Serbinski Accounting Firms

I would not say definitive, but one agent was helpful and I did this:
1. Make something up. I did something along the lines of "bank of Montreal tfsa acct no".
3. Bmo
7a. Me

It looks like this was your (CdnAmerican) post on how to fill out 3520/A:

http://forums.serbinski.com/viewtopic.p ... highlight=

Posted link here for easier reference.

Thank you. Yes I do searches for 3520- there are a lot of threads to sift through!
I'll specifically look for your posts @CdnAmerican.

I might start a new thread for specific questions.

I'm pretty confused about this.
I have a TFSA (deposit account) at ING Direct. Apparently I need an EIN to file the 3520/A on their behalf (this is for 2010-2012, so an EIN is needed).

When I called the number to get an EIN, they told me that ING direct already has an EIN- and you can't use it. Ok ...

@sunnysga and @CdnAmerican

Any and all tips/help is very much appreciated! As you know it is a pretty stressful thing to go through, with the threat of multiple $10,000 penalties over your head (esp. when those penalties would be much much more than the accounts are even worth!)

I'm slowily going ...

I called to get an EIN (and got one) but there was some confusion over who is who.
There are 3 specific lines:

1. Legal Name of Entity (or individual) for whom the EIN is being requested.
3. Executor, administrator, trustee, "care of"
7a. Name of responsible party.

This was for a TFSA at BMO

I ...

Once I settle down and look at it (and the various help threads on this forum), filling out 3520/A doesn't seem *too* bad.
There are a few areas that are confusing (am I a beneficiary? (yes?) was there a distribution? (no? no money left the account...) but I think I can give them a good shot.

It ...

Yes that does help me, Thank you very much.

How did you hire an "IRS enrolled agent" to fill out the 3520?

I'm having trouble learning how to fill out the 3520/A. That's probably a topic to take to another, or new, thread though. (I have a few threads going)

wow, really??? I figured for sure that if I transfer my RESP away, they would flag it as tax evasion!

I will definitely do that.

Thank you nelsona.

I agree with nelsona. The IRS will call it a foreign trust. BTW I called them and asked, and they said they cannot answer questions about foreign trusts- it's way above their level.
So I don't know who you could ask in the IRS.

I'm not even sure how they would know that you have a TFSA, ie ...

I am also curious, as I have an RESP that I owned jointly with my spouse.

I figured that if I tried to just sign it over to my spouse, I'd probably end up in trouble- wouldn't it look like I just tried to hide my assets under my spouse's name?

So yes i'm also interested in how you report that the ...

I have an ING TFSA too (deposit account).
I spoke to them and they told me the same thing. (not a trust).

Their account terms don't say it is a trust either:
http://www.ingdirect.ca/en/legal/accountterms/

ON the other hand when I look at my RESP agreement, it is clear that there is a trust ...

Right, sorry I should have written more clearly.
There are cases in this forum in which people have been able to contact the trust or the brokerage or whatever and find that they are a "Qualified Intermediary" and have their own EIN already.

That's what I meant- how would I get in touch w/ BMO or ...

I keep going back and forth from "file 3520/A's by myself" to "hire someone".

When I think of doing them myself, the complexity seems too much. When I look into hiring, I see reviews of various firms in which people had horrible experiences with the firm, like the preparers had no idea what they ...

As a follow up to this, I have been calling various BMO Trust Company- related phone numbers and nobody knows what I am talking about.

So to me it seems that I need to request the EIN on behalf of them, using the SS-4.