurance NumberA nine-digit identifier for employment and taxes. If authorized to work, you can start by applying for a SIN within three days, then give the number to your employer within three days of receiving it., and you get the full C$7,000 for 2026Source: CRA, even if you arrived in July. The RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan, roughly the French PER) works differently: your room is 18% of what you earned in Canada the previous year, so zero in 2026 and about C$7,200 in 2027 for Julie. Opening a bank account and building a credit history from scratch are covered in their own section, Banking, credit and taxes.