Form RC518 is a short self-certification your Canadian bank, brokerage, or insurer uses to record where you are a tax resident. To fill out Form RC518, work through its three sections in order: enter your legal name and residential address, list every country outside Canada where you’re a tax resident along with each foreign Tax Identification Number, and sign the certification. Return the completed form to the financial institution that gave it to you, not to the Canada Revenue Agency.1Canada Revenue Agency. RC518 Declaration of Tax Residence for Individuals – Part XVIII and Part XIX of the Income Tax Act
Why You’re Being Asked to Complete It
Canadian financial institutions have to identify account holders who owe taxes in another country. Part XVIII of the Income Tax Act carries out Canada’s agreement with the United States under FATCA and covers U.S. persons.2Canada Revenue Agency. How to Complete and File a Part XVIII Information Return – International Exchange of Information on Financial Accounts Part XIX carries out the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard and covers everyone else.3Canada Revenue Agency. Guidance on the Common Reporting Standard – Part XIX of the Income Tax Act
You’ll usually see the RC518 when opening a deposit account, investment account, or insurance contract. Your institution may also ask for a fresh one if something in your file suggests a change in tax residency, such as a foreign mailing address, a foreign phone number, or standing transfers to an account abroad. Refusing to complete it has consequences: the institution can decline to open the account or freeze and eventually close an existing one.3Canada Revenue Agency. Guidance on the Common Reporting Standard – Part XIX of the Income Tax Act
Most people get the form from the institution itself, often through an online banking portal. If you want to download it directly, CRA offers a fillable PDF (Adobe Acrobat Reader 10 or later) and a standard print PDF, with alternate formats available through the CRA accessibility page.1Canada Revenue Agency. RC518 Declaration of Tax Residence for Individuals – Part XVIII and Part XIX of the Income Tax Act Some banks use their own branded version, but the fields are the same.
Section 1: Identification of Account Holder
Enter your full legal name and your current residential address. If your mailing address is different, include both. Residency is assessed from the residential address, so a P.O. box or in-care-of line by itself won’t satisfy the requirement. If you hold accounts as a sole proprietor, you complete this form as an individual; there is no separate entity form to file.
Section 2: Declaration of Tax Residence
This is the section that actually does the work. List every country outside Canada where you are a tax resident. For each one, provide the Tax Identification Number that country issues, or its functional equivalent. If you’re a U.S. tax resident, that’s your Social Security Number or ITIN. If Canada is your only jurisdiction of tax residence, you still complete the section by indicating Canada as your sole jurisdiction.
You also have to state whether you’re a U.S. citizen or U.S. tax resident regardless of where you currently live. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income, so this question applies even if you haven’t lived there in years. It’s how Canada meets its FATCA obligations for the account.2Canada Revenue Agency. How to Complete and File a Part XVIII Information Return – International Exchange of Information on Financial Accounts
If You Don’t Have a TIN
When you can’t supply a TIN for a jurisdiction where you are resident, the form asks you to select one of three reasons:
- Reason 1: You’ve applied for a TIN, or intend to, but haven’t received it yet.
- Reason 2: The jurisdiction doesn’t issue TINs to its residents.
- Reason 3: Another reason, which you must describe in writing.
Reasons 1 and 3 usually prompt follow-up from the institution. The explanation is checked against what the institution already knows about you, and a vague answer can slow things down. Failing to supply a foreign TIN when your country of residence does issue them can trigger a $500 penalty per failure under subsection 281(3) of the Income Tax Act.3Canada Revenue Agency. Guidance on the Common Reporting Standard – Part XIX of the Income Tax Act
If You’re a Tax Resident of Two Countries
The RC518 lets you list more than one jurisdiction, and that reflects reality: under each country’s domestic rules, you can genuinely qualify as resident in both. The form records the fact of dual residency; it does not resolve it. That work is done by the tax treaty between the two countries. The Canada-U.S. treaty, for example, applies a hierarchy of tiebreaker tests, starting with where you have a permanent home available to you, then centre of vital interests, habitual abode, citizenship, and finally mutual agreement between the two tax authorities.4Department of Finance Canada. Convention Between Canada and the United States of America Most Canadian treaties follow the same structure, drawn from the OECD model. Working out where you land in that hierarchy tells you which country to list as your primary residence in Section 2.
Section 3: Certification
Sign and date the form. Your signature certifies that the information is complete and correct, that you’ve listed every jurisdiction where you’re a tax resident, and that the TINs you gave are valid. Keep a copy. It’s your record that you met the requirement, and it’s useful if a question comes up later.
Where to Send the Completed Form
Return the RC518 to the financial institution that requested it. It does not go to the CRA. Your bank, brokerage, or insurer keeps the original in its compliance file. Most institutions accept it back through the same secure online portal you got it from; others accept a scanned upload or a mailed copy to their processing centre.
Updating the Form After a Change
The RC518 isn’t a one-and-done filing. If your tax residency changes, you move abroad, you gain or lose a citizenship, or you finally receive a TIN you didn’t have before, you need to give your institution a new self-certification. Once the institution knows or has reason to believe your circumstances have changed, it has 90 days to obtain an updated declaration from you before it must treat your original one as invalid.3Canada Revenue Agency. Guidance on the Common Reporting Standard – Part XIX of the Income Tax Act Don’t wait to be asked. Contact the institution when your situation changes and send a fresh RC518.