Serbinski Accounting Firms

With as little as 18 months of US work, you became eligible for *some* SS at retirement, as long as you worked 10 years total in US and Canada. If you work 10 years in US, of course, you will get FULL SS based on your US work history. Bad news at that point is that if you also collect CPP, your SS w...

Yes. But remember that this only applies to the PENALTY, not to the tax, and also means that the amount will be fully taxable in Canada. So, this will simply be regarded by both IRS and CRA as a $10,000 chunk of income, and all you will be 'saving' is the 10% penalty, which will be more than made up...

Not really amy obstacles. Your Cdn citizenship will make it easy for your wife to immigrate to Canad (your kids are already Cdn -- automatically). Tax-wise, the Cdn house will slightly complicate matters, but only at the time of sale. Having this house on its own will not be enough to make your US i...

It would be easy for the lad to establish cdn residency for this purpose. Getting a Driver's license would suffice. There is no downside for him becoming a Cdn resident (and also filing as a US resident) since his income is unlikely to be taxable, what with all the student deductions available to hi...

<b>Your RESP is NOT eligible for any deferral in US </b> (who told you this?!). An RESP is not an RRSP or a RRIF. You should be reporting the income that it generates every year to IRS, regardless of whether you take money out or not. This is a known issue. That said, any withdrawal you make is a no...

Forget what your bank says. CRA (Revenue Canada) determines what your limit is and sends this to you with your assessment. Your contribution room as remained what it was the last time you submitted a CDn tax return, 8 years ago, and it is this limit that is still available to you now (if any). You c...

Keeping the card is not sufficient to make you a tax resident of Canada, since the treaty states that, once youre home and family live in US, this satifies tax residency in US. But be wary of thinking that you still have a valid DL or OHIP card! The validity of both is predicated on you LIVING in On...

As you know, you are entitled to contribute $13,000 to your 401(k), none of which is tax deductible. Your company will put in $2000, regardless of how much more than $4000 you put in.<p>So if you were to put in $4000 a year, and company contributes $2,000, for say 5 years. At that point the plan wo...

It should also be pointed out that there is no tax advantage for doing this (re-patriating the funds to Canada), as opposed to leaving it alone in US IRA account and collecting it when one retires The only reason to do this is if (a) one can't deal in ones IRA anymore because of securities laws, or ...

"I understand there is a way to do this tax free, but so far the people at the US financial company, my current benefits company in Canada, and my bank in Canada are all stumped." This is understandable, but let me clarify that it will not be a 'tax-free' withdrawal. What it will be is a fully taxab...

2% isn't that great; what percent do you have to fund to get that. A good 401(k) usually matched about upto 4% of the first 6% you put in. You might consider: (a) only putting the minimum that gets you your match. CRA allows you to (eventually) take out your contribution tax-free. You may have diffi...

Yup.

Remember to pay only the rate for the country in which you live (presuming Canada has a treaty with it).

Some income mey even be exempt for NR tax by treaty.

Otherwise it's 25%.

<i>nelsona non grata</i>

Usually and investment firm only issues one tax recepit. In a departure year, it should be an NR form, even if only one month of the tax was NR. Your firm did the reverse, but this is no big deal: You are still responsible for correcting any mistakes that your firm mande. Just figure out what was in...

Didn't you just ask this question on another tax board? 1. You do need to file a tax return, as it appears that incorrect withholding was made on your withdrawal, plus you have to pay a penalty on the excess of first $10,000 that you used to buy a house (this exemption is ONLY if you didn't have aho...

No, you are completely ON TOPIC. These are recognized PENSION PLANS, and are thus treated like any other pension in the US (ie. fully taxable upon withdrawal, no special reporting requirements). RRSPs are treated specially, both in the mannner in which they are disclosed to IRS, and the manner in wh...