Serbinski Accounting Firms

I'm a Cdn resident and US citizen. I have a TFSA in a bank, and I've filed 3520/3520A on it for years. I have US stocks in it, though, and when I buy/sell these I take a hit from my bank's exchange rate. I can move my US stocks into a separate TFSA account (basically, the same account number but wit...

Thanks nelsona! That makes sense. I am surprised that CRA would count it as income, though, since the IRA predates my entry to Canada. I would have assumed that only gains incurred in 2020 would count as income, especially since I've been counting gains in it during stock sales after moving to Canad...

I am a US/Cdn dual citizen, living in Canada for the foreseeable future. I have a small IRA in the US. I understand that the US is now allowing people to withdraw from their IRA if they have had a job reduction/loss. - I am unclear on how they define 'job reduction'; I am self=employed and have had ...

WhySoComplicated - I'm not sure if I did the right thing or not. I sent a letter to the IRS office (Cincinnati) which requested the letter, and basically described why I didn't think I needed to send in a 1041. That was just about 5-6 weeks ago, and I haven't heard anything back yet. I will assume t...

Hi Misaki - sorry for the late reply! I think your follow-up is beyond the scope of what I know. I am a US citizen living in Canada, and so everything on my 8621 includes time spent outside the US. I don't know how that would apply for prior years on your end - that might be more of a CPA question. ...

Probably others can help more than I for #1, but I think that for #2, you could compute the change in value in US$ (which may be quite different than in the investment's currency), and then count it as income under mark-to-market. That's what I do with my Cdn mutual funds, noting that it is a pain a...

Hi Ron - To get a US account online, it's actually pretty easy. RBC does it with their bank which is based in Georgia (the state, not the country). TD has one as well, I believe, and they probably both work finr. The key is to have an account in US dollars which is based in the US; some banks in Can...

Hi all - I just saw a note about this, but it hasn't been highlighted in this forum, probably due to other things going on in the world. I can't find the specific IRS document this relates to, but found a copule of articles like this one: https://www.andersentax.ca/blog/the-irs-issues-long-awaited-g...

Just a bump to see if I can get some advice on this one. Seems simple enough but I'd like others' input to make sure I'm on the right track. Thanks in advance

I am a USC living in Canada. I applied for an EIN last year after merging RESP's into a new account (the EIN was for the new account). This was granted by the IRS, but they said I needed to file Form 1041 for the following year. This isn't accurate, as a) it's a foreign trust and b) any potential be...

Hi kdash - I'm sorry to hear of your experience. Another approach you could try is through the Taxpayer Advocate office. Or, you could also try through your US representative's office; they sometimes have a connection that regular folks don't have. Good luck ..

Hm, I don't know … I just assume that if the MF is Cdn-based, I probably have to do the 8621. But I don't really know - I'm just being conservative and figure that filling it out is less hassle than the potential headache of making a mistake.

I don't know for sure. I'm reasonably confident about my treatment of the mutual funds and stocks, but not too much about cash (or a money market).

Hi maskdoll, I'm not an expert, but think your best bet may be to file using the streamlined procedure. That was set up to accommodate Americans who made some kind of error or didn't realize that they had to file. I don't know if it would apply to you or not, but here's the link to get you started: ...

I couldn't find the article which indicated that a private pension doesn't affect WEP, but found this one which kind of intimates the same thing: https://www.fool.com/retirement/2018/06/19/can-my-pension-lower-my-social-security-benefits.aspx . It seems that if one's employment is subject to SS tax ...