CDN-USC spending 3-4 weeks in US -- health coverage needed?

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 9:46 am

My son and I plan to spend about 3-4 weeks in the US visiting family this summer, the whole time in one state and it will be one single trip.

We are both dual citizens living in Canada with OHIP and emergency-only travel health insurance from my Canadian employer.

Am I required to buy US health care coverage for that month?

Any other tax-related issues this could open up?

Thanks!
Alex

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 9:57 am

That would depend on what "emergency-only" coverage from your employer means.

Generally people pick up a blue cross from Canada for a trip to US, whih supplements your OHIP.. You would NOT buy US health coverage.

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 9:59 am

Why would you think this would incur tax issues? You won't be working will you?

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 10:58 am

Thank you for the helpful reply.

My emergency-only travel health insurance is -- I think -- a pretty standard travel health insurance. It wouldn't cover routine doctor visits in the US or anything that I could reasonably return to Canada for to have covered under OHIP. If I needed immediate care in the US that could not wait for a trip back to Canada, it would be covered.

I don't like to take that much time off work, so I plan to bring my lap-top with me to work remotely for my Canadian employer part of the time that I'm in the U.S -- I guess telecommuting from U.S..

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 11:37 am

That might make your US tax return a little more difficult this year.
You file a US return every year reporting all your income, don't you? If you exempt income using form 2555, you might not be able to for the days you worked physically in US.

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 12:42 pm

Thank you! So I guess I should keep a log of which days I work from U.S.

How about using foreign tax credit to offset my earnings? Would that be impacted at all by my US telecommuting?

Would the state I visit expect me to file a state return?

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Sat Jun 11, 2016 7:59 am

No, regular ftc would not work since it would not be foreign sourced. You would need to to a resourced by treaty 1116. assuming that you would earn less than 10K during that period.

You woul need to look at the state rules yourself. Not likely.