Serbinski Accounting Firms

Yes, a great site, but with apparently bad news. It says the Legal Permanent Resident is disadvantaged versus the non-immigrant worker with respect to his spouse. I am now on H1-B and hope for LPR in a few years. My wife is H4-B. When I get my green card will my wife have to leave the country for ...

I don't think you have that choice for 2005, unless you also lived enough days in the US in 2003 & 2004 to make the days add up to 183 minimum. Unless you're married, I don't see a possible advantage either. My unprofessional recommendation is to just file a 1040NR. It is so much easier!

Exactly, and that's why (in my case) dual status 1040NR likely works better, because then I don't report that cap gain to California. If I choose married filing jointly and report for the whole year, I must, because the status you use for the state must be the same as that you use for the federal.

Although one has a choice about whether to be dual status or full-time U.S. resident in the year of move, and the latter tends to be more favorable, I do not think it's a no-brainer.

The reason I will submit my tax return on April 17 and not over a week ago is that I see very little daylight ...

All I can say is that I have also struggled with TurboTax. I have Canadian income, including capital gains, and want to claim a foreign tax credit. It is very difficult to be confident that TurboTax knows what it's doing in this regard. If your foreign income and foreign tax paid are reported on a ...

Nowhere does it say that Form 8833 is used by married couples in year of move to choose U.S. resident status. Pub 519 US Tax Guide for Aliens page 9 says to submit a "statement". The authority for married couples to choose this, if both become U.S. residents during the year, is IRC 6013(h), NOT the ...

Thanks again. Plus, as I am electing to file as a resident for all of 2005, and possessed non-registered Canadian a/c's worth more than $10,000 during 2005, I suppose I also have to file Form TD F 90-22.1 by June 30, 2006, right?

Pleased to report that thanks to your, (primarily nelsona's) advice, I have successfully used Quicktaxweb to do Canadian taxes, printed it out and mailed it in.

I know that this is NOT a software forum, but nevertheless: I'm using TurboTax for U.S taxes, and planning to file married filing jointly ...

There's no surfing there, is there?

When I state "illegible", I don't mean that literally. I just mean that the Rev Proc 2002-23, as written, is gobbledygook.

But back to cmkellar's last comment:

At any rate, it's good to know that the contributions I made recently are allowed by the U.S.

The ...

Given the info you've disclosed, I'd say it's unlikely that you have to file a Canadian tax return, but if you think there's any risk, I'd recommend seeing a pro. If you have non-registered investments in Canada, you should have already told your financial institution(s) that you are a non-resident ...

I sympathize with cmkellar's inability to find Rev Proc 2002-23, because it is not possible to find it at www.irs.gov via its search function. I am grateful to Google and Uncle Fed for presenting to us.

In any case, actually possessing Rev Proc 2002-23 may be good for something: starting a fire ...

Schedule 1 has 16% but the CRA website states 15%? Which is it?

I departed BC on April 29, 2005, for the U.S.

If I complete the paper T1 General, in the box "information about your residence", the first command is "enter your province or territory of residence on December 31, 2005." Below that, it commands "if you became or ceased to be a resident of Canada in ...

I just noticed I referred to T1234, when I mean T1161, of course! Regret the error.

RU sure.? I suppose it rests on grammatical interpretation. T1234 states:

"Complete this form if you ceased to be a resident of Canada at any time in the year and the fair market value of all the properties you owned when you left Canada was more than $25,000, not including the following properties ...