Serbinski Accounting Firms

Thanks, but I have already tried that and I can't decipher the IRS legalese around this. I don't think they actually define "trust" anywhere. They define "grantor trust" and "nongrantor trust" in terms of "trust" without ever defining "trust". Can so...

Most Canadian mutual funds are structured as trusts. There are many U.S. citizens and residents who own them. However, I find it hard to believe that anybody ever files a 3520 for a mutual fund. Are all these people in violation of U.S. tax law? Any mutual fund owners out there want to comment on ho...

Yes. This is a topic for a different forum.

Thanks for your help. It is much appreciated.

I understand that they are taxable. The posts I refer to above say that they are to be treated like any investment account, and thus do not require a form 3520. This is the point I want to understand. The amount of pain required to fill out a 3520 and 3520-A makes it important to understand if they ...

I have seen conflicting views on how RESPs are treated on a U.S. tax return. Looking at the old grasmick web site, I found a couple of places where it was stated that bank and brokerage RESPs are not trusts and don't require a form 3520. See the relevant posts at: http://www.grasmick.com/board/?topi...

The children are not U.S. citizens.

I am still very confused by the RESP/trust business. But this really belongs in a different thread. I will post my question to a new thread on RESPs.

Thanks.

Thanks for your comments and the pointer to the additional child tax credit. Don't think we can use it, but I'm sure there are others out there who can.

It certainly simplies the U.S. tax picture if the U.S. citizen wife is not a subscriber. I would really like to understand if a 3520 is required, because there are in fact a couple of advantages to having joint subscribers: (1) the ability to transfer funds to either subscriber's RRSP in the event t...

Thanks for replying so quickly!

Yes, I forgot to mention: married filing separately for the 1040.

So, for an RESP, no need for a 3520 if it is funded entirely by the Canadian?

I assume the accounts still need to be reported on TD#90-22.1.

Here is the scenario: Wife is U.S. citizen. Husband is Canadian. They live in Canada. They have some joint accounts for which the Canadian husband is the only contributor. What are the U.S. tax implications, if any? The only IRS info I can find related to this is from their Publication 550: <blockqu...