T1161 List of Properties by an Emigrant of Canada
Form T1161 is the list of everything you owned on the day you stopped being a Canadian tax resident. You file it with your return for the year you left if the total fair market value of your property was more than $25,000 - and, unusually, you have to send it even if you do not owe tax and would not otherwise file a return.
Download the official T1161 form (canada.ca)Opens the current version on the Government of Canada website - always the up-to-date form, straight from the source.
Who has to file it
You file the T1161 if you ceased to be a resident of Canada during the year and the total fair market value of all the property you owned on your departure date was more than CAD $25,000. The form then lists all of it - inside and outside Canada - and gets attached to your return for that year.
The $25,000 is a reporting trigger, not a tax. Being over it does not by itself mean you owe anything; it means the CRA wants the list.
What you leave off the list
Several things are excluded from the $25,000 calculation and should not appear on the form: cash and bank deposits; registered and pension-type plans (RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, RESP, RDSP, PRPP, pensions, annuities and similar arrangements); and any single item of personal-use property - household effects, clothing, a car, a collectible - worth less than $10,000.
There is also an exclusion for property you already owned when you last became a Canadian resident, if you were resident here for 60 months or less in the 10 years before you left and the property is not taxable Canadian property. All amounts are in Canadian dollars.
The penalty is per day, and it applies even with no tax owing
Missing the deadline costs $25 for each day the form is late, with a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $2,500. It is separate from any tax on your departure - you can owe nothing and still be charged it.
This is the trap people fall into: they work out that they do not have to file a return for the year they left, and assume that settles everything. The CRA is explicit that the T1161 still has to be sent by the filing due date.
T1161 and T1243 are different forms
The T1161 lists what you owned. The T1243, Deemed Disposition of Property by an Emigrant of Canada, calculates the capital gain on the property the CRA treats as sold on your departure date. Many people who file one also file the other, but they answer different questions.
If you want to elect to defer paying the tax on that deemed disposition, that is a further step - the CRA allows the election regardless of the amount involved.
Official CRA references
FAQ
No. Registered and pension-type plans - RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, RESP, RDSP, PRPP, pensions and annuities - are excluded from the calculation and are not listed on the form. Neither is cash in a bank account.
Only if that single item is worth $10,000 or more. Personal-use property below $10,000 per item - a car, furniture, clothing, a collection - is left out of both the calculation and the list.
Yes. The CRA states that the T1161 must be sent on or before your filing due date even if you do not have to file a return. This is the most common way people end up with the penalty.
$25 for every day the form is late, with a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $2,500. It is charged separately from any tax you may owe on the departure.
The T1161 lists the property you owned when you left. The T1243 calculates the capital gain on property the CRA treats as sold on your departure date. They often go together but they do different jobs.
It can usually still be sorted out, and the order you do things in matters. Bring us the year you left and what you owned then, and we will tell you honestly what the position looks like.
Left Canada, or about to?
The departure year is one of the easiest to get wrong and one of the more expensive to fix. Book a free consultation and we will go through what applies to you.
Book a Free Consultation — 15 minRelated help
- Leaving Canada: final return & exit tax
- Personal tax returns (T1)
- Foreign property over $100,000 (T1135)
Other CRA forms
General information only, not tax advice. This is a copy of publicly available information about an official Government of Canada form; the form itself is published by the CRA. Verify details for your situation on canada.ca or with us.