Financial Preparations for Immigration

One of the most important steps in immigrating to Canada is analyzing one’s finances and preparing for the expected cost of living in a new country.

This does not necessarily include the costs of moving, although those are important as well.

Rather, it is important to consider that Canada may be a more costly place to live than what an immigrant is used to. Being able to budget one’s salary is the first step to comfortable living.

Below are some considerations to keep in mind when assessing the Canadian cost of living:

Location

Where a person decides to settle will affect their cost of living quite significantly.

As a general rule, more rural areas will be less expensive and Urban areas are more expensive.

However, there are some very rural areas of Canada where the cost of living will rise quite a bit because it becomes gradually more inaccessible.

Bringing Money from Home

Some countries restrict the amount of money that an immigrant can remove from the state’s banks. This is an important consideration for immigrants to make when coming to Canada.

Canada does not necessarily restrict the amount of money one may bring to Canada, although Canadian Border Protection does limit the total amount of cash that can be brought through the border.

Taxes

All nations have some form of taxes, even Canada. In order to provide essential services and infrastructure to the residents of Canada, the government runs multiple tax programs to gather revenue.

Sales taxes are applied to purchased goods throughout Canada. The federal government charges 5% and provinces can charge between 7 and 10% sales tax on goods. Some provinces maintain Harmonized sales taxes with the above figures combined.

Deductions are also made from paychecks paid out to employees to pay for health care, employment insurance, income taxes and other social programs.