Built for snowbird landlords.
If you own rental property on both sides of the Canada-US border — and especially if you spend significant time in the US — your tax situation is the most complex in the cross-border landlord world. BorderBird is built for it — set up in 5 minutes, AI does the rest.
Create account, set up forwarding, add a property, add a tenant, forward your first email. Five steps, about a minute each.
Forward your payment and utility-bill emails — one filter, set once — and BorderBird auto-matches each to the right property and tenant, dated and queued for one-click import. It never connects to your inbox.
Years of payments in Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or Apple Mail? Forward them to your private BorderBird address and BorderBird imports them with their original dates.
Upload a signed lease PDF — AI pulls dates, rent, and tenant names. Renewals, vacates, and full tenancy history stay organized.
Snowbird tax considerations
If you spend 183+ weighted days in the US over the current and prior two years (counting current year fully, prior year ÷ 3, and the year before that ÷ 6), you may meet the IRS Substantial Presence Test and become a US tax resident — owing US tax on worldwide income. Snowbirds approach this threshold every year and rely on the Closer Connection exception or treaty tie-breaker.
Even if you meet Substantial Presence, you can avoid US tax residency by filing Form 8840 declaring closer connection to Canada. Required annually if you typically spend more than 121 days but less than 183 days in the US.
If you have a Canadian rental property and you spend significant time in the US, the question of your non-resident status for Canadian tax purposes matters. If CRA treats you as a resident, no Part XIII withholding. If non-resident, Part XIII applies.
A typical snowbird with one Toronto rental and one Phoenix rental files T776 (CRA) for the Toronto property and Schedule E (IRS) for the Phoenix property. Both convert to a single home-currency view for the foreign tax credit reconciliation.
Snowbirds typically have bank accounts on both sides of the border. Year-end balance in Canadian accounts (in USD) above the $10,000 USD aggregate threshold triggers FBAR filing.
Why snowbirds get the Max tier
Snowbirds typically have more properties than the average cross-border landlord — usually two to four — and more utility complexity because vacation rentals cycle utilities (winter occupants vs summer occupants vs vacancy periods), meaning more bills, more providers, and tighter expense tracking.
Max ($59 CAD/month) bundles automatic utility bill capture from the bills you forward — handling Hydro One, Enbridge, FPL, ConEd, PG&E, Toronto Water, Veolia, and 60+ other providers — which is the feature most snowbird landlords spend the most time on each month if they don't automate it.
Pro ($29 CAD) covers everything else: rent ledger, cashflow, NR4, T776, Schedule E exports — for up to 5 doors. The Free tier covers one door for one full year if you want to validate the workflow before committing.