Serbinski Accounting Firms

Can someone here answer the following question regarding WEP? My wife worked in the USA before 1993 and she has accumulated the necessary 40 credits to qualify for retirement benefit without having to invoke the totalization agreement. Since 1993, she has been living and working in Canada and she ha...

Thank you expenn. About TFSA: My wife does have a TFSA and she has been using the full room contribution every year. But in order to avoid potential issues with complicated IRS filing requirements, we decided to keep her TFSA very simple: all of it is at "Epargne Placement Quebec" in vario...

Nelsona, you wrote "The problem is if SHE dies, you may not be entitled to all her assets without her paying estate tax. Once you check into this, you will see that it probably isn’t worth renouncing". I'm not sure if I follow you. Why do you say "it probably isn't worth renouncing&qu...

Thank you Nelsona. Isn't it true that the US estate tax would apply only to her assets held in the USA? As of now, her assets consist only of her Canadian RRSPs (about 400K CAD), half our house in Canada (half of about 500K CAD) and a 401K (about 70K USD) from the few years (more than 25 years ago) ...

My wife: Late fifties, US citizen by birth, lives in Canada since 1993, Canadian citizen since 2008. Me: Early sixties, Canadian citizen by birth. The big question: should she renounce her US citizenship? She is up to date with the IRS. She files as "Married filing separately" with me as a...

Oh never mind, I found the answers to all my questions using the search tool on this forum.

I am a Canadian living and working in Canada. From 1986 to 1993, I worked in the USA (on a Green Card) and I contributed to a 401-K pension plan. The money saved in that pension plan has been growing. When I file my Canadian tax return, am I supposed to answer "yes" to the question at the ...

I am not sure if this post is appropriate for this forum. Please send me to an appropriate forum if necessary. In order to get full Old Age Security benefit, one must have been a Canadian resident for at least 40 years between the ages of 18 and 65. Between age 18 and age 65 (a span of 47 years), I ...

My wife is a dual citizen (Canada-USA). We moved to Canada many years ago. She did not file a US tax return for some 20 years. In early 2015, she filed a whole bunch of past years tax returns, up to the year 2013, the "quiet disclosure approach". Quite simple really. One job. One salary. F...

I have RRSP accounts at BMO and at NBC (National Bank of Canada). In past years I reported both RRSPs on form 8938 and on FBAR. In July 2015, I closed the BMO RRSP account and I had everything transferred to my BNC RRSP account. How should I handle form 8938 and FBAR? Double reporting? Thanks.

I am filing an FBAR for an account I have with Epargne Placements Quebec. In Part II of the FBAR, item 16: Type of Account. The 3 choices are "Bank, Securities, Other". I suppose it is not a bank. Government bonds are a form of "securities", are they not? So then I select "S...

exPenn: Thank you for the suggestion. Indeed, my wife does not need me (nor our kids) as exemption(s); Form 2555-EZ takes care of her line 7 and the standard deduction + her personnal exemption together take care of her other (insignificant) income.

Today I called the US Consulate General and I asked them if I should turn in a form I-407 (Abandonnement of Lawful Permanent Resident Status). I told them that I wanted an official document stating that I was no longer a Permanent Resident of the USA. I told them that I came back to Canada in 1993 a...

nelsona, you are renewing my fears of impending doom. Here is my situation. I am a Canadian by birth. I went to the USA on a student visa and after graduation I married my American girlfriend and I applied for a Green Card. I got my GC in late 1986. In June 1993, we moved to Canada where I took a jo...

Quote Canadian law seems to allow TSFAs to be structured as one of the following: * a trust * an annuity * a deposit End of quote. Interesting! A TFSA with Epargne Placement Quebec, consisting only of "obligations à taux fixe", would be considered "structured as a deposit", righ...