A practitioner’s 2026 guide to withholding, ITINs, U.S. federal and state returns, foreign tax credits, and the mistakes that can hold up refunds for years.
When a Canadian client sells a vacation home or rental property in the United States, the tax consequences reach well beyond the closing table. Withholding is taken on the gross sale price, refunds can be held up for years over a missing ITIN, and state tax can come due months before the federal return. This session gives Canadian practitioners an up-to-date, practical walkthrough of the process on both sides of the border, presented by a cross-border tax specialist who handles these sales every week.
The course starts with what counts as U.S. real property and how gains are taxed as effectively connected income. It then covers FIRPTA in detail: the 15% withholding on gross proceeds, the reduced rates when the buyer will live in the property, the role of Forms 8288 and 8288-A, and when a withholding certificate is worth the wait.
Much of the session focuses on the ITIN process. You’ll learn why clients can’t get an ITIN until after closing, how expired ITINs cause problems, why a Certifying Acceptance Agent matters, and how delays can hold back a refund for years. The course also covers dealing with escrow agents, sales by trusts, corporations and partnerships, state withholding and filing deadlines, U.S. federal and state returns, and preferential long-term capital gains rates.
On the Canadian side, the course explains how to report the gain and use the principal residence exemption strategically. It also covers currency conversion, claiming the foreign tax credit under Article 24 of the Canada–U.S. tax treaty, using the subsection 20(12) deduction, and getting through a CRA processing review. It also addresses common real-world problems: unfiled rental returns, missing depreciation history, and change-of-use issues.
1 activity • 1 videos • duration: 54m
The CPA Small Practitioners’ Forum was created to offer an inviting, semi-causal, and easygoing professional development weekend that provides substantial professional development value to small practitioners. All profit earned by the CPA Small Practitioners’ Forum is donated to the Alberta CPA Education Foundation, so you are helping young people in Canada get scholarships for university. All these courses are reviewed by the delegates at the Forum in Banff annually so we have a great lineup that is adjusted every year to keep things relevant to small practitioners. If you work at a public accounting firm in Canada with employees of 1-50 people, you are our target demographic and you should find this course useful.
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