Serbinski Accounting Firms

I was under the impression that if, say, my children converted properly to an inherited IRA, they would incur no immediate US tax, though they would need to start immediate RMD's based on their own lifetimes. I reasoned that because this was an non-taxable event in the US, it would be also a non ...

I am a little concerned by this.

For the past several years, I have transferred some US pension to my wife and with that, transferred the proportional amount of the 15% (by treaty) US tax on it. Every year, I think, I have had requests from the CRA for documentation of the tax paid (e.g., 1042S ...

Very helpful, nelsona, especially the information about lump sums or collapsing. Thank you.

And I just checked to see whether the 2017 1042S forms are yet available, and they are. Unfortunately, because the December adjustments were done in January, the 1042S forms may be "correct" for the timing of what they actually did, but inconvenient for us. The tax withholding rate turns out to be ...

My wife and I both have rollover IRAs with TD Ameritrade. For years they withheld at the 15% rate (we had equal payments each month). In November 2017, they switched to 30% withholding without informing us; we noticed only because the amount deposited was reduced. We called them and they said that ...

No, they are not reported, since they represent money you owe. The one exception would be if you (probably accidentally) overpaid say a credit card so that it has a positive balance. Then it would be reported that year.

"Are you able to request your annual free credit reports from all 3 US credit bureaus just fine via online?"

I don't think so, I've never tried since moving back to Canada. But the current web interface asks for your current US address, and of course I don't have one. We've burned our bridges ...

My wife and I returned to live in Canada in 2010. We have three US credit cards (originally four, but I simplified to three) all with our Canadian address. No problem. I set all to use web statements, but they do occasionally send us updated rules and regulations, etc.

"... when you loose 30 percent of your money just by converting to us ... "

You need to think a bit about exchange rates. The CAD and the USD are not the same animal, and it is only an accident of language that the word "dollar" is used for both. For example, today a CAD is worth 0.54 of a British ...

TD Ameritrade.

We recently moved my wife's and my IRAs there from another custodian broker, as they would no longer allow trading with us living in Canada. The transfers did not go entirely smoothly; you need to keep calling to see what is holding things up, as they don't initiate calling to you ...

No. The value of the pension is the "Present Value" of the series of payments from now through your sister's life expectancy.

You can ask the pension payor give you this figure. If they won't do that (mine would not), you can use the following procedure to calculate it yourself. It's phrased as ...

CaDines: "I'd ideally like to put everything in a single Canadian Index fund, but I've been looking online and I'm seeing all this information about Canadian mutual funds/ETF being considered PFICs and having onerous reporting requirements and tax consequences. Is this correct?"

First of all, yes ...

I should add with respect to number (3) above, that you will also pay Canadian tax on the withdrawal of course. You will get credit for the US tax paid, up to 15%.

(1) I don't know about Schwab, you'll have to check with them.
(2) No tax at renunciation if you are not a "covered" expatriate (you are a covered expatriate if your income is too high, or your worldly assets are too much, or you can't swear to your last five years of tax returns, or you don't file ...

"Anyway, I am done here, will go elsewhere to look for an advice and explanation. Have fun."

nelsona does his best to give good advice and explanation, but he is spread very thin with many people asking. He does not have the time to say the same thing over and over again. If you want somebody to ...