Serbinski Accounting Firms

Just received the lump sum retroactive payments for my wife's Social Security and my Spousal Benefit, deposited in our bank accounts in Canadian Dollars. The good news is they were both within a few dollars of what I had calculated. The bad news is we will now have to pay 2025 tax on them, but that ...

Just one quibble about your statement that you report 85% of your US SS on your Canadian return. Actually, you report 100% of your US SS as Pension Income on line 11500 of the T1 General Tax Return. This is included in your Net Income at line 23600. It is only then that you can subtract 15% of your ...

Qualify for what? The honest answer is yes. Your CPP (not OAS or other pension) would be considered foreign social security. In any case, your CPP should have no effect on his Social Security. HIS CPP and any company pension he receives will lower his Social Security because of the 'Windfall Elimina...

Both my wife and I receive our monthly SS payments in CAN$, converted at the market exchange rate, direct deposited into our TD checking accounts with no extra fees.

Another advantage of having your SS benefit direct deposited to a Canadian Bank. If you choose to receive your benefit in Canadian Dollars, it will be converted at the market exchange rate for that day. If you receive it in US dollars, and convert it yourself, the bank will typically take about 3% f...

Nelsona: Canadians like my wife and I, resident in Canada, who Collect Social Security, but who are not US citizens, do not receive a SSA-1099. We receive a SSA-1042S. It contains the same information as the SSA-1099, but it is sent to non resident aliens. Since it is stated that you must be a US ci...

I just noticed this post. Everything I read about the stimulus checks says that to be eligible, you must be "U.S. citizens, permanent residents or qualifying resident aliens". I assume this means that Canadian residents who are not (or are no longer) US citizens, are not eligible, even if ...

Social Security uses the US Treasury Department exchange rate (https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/reports-statements/treasury-reporting-rates-exchange/current.html ) for calculating WEP. Treasury Dept. rates are only updated quarterly, so you are not subject to day to day fluctuations while your WEP is...

formerpatriot: 6 months sounds about right. Like most governments, US departments operate in silos that don't share information. Change of citizenship is one of the things listed in https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10077.pdf, page 11. To make changes on your SS profile you have to submit a form SS-5 (...

I believe you are misreading that article. It was written for an American audience and it assumes that if you are receiving a “private” pension, it comes from employment with an American private company and you paid Social Security taxes on the income from that employment. On the other hand, if you ...

formerpatriot: From your previous posts, I can see that you are in a similar situation as me and my wife. If you have not applied for SS yet, here are some tips: 1) Start early. Our experience was a 4 month odyssey through the twists and turns of SS bureaucracy too numerous to relate here. 2) SS wil...

formerpatriot:
Go ahead.

Can't see how. Don't think private messaging has been enabled on this forum.

As far as I know, a Canadian company pension would contribute to WEP. Note that there is a maximum dollar amount for WEP (https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/wep-chart.html ), so even if you have a large company pension plus CPP, WEP cannot totally wipe out your SS benefit. I just found this website...

To answer your questions: 1) Actually its not the Tax Treaty. There is a separate US-Canada Social Security Agreement (https://www.ssa.gov/international/Agreement_Pamphlets/canada.html#monthly ). You need at least 10 years of earnings under Social Security to get an SS benefit. If you have less than...