Cost of staying · 2026 tax year · free, no email needed
What is staying really costing you?
Choose where you pay tax today, enter your income and pick where you would go. See what you would keep, and what the difference compounds to if you invested it. Built for entrepreneurs and investors earning $100,000+.
Read this before you act
What changing your tax residency actually takes
Canadians don’t renounce their citizenship or give up their passport. To stop being taxed as a resident, you must establish a genuine primary residence in your new country. What that requires depends on whether a tax treaty applies between the two countries and, where there is no treaty, on day-count rules together with your ties: your home, your family and your economic connections.
U.S. citizens remain taxable on worldwide income wherever they live, so their plan also weighs the foreign earned income exclusion, Puerto Rico, or renunciation and the exit tax.
This is nuanced and case-specific: it is an absolute necessity to have it evaluated by a professional before you act.
Where do the tax figures come from?
2026 federal, state and provincial brackets and payroll contributions (Social Security and Medicare, CPP/QPP and EI). The Canadian self-employed and corporation scenarios include the modelled net sales tax a service business remits. U.S. local and city taxes are not estimated automatically, but you can include them through the manual inputs.
What does “effective rate” in the destination mean?
The share of your income you would pay in the new country. Territorial countries such as Costa Rica, Panama and Paraguay generally do not tax income earned outside their borders, so the default is 0%, provided the right legal structure is in place. You can change it.
What happens if I live outside the U.S. but remain a U.S. citizen?
Moving abroad does not by itself end U.S. taxation. The calculator illustrates keeping U.S. citizenship while living abroad, including a simplified foreign earned income exclusion under its stated assumptions. It does not calculate renouncing citizenship or the U.S. exit tax.
Is this tax advice?
No. It is a rough, general estimate produced without knowledge of your facts. Several calculations are simplified and errors are possible.