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Darn, I belatedly realized my comments above include a small error. I wrote "Applies to payments after December 2023." That was wrong. The exact text reads "The amendments made by this Act shall apply with respect to monthly insurance benefits payable under title II of the Social Security Act for ...

Democrats Abroad is having a webinar about this on Monday (Dec 23). More info here https://www.democratsabroad.org/rbt_bill

Responding to some of Nelsona's questions, based on the text of the bill https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/82/text

Q: Would it be retroactive? Would it compensate lost SS from the past 30 years? Or, would it only affect future payments.
A: Applies to payments after December ...

Chiming in with a very warm endorsement of Phil's comment. My job was transferred from Canada to US in 2002, by a US-based multinational employer. Part of the transfer package was that my and spouse's Canadian and US tax returns for 2002 were prepared at employer expense by PWC. I'd always done my ...

ND suggested that "The simple work-around ... is to report ZERO SE tax on 1040 and attach a statement explaining the Totalization agreement exemption." nelsona reported that didn't work for him. FWIW I did this for six years, after moving back to Canada from US. I'm now retired so it's no longer ...

Thanks for the correction, Nelson. I didn't realize a 401(K) could also be left to a beneficiary in that way.

I faxed the national office. This was in late 2022. Actually I did this after trying to work through my local office, which for me is in Bellingham, WA, but that didn't seem to work. So YMMV, honestly. Anyway, thanks to LJBIII for confirming so eloquently that getting direct deposit from SSA in CAD ...

You are misreading the form. It does not specify the Royal bank as "the option to choose". It offers 3 options, labeled A, B, C, as follows:

A. U.S. dollar account at Royal Bank of Canada
B. U.S. dollar account at any other financial institution in Canada
C. Canadian dollar account at any financial ...

Regarding the 401(K), if you move it to an IRA then you can also move the IRA to a cross-border licensed Canadian manager. That allows you to actively manage the IRA from Canada, i.e. trade investments in it. If you leave it under US management you almost certainly won't be allowed to do that ...

I'm not a lawyer nor have I renounced US citizenship myself, but I'm pretty certain that being a dual citizen does not save you from covered expatriate status. Very, very few people renounce US citizenship without having another citizenship to fall back on! I recommend you start pursuing the often ...

In recent years a number of expat-oriented US tax programs have appeared. These are worth considering. My daughter favours MyExpatTaxes. Here's a very good review article: https://medium.com/@tapinternational/what-online-us-tax-preparation-software-options-exist-for-americans-abroad-in-2023 ...

I only had one period outside Canada, not two, so I can't say I know from personal experience what happens when they add together two or more periods. But with the one period outside Canada, I'm sure they don't round or count partial months. A year of eligibility is twelve full months, period. You ...

Brian, the calculation is so confusing I suspect we all don't bother delving into the details unless and until we are unhappy with the outcome. Every place I've seen mention of WEP online, they just say "not more than 50% of the uncovered pension". I believed that too, but now I think that the ...

Sorry, after adding my comment I noticed that the OP, bc07529, already confirmed with the AnyPIA calculator.

The point is, WEP is not calculated based on FRA, but on ELY. SSA says so (on the page I linked in previous post) and the calculator confirms it.

So those intelligently claiming SS at age ...

I noticed this thread right after I had coincidentally posted a note on the related thread https://forums.serbinski.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16807 "Case Studies: Social Security, WEP, and CPP".

As explained by exPenn back in 2019 on the other thread, the 50% limitation is applied to your theoretical ...