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There is no such "one car limit". There is however a $10,000 per item limit, including vehicles, on duty-free treatment for returning residents.


You are allowed to bring almost ANYTHING back as long as it is for personal use and is not to be sold within 12 months, amd it was bought at least 6 ...

Putting liability issues aside, I would think (3) self-employed residing in canada.

By residing in canada, you avoid 15% SE tax in US and maintain your health coverage.

You will pay no US fed tax. You might pay state, which would be creditable in canada of course.

others may have a different ...

I would just point out that, as a visitor, she still hastto maintain a US home at all times... but I'm sure she knows this.

If she spends 183 days in canad in 2006, then she will be taxable for the entire year in canada (as well as US).

If she lives in canada with you, regardless of status, she is a 'newcomer' to canada.

Bottom line you should consider her taxable in canada from the day she moved here, or the day she ...

it would probably cost you more than it is worth to find out. You will not save any tax by getting an exemption.

Report your full US income as a non-resident, get your certificate of Compliance for CPP (this will be much more useful than trying to determine whether or not you are exempt from income ...

You are not a full-year non-resident for 2005, you need to do a normal tax return, but indicate a departure date ox 09/dd/05, prorating your basic amount.

The only time you will need to filea schedule A is if, in some future year, you have certain Cdn income that you may have to report in canada ...

Just to clarify, you won't have any US tax left-over when you claim it on your Cdn tax return.

The only hitch is probably that you haven't had any IRS tax withheld yet, so you may wish to be sending them quarterly installments now, to avoid huge bill in spring, and underpayment penalties.

same for ...

You are working for the agent, and thus would probably not be entitled to Article XIV.

This shouldn't bother you too much, since you still live in Canada (this has to be the case), and you should still be paying CPP in canada on your self-employement income.

This gets you off the hook for any SE ...

For your 2006 US taxes, you wil have a choice as to how to file, since you will be in a dual-status year.

The decision will be dictated on how much filing jointly saves on your toatl 'coupled' US taxes over filing separately. It is usually extreemly beneficial to file jointly.


But, if you choose ...

Just to clarify, unless your wifes' FATHER was a Cdn citizen (or your wife's mother was not married) at the time of birth she did NOT automatically become a Cdn citizen at that time.

However, she became entitled to Cdn citizenship in 1977, when Canada corrected this obviously sex-biased law,

See ...

If you were to cash out before leaving the your cash out would be subject to fed and prov tax at your marginal rate. Since you likely have made more that $30.000 you would owe more thn 25%. But you can easily do the calculation yourself using last years return.

As you say, if you do it after you ...

Probably not. You have no choice at this point.[/img]

The answer, quite frankly, is 'could be'.

The 'fixed base' issue is very complex ,and really can only be determined on a case by case basis.

Add to this that the stae would also have a say as to whetherr THEY think you have a fixed base, too and thus taxable at the state level.

Even providing you ...

Russ, the rules are not so strict for IRA-holders in Canada as they are for RRSP-holders in US, so I would not take Cdn info as gospel.

All I would say is to nail down absolutely whether or not your IRA manager will allow you to keep your account active when you leave US, but do so BEFORE leaving.

The 10K threshhold is only for TD 90.22-1 form, and applies to the sum of all your foreign accounts.

While the value of your account every year is intersesing, it means nothing in terms of income and reporting.

And as to claiming losses, you can also clim losses with a failed rrsp too, when it is ...