BorderBird
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🏠 Ontario residents · 🇺🇸 US rental property — any state

Built for Ontario residents who own US rental property.

Whether your US property is in Florida, Arizona, Texas, California, New York, or anywhere else — and whether you own one property or several across multiple states — BorderBird handles the CRA + IRS + state filing workflow from one ledger.

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Why landlords pick BorderBird
5-minute setup

Create account, connect Gmail, add a property, add a tenant, run the first scan. Five steps, about a minute each.

AI Gmail import

Rent payments, utility bills, and receipts detected automatically — matched to the right property, dated, and queued for one-click import.

Forwarded email history

Years of payments in Yahoo, Outlook, or Apple Mail? Forward them to Gmail and BorderBird imports them with their original dates.

AI lease extraction & history

Upload a signed lease PDF — AI pulls dates, rent, and tenant names. Renewals, vacates, and full tenancy history stay organized.

The Ontario-US landlord population is large, diverse, and growing

Ontario is the largest single source province of Canadian capital flowing into US residential real estate. GTA pricing has pushed yields below 3% on Toronto investment property, while US markets routinely cap at 5-8% — driving systematic cross-border allocation by Ontario investors for the past decade.

Three distinct Ontario landlord profiles emerge:

  • Snowbird landlords: Florida or Arizona property they personally use part of the year and rent seasonally. T776 + Schedule E + property-specific occupancy tracking matters here.
  • Pure investors: US property purchased for cash flow + appreciation, never personally occupied. Often multiple properties across one or two states. Multi-state workflow becomes the operational pain.
  • Inherited / family-asset landlords: US property inherited from US-resident family or acquired via family-transaction. The acquisition-cost basis calculation (step-up at death) interacts uniquely with CRA T1135 cost reporting.

Each profile has slightly different tax surface, but all three share the same core CRA + IRS + state filing stack. BorderBird is built for the shared stack.

Your Ontario + US tax obligations (works for any US state)

T776 (CRA)
Statement of Real Estate Rentals — every US property reported separately

Ontario residents declare worldwide income to CRA. One T776 per US property. USD converted to CAD at Bank of Canada annual average (2025 = 1.3978 CAD/USD). With multiple US properties across multiple states, the per-property T776 discipline becomes essential — total Ontario tax math depends on each property's net result.

T1135 (CRA)
Foreign Income Verification — cost base across all US property

Aggregate cost base of all foreign property over CAD $100,000 triggers T1135. Detailed Reporting kicks in over $250k aggregate — virtually certain with two or more US properties. Per-property breakdown required: country code, max cost, year-end cost, gross income, disposition gain/loss.

1040-NR (IRS)
US Nonresident Alien Return — one federal return covers all US property

Federal 1040-NR with Schedule E listing every US property. ITIN required (Form W-7 with first 1040-NR). Filing deadline June 15 for Canadian non-residents with no US wage withholding.

State income tax returns
One state return per US state where you own property

Multi-state Ontario landlords file one state return per state. No-income-tax states (Florida, Texas, Nevada, Washington, Tennessee, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, New Hampshire) skip state filing. California, New York, Arizona, Oregon, Illinois, North Carolina, Massachusetts all have non-resident filing obligations.

Schedule E + Form 4562 (IRS)
Rental income, expenses, depreciation per property

Attached to 1040-NR. Each property gets its own Schedule E column. 27.5-year straight-line depreciation on the building portion (Form 4562). Multi-state, multi-property setups become complex quickly without software discipline.

Section 871(d) election
One election covers all US rental property

Filed once with your first 1040-NR. Applies to all US-source rental income going forward. Without it, IRS withholds 30% of gross rent under FDAP rules on every property — disastrous for multi-property portfolios.

Foreign Tax Credit (CRA T2209)
Avoiding double taxation across all US properties

Pay US tax (federal + state where applicable) via 1040-NR first; claim Foreign Tax Credit on Ontario T1 to offset the same income. Ontario's 53.53% top rate normally exceeds US rates, so FTC fully absorbs US tax and Ontario tops up the residual. Per-property tracking simplifies the FTC computation materially.

How BorderBird helps Ontario → US landlords specifically

  • Per-property segregation.Each US property tracks separately so the multi-property T776 + Schedule E workflow doesn't commingle income or expenses across properties.
  • Bank of Canada FX consistency across all properties. Annual average rate applied uniformly across every USD entry — the CRA-standard convention.
  • State-aware property setup.Marking a property's state surfaces the relevant state-tax obligations (Arizona 140NR, California 540NR, NY IT-203, etc.) in your year-end export package.
  • T1135 aggregate visibility. Total cost base across all your US properties in CAD, so you can see Detailed Reporting threshold position without spreadsheeting.
  • State-specific guides. Read individual state pages from Ontario → Florida, Ontario → Arizona, Ontario → Texas, Ontario → California — every state has its own page.

FAQ

I have US property in two different states — how does that change filing?
Federally, one 1040-NR covers all your US rental income with Schedule E listing each property separately. State-level, you file one state non-resident return per state where you own property (if that state has income tax). Example: Ontario landlord with Florida + Arizona rental files one federal 1040-NR + one Arizona Form 140NR (no Florida state return needed). Add a California property and you also file California Form 540NR. Each state has its own filing deadline, withholding rules, and credit methodology — the multi-state side is where many DIY filers underestimate complexity.
Do I file one T1135 covering everything or one per property?
One T1135 per Ontario tax filer, listing every specified foreign property. The Detailed Reporting section (required when aggregate cost exceeds $250k) breaks out each property: country code, max cost during year, year-end cost, gross income, disposition gain/loss. Co-owners (e.g., spouses on title) each file their own T1135 for their ownership share — not one joint T1135.
Should I structure my multi-property US portfolio in a corporation?
For Ontario individuals, corporate ownership of US real estate creates as many problems as it solves. CRA-IRS LLC mismatches cause double taxation and lost foreign tax credits. Canadian holding company with US LLC subsidiary structures are sometimes used by ultra-high-net-worth investors but require specialized cross-border CPA design and ongoing fees that rarely justify themselves below ~$5-10M of US real estate. Most Ontario landlords with 1-5 US properties hold them personally.
How does Ontario's 53.53% top rate interact with US tax on multi-property income?
After paying US tax (federal + applicable state), you claim the foreign tax credit on Ontario T1 to offset the same income. Ontario's top combined rate (53.53%) exceeds US non-resident effective rates on rental income (typically 24-35% including state). So the FTC fully absorbs US tax and Ontario tops up the residual. Net effect: you pay the higher of the two jurisdictions' rates on the same dollar — not both. This holds regardless of how many US properties you have; the per-property tracking just makes the math auditable.
What's the practical limit on US properties before I should hire a multi-state CPA?
Most cross-border CPAs say one or two US properties in the same state is manageable with general cross-border tax software. Three or more, or properties in multiple states, you want a CPA who specializes in multi-state cross-border specifically — they know which state-level deductions interact with federal Schedule E and which don't, which states accept federal depreciation methods vs require state-specific methods, and how to optimize FIRPTA timing across multiple sales.
Keep reading
Ontario → Florida specificallyAll Ontario state-by-state guidesCanadian landlords (general)Canadian Owning US Rental — Complete GuideBest software for cross-border landlordsSection 871(d) election guideITIN application guide (Form W-7)T1135 form guideForm 1040-NR guideFIRPTA calculator →CRA remittance calculator →