[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by Press Level

The role that lower US taxes play in these decisions cannot be understated. If money is your top (or near your top) priority, you will never want to play in a higher taxed Canadian market.


Also, many players (or their significant others) have no desire to endure Canadian winters when they could instead be in California, Florida, Arizona, Carolina, etc, etc.

It's not as big of an issue as some make it out to be

All non-residents must pay Canadian tax on any income earned in Canada at the applicable tax rate.

For professional athletes who play on teams who have games in both Canada and the U.S. (this would include most major league sports), this means they pay Canadian taxes only on income earned during games played in Canada.

https://www.feigenbaumlaw.com/sports...tes-in-canada/

Sports agents have long bemoaned the tax rates that high-salaried Canadian-based athletes face. For example, Ontario’s top individual tax rate is 53.3 per cent, the highest among all NHL locales.

But wealthy people have tools that can tamp down the effects of those tax rates.

Financial advisers recommend their high-income clients, such as professional athletes, use a vehicle called a Retirement Compensation Arrangement (RCA) to help offset high income taxes. In basic terms, an RCA allows an individual to sock away up to half of their salary each year and delay accessing it until retirement, when the individual may well be living somewhere else and paying a far lower tax rate.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/inve...high-canadian/