Does departure tax apply to stock options I haven't exercised yet when I emigrate?

Stock options you haven't exercised get different treatment than most of your other property under the departure tax rules, rather than being valued and taxed immediately the way an investment portfolio would be. Instead of forcing an immediate valuation of an option you haven't yet acted on, the tax on any eventual benefit is generally deferred until you actually deal with the option, typically when you exercise it or otherwise dispose of your rights under it.

This matters because unexercised options can be genuinely hard to value at a specific moment, especially for a private company, and taxing a benefit that hasn't crystallized yet would create real hardship. The deferred timing doesn't mean the options escape Canadian tax altogether; it means the eventual tax treatment gets sorted out later, when there's an actual event and a real value to work with, rather than being folded into your departure-year deemed disposition calculation.

Because the interaction between employee stock option rules and non-residency can get complicated, especially if you're granted options by a Canadian employer and then leave while some are still unvested or unexercised, this is an area where getting specific advice before you emigrate is particularly worthwhile.