About DualFiler

Our Mission

Nearly one million Canadians live in the United States. They work on TN visas, H-1Bs, and green cards. They study on F-1 visas. They snowbird between Toronto and Florida. They hold dual citizenship and juggle obligations to two countries simultaneously.

Every one of them faces a labyrinth of cross-border tax obligations that is among the most complex in the world. Most do not know that their Canadian TFSA is treated as a foreign trust by the IRS. Most do not know that their Canadian savings account triggers FBAR and FATCA reporting. Most do not know that failing to file a single information return they have never heard of can cost them $10,000 or more in penalties.

DualFiler exists to change that. Our mission is to make cross-border tax knowledge accessible, understandable, and free — so that no Canadian in the US is blindsided by an obligation they never knew existed.

What We Do

• 1
  Classify your tax persona. Our wizard asks a handful of questions about your citizenship, visa status, days in the US, assets, and income to classify you into one of 7 cross-border tax personas — each with its own set of filing requirements.
• 2
  Show you every form you might need. Based on your persona, we generate a personalized checklist of US and Canadian tax forms, information returns, and reports — with deadlines, penalty amounts, and explanations of why each one is triggered.
• 3
  Quantify your penalty exposure. Our calculators estimate FBAR penalties, foreign tax credits, substantial presence test results, and currency conversions using the correct government-published exchange rates.
• 4
  Educate you with in-depth guides. Our guide library covers personas, forms, and scenarios with detailed explanations sourced from IRS publications, CRA guidance, and the Canada-US Tax Treaty.

What We Do NOT Do

Why Cross-Border Tax Is So Complex

Cross-border tax between Canada and the United States is uniquely complicated because of several intersecting factors:

• Two complete tax systems. Both countries tax based on worldwide income, creating the potential for double taxation on the same dollar of income.
• The Savings Clause. Article XXIX(2) of the Canada-US Tax Treaty allows each country to tax its own residents as if the treaty did not exist, limiting the treaty’s practical benefit in many scenarios.
• Account-level reporting. FBAR, FATCA, T1135, and Form 3520 require account-by-account reporting with different thresholds, different exchange rates, and different filing methods — and the penalties for non-compliance are severe.
• TFSA/PFIC trap. Canada’s most popular savings vehicle (the TFSA) is one of the most punitive structures under US tax law — a foreign trust holding PFICs, triggering multiple forms and punitive tax treatment.
• Multiple exchange rates. Three different government agencies publish three different exchange rates for three different purposes. Using the wrong rate for the wrong form can create material misstatements.
• Residency determination. Determining residency status in both countries simultaneously requires analysis under the Substantial Presence Test, the Green Card Test, CRA factual resident tests, and Treaty tie-breaker rules.

The Team

DualFiler is built by Canadians who have lived the cross-border experience firsthand. We have navigated TN visa applications, FBAR filings, TFSA reporting nightmares, and the bewildering maze of forms that comes with having financial ties to two countries.

We built DualFiler because we know how it feels to discover — often years too late — that you were supposed to file a form you had never heard of, for an account you did not think needed reporting, with a penalty that can exceed the account balance itself. We believe this information should be free and accessible to every Canadian who crosses the border.

Powered by Research

Every form requirement, penalty amount, threshold, deadline, and guide on DualFiler is sourced from primary government publications:

• IRS publications, instructions, and revenue procedures
• CRA guides, income tax folios, and interpretation bulletins
• FinCEN guidance and BSA filing instructions
• The Canada-United States Tax Convention and its Technical Explanations
• U.S. Treasury Department exchange rate publications
• Bank of Canada exchange rate data

Our tax engine is built with explicit source citations so you can verify every claim against the official publications. We update our data annually to reflect new penalty amounts, thresholds, and deadlines.

Contact Us

Have questions, feedback, or spotted an error? We want to hear from you.

• General inquiries: hello@dualfiler.com
• Privacy inquiries: privacy@dualfiler.com
• Legal inquiries: legal@dualfiler.com