Book a callIndicative ranges
Ranges rather than prices, because the same headline situation can differ by a factor of three. All figures on this page are in US dollars and exclude any applicable sales tax, GST or HST. Representation in an audit, enquiry or appeal is quoted separately. You get a fixed written quote after the first call, before any work begins.
Straightforward
- $900 to $1,600 per year
- Both countries, prepared together
- Employment income on one side
- One or two ordinary bank accounts
- No property across the border
- No registered or foreign funds
Layered
- $1,600 to $3,500 per year
- Both countries, prepared together
- Rental property or investments
- TFSAs, RESPs, RRSPs or 401k activity
- Self employment or equity compensation
- A move part way through the year
Catch up and complex
- From $3,500, project priced
- Several unfiled years at once
- Amnesty or voluntary disclosure
- Corporations, trusts or estates
- Expatriation and exit charges
- Planning quoted separately
Four variables, and none of them is how much you earn.
People assume cross-border fees track income. They do not. A well paid employee with a salary and a pension is often cheaper to file than someone on half the money with a rental flat, a brokerage account and a mid year move.
How many holdings need separate reporting, and whether any are foreign investment products.
Whether anything was bought, sold or vested during the year.
TFSAs, RESPs, RRSPs and 401k activity each add their own treatment and forms.
The big one. Six unfiled years is not six times the work, but it is nothing like one.
Fifteen minutes is enough to price it properly
We could put a form on this page, take four answers and generate a number. It would be wrong often enough to be useless, and every firm that does it reprices afterwards, which is the thing everybody hates.
A short conversation establishes the four variables above, and those four determine almost the entire fee. That is why the quote comes after a call rather than from a calculator, and why the figure we send is fixed rather than an estimate.
If the scope changes because something turns up that neither of us knew about, we tell you before doing the work, not after.
The call itself costs nothing and carries no obligation, and a reasonable share of them end with us saying the situation does not need a specialist at all.
What a quote should include
If you are comparing cross-border tax accountants, these are the things worth checking are in the price rather than added later.
- Both returns, not one with the other subcontracted or referred out.
- All reporting forms that arise, including account and asset reporting.
- Reconciliation between the two returns rather than each prepared in isolation.
- State filings where a state return is due.
- Correspondence with the tax authorities on anything arising from the returns filed.
- A named person you can actually reach, rather than a queue.
- Next year's changes flagged in writing at the end.
- A fixed figure, agreed before work starts, not an hourly estimate.
Three ways people overpay
Not by choosing an expensive firm. By structuring the engagement badly.
Paying two firms to duplicate work
A US preparer and a Canadian preparer each gather your documents, each build a picture, and neither reconciles to the other. You pay twice for the collection phase and still carry the risk in the gap between them.
Buying compliance when the problem was planning
Three years of well prepared returns costs a multiple of the single planning conversation that would have made all three cheaper and smaller.
Letting unfiled years accumulate
Catch up pricing rises with the number of open years. Coming forward before a tax authority makes contact keeps more routes open, though contact is not the only eligibility test. Waiting has a price and it compounds.
Questions about fees
This is general guidance rather than advice on your situation.
Why not just publish a price list?
Because the same description covers wildly different jobs. Two people who both describe themselves as an American living in Canada can differ by a factor of four depending on what they hold. A single published number would mean overcharging the simple cases or repricing the complex ones after the fact.
Is the first call really free?
Yes, and it is a real conversation rather than a qualifying script. If it turns out you have no filing obligation, or that your situation is simple enough not to need us, we will say so.
Do you charge for the planning conversation?
Planning engagements are quoted separately and are not free, but establishing whether you need one is.
What about catch up work, where I do not know how many years are open?
That is normal. Establishing the scope is the first piece of work and it happens before we quote the filings, so you are not committing to an open ended engagement.
The pages behind the pricing
What drives the number is really what is on these pages.
Get a fixed number before you commit to anything.
Twenty minutes, no charge, and a written quote afterwards.
Book a call