Serbinski Accounting Firms

I am told by my bank that I can set up a self-directed TFSA that will let me use US$ located in a Canadian bank to buy US tax exempt bonds through a Canadian broker to hold in a Canadian TFSA. If I avoid the private activity types of bonds, would these TFSAs be tax exempt in the US because of the na...

I am starting to understand why this is right! What software does cross-border forms like these? Or do I need a purely US program to get at the details of the AMT and FTC, and a purely domestic program for my home country?

Thank you for all this feedback. I had done the calculation for AMT but did not bother with form 6251 when I saw that my AMT was less than my regular tax. But now I see that simply leaving line 45 blank did not provide enough information, especially because the AMT FTC calculation is so complicated....

Can 'no tax due' still produce huge penalties? I filed a nil return and now have been reassessed for AMT and several sets of penalties based on not adding the full tentative AMT on top of my regular tax. The whole thing is completely confusing -- the AMT calculated by the IRS is several thousand dol...

This is really useful. So if the trustee has the discretion to distribute all the assets, then they come out with their tax attributes and their current values, to all be taxed in my Canadian and in my US returns. This works this way on both sides of the border, both sets of trust rules? I am going ...

I have been in Canada all along; the assets in question are recently inherited. So their coming to Canada would not be the same as me moving to Canada, right? But you are saying that for the assets in the trusts (two different types of trusts), the distributions could be treated as taxable events ev...

Hi, JGCA. Sorry, I was not very clear. Nothing in this situation is off track. The question is this: As a USC in Canada, should a leave these inherited assets in the US, where they have always been held, or should I try to figure out how to move them to Canada? One of my goals is to not trigger unne...

Hello. I have studied Otto's thread and everything else I can find on this page regarding the question of cross-border asset locations for USCs living in Canada. I have also talked to several brokers and tried to get their views as I work through the process of figuring out what to do with some asse...

The instructions to the FBAR form do not mention sending any letters, and in fact say to not send any attachments. For someone who just didn't know about them, is a letter necessary? And, should the forms go all in one envelop or get mailed as soon as each one is ready?

Thank you very much nelsona. That finally turned the light bulk on. I am really grateful for all your help.

I am still confused about how far back to file f8891s, despite having now read everything on this board (and a lot of material elsewhere). One view seems to be with no tax owing, ever, this is a situation in which it is appropriate to simply file three years of 1040s, 8891s, and tdfs. The other view...

Nelsona, thank you for expanding on this. I just took a look at a 2002 3520, and it also absolves USCs resident in Canada from form 3520 of RRSPs when form 8833s are filed instead. But, putting it all together, is it then correct to say that USCs living in Canada whose US tax liability would always ...

That is really helpful. So it is just line 8 on sched. B 'yes' plus the 8891s. Now I know I am slow to pick up on these things, but I am not sure what this sentence relates to: "The various rules still allow only investment to be determined from (a) contributions for USCs, or (B) value at time ...

I am hoping someone can clarify this: When did 8891s come into use? 2004? How do they work? If one is filed at some point, does it date back to the date of creation of the RRSP, or what? (If they do not backdate to accruals/contributions made in a pre-election year, what happens then?) And, is an RR...

Sorry -- this is off topic here; I am moving it to a separate post.