T1135: Declaring Your Moroccan Assets When You Live in Canada

The threshold is measured at purchase cost, not today's value, and the family home may not even count.

By the Namup team, Updated July 2026

You live in Canada and part of your life stayed in Morocco: a bank account, an apartment rented out in Casablanca, a plot of land, the house inherited from your parents. The question that comes back every spring: "Do I have to report all of that to the CRA?" The answer hangs on one threshold: if the total cost of your specified foreign property exceeded CAD 100,000 at any time in the year, you must file form T1135 with your return¹. And the detail that changes everything: the threshold is measured at cost, generally your adjusted cost base, i.e. what the property cost you, not at today's market value².

Filing triggers no tax by itself: the T1135 says what you hold, not what you owe. Tax falls only on the income (rent, interest), which is taxable anyway, threshold or not⁷.

What counts toward the threshold, and what stays out

Specified foreign property includes, among other things: funds deposited or held outside Canada (your Moroccan bank account), tangible property situated outside Canada (the rented apartment, the land, even property that produces no income counts³), shares of non-resident corporations, debts owed to you by non-residents. The threshold is assessed on the total: a CAD 40,000 account plus land that cost CAD 70,000 = CAD 110,000 → T1135¹.

The list of exclusions is short, but worth knowing by heart⁴:

• Personal-use property, and this is where many families can breathe easier: a vacation property that serves primarily as a personal residence is excluded. The CRA specifies that "primarily" means more than 50%⁵. The family house where you spend your summers, never rented (or rented occasionally, without expectation of profit), typically stays out of the T1135. The same house rented year-round with an expectation of profit goes in.
• Property used exclusively in an active business.
• Foreign property held inside an RRSP or TFSA.
• Shares or debt of a foreign affiliate (a separate reporting regime exists for those).

Two nuances that matter for the diaspora: an inherited property enters your books at its fair market value on the day you received it⁶, not at the price your parents paid thirty years ago. And in the year you become a Canadian resident, you do not have to file a T1135 for that first year⁶.

How to file, and what forgetting costs

The T1135 is due on the same date as your income tax return, April 30, or June 15 if self-employed, and can be filed electronically⁷. Between CAD 100,000 and 250,000 of total cost throughout the year, a simplified method (Part A) suffices; once your total cost reaches CAD 250,000 at any point in the year, the detailed method (Part B) applies⁸.

Forgetting has a precise price list⁹:

And if years have been missed, there is an official way back: the CRA's Voluntary Disclosures Program, designed precisely for coming forward before being audited⁹. That is the moment a CPA earns their fee.

New since 2025: Québec has its own form

For a long time, the federal T1135 was enough. Not anymore: from the 2025 tax year, a Québec resident who crosses the same CAD 100,000 threshold must also file Revenu Québec's Déclaration relative à la détention de biens étrangers (TP-1079.8.BE), by the filing deadline of their provincial return, and tick the corresponding box at line 25 of the Québec return¹⁰. Same threshold, same cost logic, two forms. If you are in Montréal or anywhere in Québec, your spring checklist now has two lines, not one.

Two countries, one clear picture

The hard part of the T1135 is not the form, it is knowing, when you sit down to fill it, exactly what you hold and at what cost. That is the work Namup does for you all year: your accounts in dollars and your accounts in dirhams, the Casablanca apartment and its acquisition cost, everything in its place in one picture of your wealth. And your month fits in one calculation, income − commitments − savings = what you can spend, where what you send to your family in Morocco has its own line, right there with the bills. When April comes, the list is already there.

Try it in 60 seconds, free, no card. See my wealth →

To complete the picture on the Moroccan side: if your plan is to sell property there and bring the proceeds back, read the retransfer guarantee; and to understand why the type of Moroccan account changes everything, the convertible dirham account.

Frequently asked questions

My Moroccan account holds CAD 60,000 and I have nothing else abroad. Do I file a T1135?

No, below CAD 100,000 of total cost, the T1135 is not required. But the income that account produces (interest, for example) remains taxable and must appear in your return, threshold or not. And if a second asset pushes your total over the line at any moment of the year, the form becomes due for that year.

Does the family house in Morocco, where I spend my holidays, count toward the threshold?

Often not: personal-use property, used primarily (more than 50%) as a personal residence by you or your family, is excluded from specified foreign property. It does count if it is rented out with an expectation of profit. In between (occasional rental, covering expenses only), that is exactly the question to settle with a professional.

Is the CAD 100,000 threshold today's value or the purchase price?

The cost, generally the adjusted cost base, so what the property cost you at acquisition (or its value on the day of an inheritance). An apartment bought for CAD 80,000 that is worth 150,000 today counts for 80,000 toward the threshold. That is the most common mistake around this form, in both directions.

I've missed the T1135 for years. Can it be fixed?

Yes. The CRA's Voluntary Disclosures Program exists precisely for that: coming forward before any audit, on far better terms. The longer the years stack up, the bigger the potential penalty, a step to take accompanied by a CPA or tax specialist, and to take early.

1. Canada Revenue Agency, "Foreign Income Verification Statement": form T1135 must be filed by "Canadian resident individuals, corporations and certain trusts that, at any time during the year, own specified foreign property costing more than $100,000". canada.ca, page modified 11 April 2025, consulted July 2026. The threshold is assessed on the total of all specified foreign property (official example: $75,000 + $35,000 = $110,000 → filing due). ↩
2. CRA, "Questions and answers about Form T1135": "Is the $100,000 threshold based on the fair market value of the property? No, it is based on the cost amount. The cost amount is defined in subsection 248(1) of the Income Tax Act and generally is the adjusted cost base and not the fair market value." canada.ca, consulted July 2026. ↩
3. Same sources: specified foreign property includes "funds or intangible property … situated, deposited or held outside Canada", "tangible property situated outside Canada", "an interest in or a debt owed by a non-resident", including property that produces no income (official Q&A: vacant foreign land is reportable). ↩
4. CRA, "Foreign Income Verification Statement", exclusions: "a property used or held exclusively in carrying on an active business; a share of the capital stock or indebtedness of a foreign affiliate; … a personal-use property as defined in section 54". RRSP/TFSA: "Specified foreign property held in an RRSP or a TFSA is excluded from Form T1135 reporting requirements" (Q&A). ↩
5. Official T1135 Q&A: "you do not have to report personal-use property. This includes a vacation property that serves primarily as a personal residence … The CRA takes the view that 'primarily' means more than 50%." Rented eight months with expectation of profit → reportable; rented merely to recover expenses, with no expectation of profit → personal-use, excluded. ↩
6. Official T1135 Q&A: "The cost amount of foreign property acquired by way of gift, bequest or inheritance is its fair market value at the time the gift, bequest or inheritance was received." New residents: no T1135 for the year one becomes a Canadian resident; cost = value at the date of arrival. ↩
7. "Form T1135 is due on the same date as the income tax return"; individuals may file electronically; the form is due "even if the income tax return … is not required to be filed". Below the threshold: "this does not exempt them from paying tax on any income earned on such property" (Q&A). Form: T1135, canada.ca. ↩
8. Same page: Part A (simplified method) for a total cost "of more than $100,000, but less than $250,000 throughout the year"; Part B (detailed method) as soon as the total cost reaches $250,000 at any time in the year. ↩
9. CRA, "Table of penalties", section 162(7) and following of the Income Tax Act: "$25 per day up to 100 days (minimum $100 and maximum $2,500)"; gross negligence "$500 per month, not exceeding 24 months (maximum $12,000)"; after a formal demand "$1,000 per month, not exceeding 24 months (maximum $24,000)"; after 24 months, "the penalty is 5% of the cost of the foreign property". canada.ca, table of penalties, consulted July 2026. Voluntary disclosures: official CRA program, referenced in the T1135 Q&A. ↩
10. Revenu Québec, "Déclaration relative à la détention de biens étrangers (TP-1079.8.BE)", version 2025-12: the form applies to any taxpayer "qui réside au Québec et qui … détient des biens étrangers désignés dont le coût total est supérieur à 100 000 dollars canadiens à un moment quelconque de cette année". Line-25 help (2025 return): the form must be sent "au plus tard à la date limite de production de votre déclaration de revenus, soit au plus tard le 30 avril, ou au plus tard le 15 juin". revenuquebec.ca, TP-1079.8.BE, line 25 help, consulted July 2026. ↩