Moving to Another Province in Canada: What Changes and a Checklist

Moving to another province changes which provincial income tax and sales tax you pay, which health plan covers you, the driver’s licence you hold and which provincial benefits you can apply for. Federal programs (EI, OAS, the Canada Child Benefit, the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit, and CPP everywhere outside Quebec) keep paying once your address is updated. For income tax, the province you live in on December 31 taxes your income for the whole year. Your new province’s health plan covers you after its waiting period, and the plan you’re leaving covers you in the meantime.

What changes when you move provinces

Taxes when you move

When you move between provinces, the province you live in on December 31 taxes all of your income for that year, no matter how many months you spent in the old one.

The December 31 rule

CRA’s instructions for the return say it directly: “Your province or territory of residence is the province or territory where you lived or of which you were considered to be a factual resident on December 31” of the tax year (Canada.ca). That province’s tax rates, credits and surtaxes apply to the whole year’s income.

Business income is the exception: if you’re self-employed and had a permanent establishment in another province, the income is split between provinces on Form T2203 instead.

Because the date decides the whole year, the timing of a move changes what you pay. Income you receive during the year of the move, including a bonus, an RRSP withdrawal or a taxable capital gain, is taxed at the rates of the province you live in on December 31, so the same income can cost more or less depending on which side of the year-end the move falls.

Combined sales tax runs from 5% in Alberta to 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, and income tax at the same income differs by province too; the lowest-tax provinces page compares income tax and take-home pay in every province.

How CRA decides where you live

Most moves are clear: you sold or gave up your home in one province and live in the other. When you have ties to both, for example a temporary job posting or a year of school away from your usual home, CRA’s residence folio says you’re treated as resident “only in the province in which the individual has the most significant residential ties” (Income Tax Folio S5-F1-C1).

Keeping a home in the old province, such as a rental property or cottage, isn’t a problem on its own, but it is a tie, so the ties you set up in the new province (a health card, licence, registration and a home) are what show the move happened.

Filing in the year of the move

You file one return for the year, as a resident of your December 31 province, and report all your income on it. Residents of Quebec on December 31 also file a Quebec return with Revenu Québec and claim the Quebec abatement on the federal return.

The moving expense deduction

If you moved to start a job, run a business or study full time and the move brought you at least 40 km closer to the new location, you can deduct many of the costs of the move (movers, travel, temporary lodging, selling costs on your old home) on line 21900, against income you earn at the new location. The moving expense deduction guide covers which costs count, the simplified and detailed methods, the income limit and carrying the unused amount forward. Money an employer pays toward your move is covered in is relocation assistance taxable.

Updating CRA after a move

Have your SIN and details from your last return ready if you phone. Service Canada keeps a separate address for EI, CPP and OAS; see updating Service Canada after a move.

If you don’t update your address, benefit payments, notices of assessment and letters asking for information go to the old address, and deadlines in those letters keep running. Provincial credits paid through CRA also depend on the province CRA has on file.

Which benefits change

The government benefits by province page compares what each province pays. BC’s Climate Action Tax Credit and the federal Canada Carbon Rebate have both ended, so neither depends on where you move.

Health coverage when you move provinces

You become covered by the new province’s health plan after its waiting period, and the plan you’re leaving keeps covering you in the meantime. Apply to the new province as soon as you’ve moved, keep your old health card until the new one arrives, and tell your old plan the date you left.

When coverage starts in the new province:

How long the plan you’re leaving covers you:

Public plans cover medically necessary doctor and hospital care, but what they add on top (prescription drugs, ambulance trips, eye exams) differs by province, so a move can change what you pay out of pocket; the government benefits by province page compares the drug programs. Care you get in your new province while your old plan still covers you can be billed differently from care at home, which is one reason some movers keep travel medical coverage for the transition. Waiting periods for newcomers to Canada and returning residents follow different rules, covered in provincial health insurance in Canada.

Your driver’s licence and vehicle

Each province sets its own deadline for switching an out-of-province licence and registering your vehicle.

Ontario’s licence exchange includes a vision test. In British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, basic car insurance comes from a public insurer, and in Quebec the SAAQ covers bodily injury while private insurers cover property damage, so the insurer you deal with can change along with the premium; car insurance costs by province compares premiums. A policy written in one province doesn’t carry over to another, so your insurer needs your moving date.

EI, CPP and payroll

EI and the CPP are federal programs, so a move between provinces doesn’t reset them: your contributions, insurable hours and any claim you already have follow you. Three things do change. Your employer starts withholding the new province’s income tax, Quebec replaces the CPP with the QPP and EI parental benefits with QPIP, and the number of hours you need for a new EI claim depends on the unemployment rate where you live when you apply.

Your pay stub after a move

The EI employee rate is 1.63% of insurable earnings outside Quebec and 1.30% in Quebec in 2026; the EI contribution rates page has the maximums. If payroll keeps withholding at your old province’s rates for part of the year, the difference is settled on your tax return, which uses the province you lived in on December 31.

CPP and QPP when you move

Outside Quebec, the CPP works the same way in every province, so a move doesn’t change your contributions or your future pension. Working in Quebec means contributing to the Quebec Pension Plan instead, and leaving Quebec for a job elsewhere switches you back to the CPP.

The QPP employee rate is 0.35 percentage points above the CPP rate. Contributions to both plans count toward your pension: when you apply, the plan of the province you live in pays a single pension that takes your CPP and QPP contributions into account. If you contributed to both plans in the same year, for example because you changed jobs across the Quebec border, CRA Form RC381 (Inter-Provincial Calculation for CPP and QPP Contributions and Overpayments) works out whether you overpaid. Rates, maximums and the CPP2 tier are covered in CPP contribution rates.

EI when you move

Hours you need for a new claim

To qualify for EI regular benefits you need between 420 and 700 insurable hours, depending on the regional rate of unemployment in the EI economic region where you live when you apply. Moving from a region with high unemployment to one with low unemployment raises the number of hours you need, and the reverse lowers it. The hours you’ve already worked don’t reset. The full table and the other conditions are on how to apply for EI.

If you’re already on EI

Parental benefits in Quebec

Parents who live in Quebec get maternity, paternity and parental benefits from the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan instead of EI, with its own rates, weeks and coverage for self-employed workers. The QPIP guide compares it with EI, and the maternity and parental benefits guide covers EI outside Quebec.

Updating Service Canada after a move

Your CRA address is separate, and CRA uses it for the Canada Child Benefit, the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit and provincial credits; see updating CRA after a move.

Moving to or from Quebec

Quebec runs its own income tax return (see Quebec income tax rates), its own pension plan and its own parental benefits. Working in Quebec means contributing to the QPP instead of the CPP (see CPP and QPP when you move), and new parents who live in Quebec are covered by QPIP rather than EI maternity and parental benefits.

Moving checklist

Before you move

• Compare income tax, sales tax and living costs in the new province (Ontario vs Alberta and BC to Alberta are worked comparisons).
• Ask your current health plan how long it covers you after you leave, and check the new province’s waiting period (tables above).
• Tell your car and home insurers your moving date, and get quotes in the new province.
• If an employer is paying for the move, check how the package is taxed (is relocation assistance taxable); if you’re paying, keep receipts for the moving expense deduction.
• Budget for the move itself: see moving costs in Canada.

In the first weeks

• Apply for the new province’s health card.
• Update your address with CRA (My Account) and with Service Canada if you receive EI, CPP or OAS.
• Tell your employer, so payroll withholds the new province’s income tax.
• Update banks, investment and registered-plan providers, and insurers.

Within the licence and registration deadlines

• Switch your driver’s licence, and register and insure your vehicle in the new province.

After you settle

• Apply for the new province’s own benefits (child benefits, disability support, drug programs, seniors’ supplements); see benefits by province.
• At tax time, file as a resident of the province you lived in on December 31.

Moving provinces guides

Taxes, payroll and benefits

• Government benefits by province: child benefits, disability support, drug coverage and seniors’ supplements compared.
• Choosing a province to retire in: tax, housing, health programs and climate for retirees.

Provincial guides

• Money guide to Alberta
• Money guide to British Columbia
• Money guide to Ontario
• Money guide to Quebec

Related

• The Canadian snowbird guide and retiring abroad cover moves and long stays outside Canada.
• How to Read Your Pay Stub in Canada
• Non-Resident Tax Guide for Canada