Serbinski Accounting Firms

I appreciate that this is a question which nobody can definitively answer, because there are a lot of personal choices that can't really be assessed by strangers. Nevertheless, it may draw out a few facts that would help. I am a Canadian citizen who moved to US in 2005 and now have green card. Sched...

Can one just rigwrite "ZILCH"? (kidding.)

I see you have included state income tax. However, you have not included sales tax/GST. In the U.S. state sales tax is between zero and eight or nine percent, and no federla GST. In Canada, the combined rate is about fifteen percent, right? So, I think you have to look at consumption taxes as well a...

I have not quite seen this situation in the threads: Joe is a citizen of Canada and a citizen of the U.S. He lives in Blaine, WA and works as an independent contractor for a firm in Surrey, BC. The firm pays him gross. He goes that office (in Canada) to work. To be clear: Every night, he sleeps in B...

This question is not really a cross-border issue. It would be relevant to a Canadian resident too. CPP is adjusted for inflation but it's not clear to me whether the benefit from deferring until age 70 is also adjusted for inflation. For example, suppose I log into Service Canada as I approach my 65...

I'd recommend switching RRSPs to TD Waterhouse. They've never asked me for a W-9 or issued a 1099-DIV or withheld tax on my RRSP.

OK: He files married filing separately. She doesn't file at all. I still don't see how or why the IRS can lay a hand on his widow as long as they never move to the U.S.

I see: I can't imagine a scenario in which a taxable U.S. resident would try to put income in to an RRSP rather than an IRA, 401(k), or other U.S. tax-deferred vehicle.

Why would your Canadian wife have any implications from your backfiling U.S. taxes? Perhaps you should file as a single non-resident rather than married filing jointly? If your wife lives in Canada is not a U.S. citizen, her income and assets are of no interest to the IRS - even less so once you hav...

I try never to disagree with nelsona, but I'd be very surprised if a non-resident could open an RRSP at TD Waterhouse or anywhere else, because a non-resident cannot make contributions to an RRSP. That being said, when I left Canada in 2005 to move to the U.S., I left my RRSP with TD Waterhouse. Sin...

Amerinuck, when you deposit a US$ check drawn on a US$ account at a bank in Canada into your US bank, do they charge you a fee to accept the deposit? Or do they treat it lik any other US$ check from a US bank? To be precise, if I have a US$ checking account at Bank of Montreal at my branch in Ottawa...

Thanks. Which forex broker would you recommend?

Apologies: that's a very sloppy typo. I sort of ran two sentences in my mind together when they hit the page. Will be more careful in future! Before immigrating to the US a few years ago I had a C$ checking a/c and a US$ checking a/c at my CDN bank. When I moved to US I closed the US$ a/c but left t...

In the short term, I'm doing it through a family member. Eventually I'll get back to Canada and set up a US$ checking account. What is remarkable is that I have a C$checking account and the same bank will not let me set up a US$ checking account unless I walk into the branch in Canada. Amerinuck, I ...

Thanks. I did an ETF back in 2006 but now my CDN bank says it won't anymore - only a wire txr which is more expensive. How about having a family member in Canada mail me a US$ postal order? (Although I have seen letter-mail from Canada to US take 2 wks!)