Moving to another province: which one taxes you?

The province or territory where you live on December 31 taxes your income for the whole year. If you move partway through the year, you don’t split your pay or investment income between the old and new provinces; your year-end province’s rates and credits apply to all of it. Business income is the main exception.

The December 31 rule

Your province or territory of residence for a tax year is the one where you lived, or were considered a factual resident, on December 31. You use that province’s tax package, and the CRA uses it to calculate your provincial or territorial tax and credits. The CRA’s rate tables say it plainly: your provincial or territorial rate is set by where you lived on December 31.

So if you move from Manitoba to British Columbia in August, you file as a British Columbia resident for the whole year, including the months you lived and worked in Manitoba. Move the other way and Manitoba’s rules apply for the year.

The difference can matter, because each province and territory has its own tax brackets and rates. For 2025, for example, the rate on the first slice of taxable income was 5.05% in Ontario and 8.79% in Nova Scotia. To see what your income would cost in each place, use the compare provinces calculator, or look up the income tax brackets and personal credit amounts.

Ties in two provinces at year-end

Sometimes you have a home base in one province and spend much of the year in another, such as a student away at school. If you had residential ties in more than one province or territory on December 31, use the one where your most important ties are. The CRA’s own example: if you go to school in Quebec but live in Ontario, you use the Ontario package.

Moving to or from Quebec

If you lived in Quebec on December 31, you file your federal return with the CRA using the package for Quebec residents, which covers federal tax only, and a separate provincial return with Revenu Québec. If you move out of Quebec before December 31, the usual rule applies: you use the tax package for your new province, and its rates apply for that year.

The exception: business income

If you’re self-employed, provincial or territorial tax on business income is generally payable to the province or territory where the permanent establishment that earns it is located, not simply where you live on December 31.

When part of your business income was earned through a permanent establishment outside your province or territory of residence (including outside Canada), you calculate your provincial and territorial tax on Form T2203, Provincial and Territorial Taxes for Multiple Jurisdictions, instead of the usual Form 428. On it you:

1. allocate your business income to each jurisdiction where you had a permanent establishment during the year,
2. generally allocate the rest of your income to your province or territory of residence, and
3. work out each jurisdiction’s tax on your taxable income from all sources, then prorate it by the share of income allocated to that jurisdiction.

Your return also asks which provinces or territories your businesses had permanent establishments in. Employment income isn’t split this way if you’re a resident of Canada: on Form T2203, only non-residents allocate employment income to the province or territory where the duties were performed. For more on filing as a sole proprietor, see deadlines for sole proprietors.

Your benefits after a move

Tell the CRA your new address as soon as you move. Your benefit and credit payments may stop if you don’t, even if they’re deposited into the same bank account as before.

That includes the Canada child benefit and the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (formerly the GST/HST credit). The CRA also administers provincial and territorial child benefit and credit programs, and those depend on where you live. Your return asks for the province or territory where you live now, if it’s different from your mailing address, because the CRA uses it to calculate the provincial or territorial credits and benefits you may be entitled to.

Moving for a job or for school? See deducting moving expenses.

In short

• Your province or territory on December 31 taxes the whole year’s income, at its rates and with its credits.
• With ties in two places at year-end, use the province of your most important ties.
• Business income earned through a permanent establishment in another province is split on Form T2203.
• Quebec residents on December 31 also file a provincial return with Revenu Québec.
• Update your address with the CRA right away so your benefit payments don’t stop.