Serbinski Accounting Firms

The US won't differentiate between which portions of the distributions are capital gain, or dividends, or interest, etc. To them, the Canadian ETF is just viewed as a foreign corporation, paying a dividend. Treat the whole distribution. Whether you reinvested the distribution or not doesn't make a d...

Hi MaxPWR, I don't think you can move your financial interest in your home for US tax purposes. Canada is considered a "community property jurisdiction" and I believe the home ownership would default to 50-50. I know a CPA living in Canada who has taken his name off of the family home comp...

It is true provided that you did not receive an "excess distribution" in 2015. This is if, on a per-share basis, the dividend in 2015 was not more than 1.25 times the dividend of 2014 (in Canadian dollars). You only have to file form 8621 if you're above the exemption, have an excess distr...

Thanks DrJFM, I echo your sentiments about the hassle of all this reporting. My wife is not a US citizen and should probably put our RESP only in her name, but as a dual citizen myself, born in Canada something bothers me in principle about not owning an RESP for my kids, so I'll probably endure thi...

Thank you DrJFM for your addition to this post. I agree with your comments about assigning myself as the agent, although I keep doing it to cut down on paperwork and I don't expect I'll have any problems with it. I do not have a contract to be the agent. I am curious about why the withdrawals would ...

Hi, I don't know your tax situation but for me, I have always entered $0 on line 16 of form 1116. The only way I know of where an amount would be entered is if you had negative passive income from a previous year, and you want to "recapture" the losses. This is an advanced tax topic that i...

You're welcome. I didn't know that you had US dividends, so those tests for correctness only apply without the US dividends considered. So: line 3d passive + 3d general + US divs = line 3e The fraction that appears on line 19 passive + line 19 general will be less than 1 when you have US source inco...

I hear ya.
I help my Mom with her taxes and she's still carrying forward 2008 related losses.

Yes - lines 3d and 3e should only be made up of only gains (no losses included) and other positive income. This works in your favour because it determines what fraction of your standard deduction is used for passive income. As a US citizen in Canada, passive foreign tax credits are generally more va...

Hi Jenfin, I think what you should be reporting on 1116 is: 1a = $9,300 3d = $9,300 (same as 1a since you aren't adjusting) line 5 = $2,800 since you are only "using" $1,300 of losses to effectively eliminate your gains, this is all that you could include on line 5 to make the math work ou...

Hi Jenfin,

I thought I had an answer for you but when I worked it out, it didn't add up. This is tricky one. I'll fire up TaxACT later today and see what I can come up with.

Hi - I haven't had any problem with my 2014 filing. I haven't followed up on it, but no news is usually good news.

No problem. Yes - choose 5(b) for the QEF election. The $ amount for box 5(b) is the adjustment to the cost basis that is required if the QEF income deemed distributed is different from the amount actually distributed by the fund. Don't forget to check box A in part 2 - and you should also check box...

Hi VaniB, OK, so just so I have all of the correct information. I assume you are filing for the 2014 tax year and it sounds like the fund has been held for 3 or more years. Since 8621 was not filed in 2013 and earlier, the excess distribution regime applies to the earlier years only. In 2014 you pla...

Hi marcharry, Thanks for pointing me to this - interesting article. I read through some articles that Max Reed wrote about the possibility that Canadian mutual funds could elect to be considered partnerships instead of corporations. This would render them not PFICs. I'd love to see that happen! Chee...