Serbinski Accounting Firms

Note that everywhere I refer to stock options below for US purposes, I mean non-qualified stock options. I *think* in your case you are safe, since the entire time from grant to exercise your principal place of employment was the US company. Thus the bargain element of the stock option will be consi...

Both of us are not quite accurate -- it definitely isn't residency (a mistatement on my part) nor is it where you worked (unlike salary foreign sourcing in the US, which is working days in country vs. outside country). It is split based on your "principal place of employment". I agree that...

Treaty is pretty clear on stock options -- proportion of the time between grant date and exercise date that you were Canadian resident vs. US resident (as per treaty) will be used to determine how much is Canadian vs. US income. I believe RSUs are treated similarly. Note that just because it is a US...

BTW, if you received "Restricted Stock Units" rather than stock options, then things are different. RSUs trigger a tax event when they vest, and your employer should be automatically selling enough RSUs to cover your Canadian taxes (which they will withhold). From that point on, the remain...

Hi, I will assume you are a Canadian tax resident. ESPP: The difference between the FMV and the price you receive the shares at is income, reportable in this tax year. If your employer issues you a T4, the benefit would have been included on that; in the past, they wouldn't have remitted taxes at th...

Sorry, I know that was a monster of a post. I was hoping that each of the questions were fairly pointed, but I guess not. Yeah, using the working days out of country divided by *working* days in country really helps out with soaking up the FTCs. As far as I know, its even better than it looks, since...

I've got some simple and some complex questions. Bear with me... My situation: Married, both earning good salary. Moving back to Canada from CA in mid-March after two years in US. Have some accumulated cap gains, a small 401(k), and a mid-sized RRSP with only a small gain (~+10%). House purchase clo...

I understand that 2555 only excludes some income, and I can use 1116 against the remainder (with adjustments). However, I've found that using 1116 against the full amount yields lower taxes than doing an exemption + credit. Just wanted to check that this seems right -- from the way the tax reduction...

Thanks. Keep forgetting to check the treaty... good tidbit about 10 day rule not mattering for dual-status Canadians. So if I crystallize my gain pre-move, I'm subjecting myself to 15% federal + 9ish% (minus 3% credit) CA state tax, which is not good. If I crystallize post-move and elect full year 1...

Hi, It seems like Form 2555 isn't worth it if you are a high-income individual. If I understand the worksheet correctly, the excluded income only reduces the first $x dollars of income, not at the marginal rate as I would have expected it would. In the event that you have a lot of foreign tax credit...

Hi, From my reading on dual-status tax years, I am allowed to spend up to 10 days in the US after my exit date without it impacting my exit date for US tax purposes. If I elect to file as a full-year resident, then I *think* my exit date for US purposes will still matter in the event of capital gain...

Thanks to this site, I'm aware of using form 2555. One complication to going with a full-year MFJ 1040 filing is that I have some securities I was planning on selling once I ceased residency, though I am looking into deferring those sales into 2012. I'll have some more questions related to my situat...

Whoops, missed publication 530 -- it's quite clear on the subject. "Land transfer taxes" are not deductable. Too bad -- that would have made a full-year election a slam dunk ;-)

- Paul

Hi, Do land transfer taxes paid upon purchase of a property in Canada count as "real estate taxes" for line 6 on form 1040 (assuming a full-year return)? It is an amount paid based on assessed value of property and subject to everyone purchasing homes -- but it seems too good to be true if...