Retiring in a year but pension contributions in both the USA and Canada

by Allan
(Orlando,Florida)

My wife and I with two grown sons transferred to Florida on an L-1 Visa back in August 1996. It was our full intention to return to manage the company office in Ontario, Canada once our boys graduated university.

After 5 years, my immigration lawyer pointed out we qualify for Green Cards so we applied and were successful. Somehow 16 years have passed by and we easily qualify to be US citizens. In fact, both my children are already US citizens as of this year.

I now have purchased the company that transferred me here to Florida. During the entire period, I never got rid of my home in Ontario as we rented out to family members. I viewed it as part of retirement nest egg and never gave it much thought as they have paid all the costs of running our home.

We’ve also been building up our CPP contributions and contributing to our RSP’s as the Canadian portion of my USA company still maintains a small office in Ontario that I manage at a distance by the internet and telephone conferencing. I can retire in a year when I turn 65 .

In the back of my thoughts my wife and I are thinking we may spent half the year in Ontario and the other in Florida as both homes are paid off.

Here are my questions:

Can I collect the CPP in Canada and have it direct deposited to our Canadian bank accounts while doing the exact same thing here in the USA?

In the USA we have contributed to Social Security for 16 years and have built up a large IRA account for both of us. The plan is to bank both pensions in separate banks between the USA and Canada.

We abandoned our OHIP 14 years ago but still have the original numbers. If we spend 6 months in Ontario will we be able to restore our OHIP privileges?

RBC and TD both have USA branches here in Florida. We bank with both of them in Ontario. Can we have direct deposit our CPP to these banks without any major tax implications?

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