The house is the whole Florida question.
Leaving Florida for Canada is simpler than leaving California — there’s no state residency to terminate and no state return to close. What’s left is one decision most Floridians get wrong: what happens to the home, the homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes cap that have been holding your property tax down for years. This is the short, Florida-specific layer. The tax jump you’re about to take is covered on the no-income-tax page, and everything every American faces is in the national guide.
Homestead and Save Our Homes: what you lose the day you leave.
Florida’s property tax system rests on two protections, and both are tied to the house being your permanent residence. The Florida Department of Revenue sets them out on its page on property tax exemptions and additional benefits. The homestead exemption takes a slice off the assessed value. The Save Our Homes cap limits the annual increase in assessed value to 3% or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less, which is why a long-held Florida home is often assessed far below what it would sell for. The accumulated difference between assessed and just value is the Save Our Homes benefit, explained in the Department’s homestead exemption and Save Our Homes brochure. On a house owned for fifteen or twenty years, the gap between assessed and market value can be the largest single number in your Florida finances.
Both end when the property stops being your permanent residence. The exemption comes off, the Save Our Homes cap is removed, and the assessed value resets toward market at the next assessment. The property tax bill on a long-held home can rise sharply in a single year — not gradually, in one step.
Portability, the feature that lets you carry your accumulated Save Our Homes benefit to a new home, only works within Florida — the transfer requires establishing a homestead exemption on another Florida home within three years of January 1 of the year you abandoned the old one. Carry it to Ontario and it evaporates. If you are leaving the state, the benefit you have built up is spent or lost; there is no version where it follows you north.
WHILE IT IS YOUR HOMESTEAD
Assessed value
Market value
The Save Our Homes benefit
Everything the cap has kept off your tax bill,
built up one year at a time.
WHEN IT STOPS BEING YOUR HOMESTEAD
The exemption comes off, the cap is removed, and
the assessed value resets toward market — in one step,
not gradually. Portability cannot carry it out of state.
That is the real arithmetic behind the sell-or-rent decision, and it is why the Florida answer differs from the Texas one even though both states fund themselves the same way. Run the numbers on the unprotected tax bill, not the one you’re paying now.
You are not a foreign seller. FIRPTA doesn’t apply to you.
This comes up on nearly every call, because Florida real estate is full of Canadian owners and the FIRPTA rules follow them everywhere.
Canadians selling Florida property
A Canadian citizen who is not a U.S. person is a foreign person for FIRPTA, and a sale of U.S. real property triggers withholding at closing plus a U.S. filing — the IRS sets out the rules on withholding of tax on dispositions of U.S. real property interests. That is a real and well-documented problem — we cover it in what happens when Canadians sell U.S. property.
Because most Florida-to-Canada conversations start in that world, Americans planning a move assume the same rules will apply to them.
An American who moves to Canada
You keep your U.S. citizenship, so you remain a U.S. person. FIRPTA applies to dispositions by foreign persons — it does not apply to you, no matter how long you have lived in Ontario. No withholding at closing on that basis, no separate FIRPTA filing.
The exception is renunciation. Give up citizenship and you become a foreign person for this purpose, with FIRPTA on any U.S. property you still own — one more reason to read the exit tax guide before you surrender anything.
Sell, rent, or keep it as a place to come back to.
Florida is the one state where the third option is genuinely common, because so many people moving north still want a winter base.
The Florida house
Sell before
Federal exclusion applies.
No Florida tax. Canada
has no claim yet.
Cleanest
Sell after
Exclusion still available
on the two-of-five test.
Canada taxes the gain
after arrival day.
Sell close to the move
Rent it out
Both countries tax rent,
with a credit. Exemption
gone, assessment reset,
insurance to carry.
Run the real numbers
Winter base
You become a Canadian
resident wintering in the
U.S. — day counting
starts again.
The snowbird problem
No Florida residency audit sits behind any of these — the question is purely arithmetic.
Sell before you leave
The cleanest option. The federal primary-residence exclusion — up to $250,000 of gain for a single filer, $500,000 on a joint return, per IRS Topic no. 701, Sale of your home — applies, Florida taxes nothing, and Canada has no claim because you aren’t resident yet. You also stop the property-tax reset before it happens. Our comparison of the U.S. two-of-five rule versus the Canadian principal residence exemption covers the mechanics.
Sell after you leave
The federal exclusion stays available as long as you still meet the two-of-five-year test, so a sale soon after the move usually works. Canada deems you to have acquired the property at its value on your arrival day, so any appreciation after that date is Canadian-taxable — see the CRA on completing a return for newcomers to Canada. Selling close to the move keeps that slice small. You’ll owe the unprotected property tax for however long you hold.
Rent it out
Both countries tax the rent, with a foreign tax credit reconciling them. Set against that: the lost homestead exemption, the reset assessment, and Florida’s insurance market, where windstorm and flood premiums on a coastal property can rival the mortgage. Unlike California, there’s no residency audit risk in keeping it — Florida doesn’t care. The question is purely whether the numbers work. Is your U.S. property still working for you? walks through that test.
Keep it as a winter base
Popular, and it quietly reverses your situation: you become a Canadian resident who spends winters in the U.S., which is the snowbird problem in the other direction. Day counting starts to matter again, this time for U.S. purposes. The forms that go with it — including the closer-connection statement — are listed in our cross-border tax form hub. Worth planning before you assume you can spend six months a year there.
What else is different about Florida.
No state income tax, so no state exit. Nothing to terminate, no part-year return, no departure audit. The flip side is the size of the jump into a two-layer Canadian system, which is the same jump a Texan makes and is covered in full on the Texas page — the pre-move window, the Roth conversion math and the gain harvesting apply to you identically.
No community property. Unlike Texas, California and Nevada, Florida is a common-law property state, so there’s no full basis step-up on the first spouse’s death to protect on the way out and no community characterization for the CRA to interpret. Florida does allow couples to opt into community property treatment through a special trust; if you have one, it needs a look before you cross, because the federal treatment of those trusts is unsettled — IRS Publication 555 states plainly that it does not address them.
No state estate or inheritance tax. True of Florida and of Canada, which has no estate tax either. What Canada has instead is a deemed disposition of everything you own at death, and as a U.S. citizen you remain inside the U.S. estate tax system wherever you live. Two regimes, different triggers — see inheritance tax in Canada.
A large Canadian-owned property market around you. If you hold Florida real estate through an entity, or bought alongside Canadian partners, the structure deserves review before your residency date; Canada’s treatment of U.S. entities can differ sharply from the IRS’s. Holding U.S. property through a holdco covers the entity question.
Miami and Fort Lauderdale to Toronto or Vancouver.
The two moves we see most from South Florida are to Toronto and to Vancouver, and they pull in opposite directions financially. Ontario’s combined rates are among the highest in Canada, which makes the jump from zero state tax at its steepest — but Toronto is where the jobs and the family usually are. British Columbia is a milder rate environment with a housing market that will feel familiar to anyone who has watched South Florida prices over the last decade.
Either way, the sequence is the same: fix your Canadian residency date, handle the Florida house against that date, take the pre-move tax moves while your state share is still zero, and value everything you own on arrival day so Canada’s deemed-acquisition rule has a clean starting number. Toronto-specific planning is in our Toronto cross-border guide.
The rest is the same for every American heading north.
Your 401(k), the Roth election, PFICs, the TFSA question, FBAR and dual filing don’t care which state you left.
Leaving a no-income-tax state: the full tax jumpTax
Retiring in Canada as an AmericanRetirement
401(k), IRA and Roth after you move northRetirement
The one-time Roth treaty electionRetirement
What is a PFIC?Investing
Can a US citizen have a TFSA?Investing
FBAR for U.S. persons in CanadaCompliance
The Canada–U.S. Tax Treaty GuideReference
What Floridians ask before they move.
Do I lose my homestead exemption if I move to Canada?
Yes. Both the homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes assessment cap depend on the property being your permanent residence. When it stops being that, the exemption comes off and the assessed value resets toward market at the next assessment, which on a long-held home can mean a sharp one-year increase in the property tax bill.
Can I take my Save Our Homes benefit with me?
No. Portability only transfers the accumulated benefit to another Florida homestead. Moving out of state ends it — there is no mechanism to carry it to a Canadian home.
Will FIRPTA withholding apply when I sell my Florida house?
Not if you remain a U.S. citizen. FIRPTA applies to dispositions of U.S. real property by foreign persons, and living in Canada does not make a U.S. citizen a foreign person. It becomes relevant only if you renounce your citizenship, or if the owner is a Canadian who is not a U.S. person.
Do I have to do anything to stop being a Florida resident for tax?
Not for income tax — Florida has none, so there is no residency to terminate and no final state return. You should still file to remove the homestead exemption, update your domicile for estate and legal purposes, and expect the property tax picture to change if you keep the house.
Can I keep the house and spend winters there?
Many people do, but it reverses your tax position: you become a Canadian resident spending time in the U.S., so U.S. day counting and the associated forms start to matter. Plan it before you assume six months a year is available to you.
Is Florida community property?
No. Florida is a common-law property state, so unlike Texas or California there is no full double basis step-up on the first spouse’s death to plan around. Florida does permit an opt-in community property trust; the federal treatment of those is unsettled, so flag it if you have one.
How much more tax will I pay in Canada?
You go from a federal-only bill to U.S. federal plus Canadian federal and provincial, with credits preventing double taxation — so in practice you pay the higher system on each type of income, which is usually Canada’s. The mechanics and the pre-move planning window are the same as for any no-income-tax state and are covered on the Texas page.
General educational information only — not tax, legal, or investment advice. Florida property tax, exemption and insurance rules are county-specific and change; confirm with your property appraiser and a cross-border professional before acting.
Lucas Wennersten
Lucas made the move from the U.S. to Canada himself. He holds the CFA and CFP® designations in both countries, runs a fee-only fiduciary practice from Scottsdale and Vancouver, and is the author of Crossing the 49th Parallel. For Florida households the work usually starts and ends with the house — and with the tax year in which you sell it.
Decide the house before you decide the date.
Twenty minutes with Lucas to work out whether the Florida home is sold, rented or kept — and what that choice does to your first Canadian tax year.
Introductory meeting
- Sell, rent or keep — with the unprotected tax bill in the math
- The pre-move window while your state share is still zero
- Whether we’re the right fit — and if not, who is
49th Parallel Wealth Management is a registered investment adviser; advisory services are offered only where the firm is registered or exempt.
