What Leaving Actually Costs (And What It Doesn’t)

Every time I mention leaving Canada in a conversation, someone says the words “departure tax” in the tone you’d use for a diagnosis.

It’s become the boogeyman of Canadian expat planning. A vague, enormous, unavoidable levy the government slaps on you at the border for the crime of moving somewhere warmer. I’ve read forum threads where people talk themselves out of a decade-long plan because of a number they never actually calculated.

So let’s calculate it.

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