Serbinski Accounting Firms

US citizen resident in Canada. By treaty I do not have to report payouts from OAS & QPP on 1040. The form 8938 instructions indicate that I do not "have an interest" in a foreign asset if distributions from that asset are not required to be reported in my US tax return. I hope that mea...

For the US report, doesn't he have to transform the 2006, 2007, 2011, and 2012 figures by the exchange rate for each of those four years?

Well, in that case, as regards " . . . credits . . . from holding or disposing of the asset . . . .", when I don't sell the asset but I do have distributions from the asset, the 1116-FTC I have arises from the distributions, *not* from "holding or disposing of the asset". So line...

backcountry --

'(C) I don't think so, since "deduction" is also in the list.'

Wouldn't that mean that I have to prorate my standard deduction on the 1040 to include a portion of that in 8938 Part III Lines (f)?

backcountry -- Your reply to Patti regarding 8938 Part III line (g) is disconcerting, to say the least. But then maybe I failed to understand what kind of FTC you had in mind. (A) If line (g) were to refer to the Form-1116 FTC, this sounds like a real nightmare. Some people's investment income (poss...

Mach7 -- (1) I agree with backcountry's remarks about the description in Part II line 1. A long description is a good way to protect yourself when you want to express the truth about a messy situation. (2) "we feel that the US definition would fall under the umbrella of a 'broker' " -- ???...

backcountry -- yes, good, I see your point about Part III. Thank you for all your help in this thread.

@backcountry -- From the remarks below, you will think I'm arguing with you; I'm not. Your statement explaining what Turbotax does is convincing, so I have no quarrel with you whatsoever on this issue. My comments below are concerned with the fact that the IRS has been unnecessarily unclear as to ho...

@backcountry -- I understand your argument about using a single Part III on the 8938, and I'm certainly not arguing with you. As you may have read amongst this myriad of posts, on each Continuation Sheet I put Part I + Part III combined for each single account, and Part II + Part III combined for ea...

By the way, don't checkmark both boxes. I doubt that the IRS would really get you for that, but modifying IRS phraseology or giving impossible responses constitutes a "frivolous return", which, in principle, carries penalties. (Various other things also constitute a frivolous return.) I ad...

I certainly agree with everything backcountry said. As for the trust issue, on Computershare's web site, the *only* place I see Computershare Trust is specifically with reference to its corporate trust services. Don't shaft yourself by writing "Computershare Trust" in the Name of Financial...

"i was on the phone to the IRS today...twice...and they just don't want to discuss this form. " You are echoing the grief that many people have experienced. The replies from the IRS personnel regarding the 8938 vary from "I'm not trained in that form" to "Just follow the dir...

I understand what you're saying about the example on page 8, but that applies to shares not held in an account. My wife owns a small number of shares in a Canadian corporation. Those are non-account assets: she herself possesses the stock certificate, a fancy document issued by that Canadian corp. D...

You get a Canadian tax slip for the dividends distributed for these shares. Who issues that tax slip? If the tax slip is issued by the brokerage firm in Toronto, then you have an account (which happens to hold these shares), and you report that account in Part I (not in Part II), which means that al...

"i am going to place all the dollar values (cumulative) on part 3 of the first 8938 form" -- It wouldn't be any more difficult to put the individual tax item for a specific account/asset each on its own form. The advantage to that is that the IRS will be able to see plainly from Schedule B...