Serbinski Accounting Firms

1) Any idea where to find links to the text and explanation of US-Canada treaty?
2) Is there a separate form to indicate the invocation of treaty provisions, or we just calculate taxes based on treaty rulings?
Thanks.

I meet physical presence test for 2005, my wife does not (we both lived in US ate the end of 2005).
TurboTAX states we are still OK to file jointly as residents. Right or wrong?

Instructions for Form 8891 state: "Form 8891 is used ... to report distributions received from RRSPs and RRIFs." Some other discussions in this forum indicate RRSP withdrawals should be reported either as General Limitation Income (on 1099-R) or as Foreign Income. Which one of the 3 is true?

Which form is used to report a sale of the Canadian home to IRS?

Is there anything to report to IRS re. the house that got sold after US residency started?
Could home sale costs (agent, lawyer fees, etc.) be claimed as relocation costs, seeing the purpose of the sale was to move close to where the USA job is?
Thanks.

In order to report world income to CRA, we need income already calculated on US return.
In order to claim foreign tax credit on US return we need Canadian taxes already calculated.
How do we get out of this circle?

Oh yes and BTW H4 persons are not even entitled to SSN, so can/should they file any tax returns in US, whether separately or by being referenced on a spouse's joint return?

I see a lot of references to Form 2555 vs. Foreign Tax Credit.
Just briefly, for newcomers to the forum, what are the main differences between the two?

What are the advantages of filing jointly as opposed to filing separately?

Is filing jointly an option at all for a person in an H1B status, married to a person in H4 status, where H4 person had no income at all, neither in Canada nor US?

I entered USA on a TN visa in April 2005. Wife sold house in Canada in June 2005, then left for USA in July 2005 (on TD visa). In August we switched from TN/TD visas to H1b/H4 visas. We haven't travelled back to Canada yet. Being new to this situation, any help re. how to file Canadian/USA taxes (ap...