Serbinski Accounting Firms

The filing of 8854 is based on the date that you officially took the Oath of Renunciation in front of the officer at the Consulate. In most cases, there are two separate meetings at the Consulate, an initial meeting where they go through the forms with you, and then a 2nd meeting a couple months lat...

The 1040 is for US citizens or residents. Non-residents are supposed to file the 1040NR. The exception to that is that non-residents who are married to a US citizen can file a full 1040 joint return. However, the US-Canada Tax Treaty allows Canadians to file a full 1040 if they choose instead of the...

If your friend has been choosing to file the full 1040 instead of 1040NR, then he/she has made the choice to treat him/herself as a US Citizen for filing purposes, and they have to file all accompanying paperwork that goes along with that. Announcement 2010-16 would be irrelevant in that case.

Yeah, the whole limbo status that they leave you in is really awkward. You're not officially renounced until the Loss of Nationality Certificate is issued, but then once it is issued, your date of renunciation goes all the way back to when you took the Oath of Renunciation (which can be almost a yea...

I received a letter from CRA requesting copies of my state and city 1040s to verify any refunds that I may have received from those taxes at the end of the year before they would approve the FTC. That was a while ago, maybe 8 or 9 years ago. So maybe they've stopped requiring the state/city forms si...

[quote="lanman2000"]
Yeah, just the main 2-page 1040. But you should include the state/city main 1040 pages as well if you filed state/city returns.

Make your life easier and just use the 'accrued' method. The only thing with that, is once you select the 'accrued' method, then you always have to use the 'accrued' method for all future years as well. Basically, you can choose 'paid' or 'accrued'. 'Paid' means you take the tax credit for the year ...

416 There are a few websites out there by people who have gone through the renunciation process, and who have been in touch with many other people. They've dealt with hundreds of ex-pats, and there isn't any evidence at all that suggests that ex-pats have been treated any differently than anyone els...

416 Yeah, they can still assess penalties for previous FBAR non-compliance. But that is the case whether you renounce or not. Renunciation itself won't have anything to do with it. If you want to be 100% safe and secure, go with OVDI. But as nelsona has pointed out in other threads, there really hav...

small correction to add a word to my first point to Gordon Gordon Head - If you cannot certify that you are in full compliance with all US tax reporting requirements for the previous 5 years, then you are automatically subject to the Exit Tax upon renunciation, even if you happen to qualify for the ...

Gordon Head - If you cannot certify that you are in full compliance with all US tax reporting requirements for the previous 5 years, then you are automatically subject to the Exit Tax upon renunciation, even if you happen to qualify for the one of the exemptions that gets you out of the Exit Tax. Ho...

You are still a US citizen. The way it works is that the US does not recognize dual citizenship, but Canada does. It's a distinction without a whole lot of meaning. But from a technical standpoint, the US does not recognize dual citizenship. If you have US citizenship, then that is all you have. Fro...

andied, TFSA's are basically worthless for US citizens (which doesn't mean much early on, but after 15 or 20 years becomes a pretty sizable disadvantage). Cdn mutual funds have just been reclassified as corporations, making them unavailable to US citizens unless you want to deal with all the PFIC cr...

Tweenie, I realize that nelsona has his own reasons for avoiding discussion of renunciation (and I'm totally fine with that), but I'm not sure if that means others can still discuss the issue on this forum or not. There are legitimate cross-border tax issues involved with renunciation, so it seems l...

Okay, so I've basically exhausted my efforts on this issue. I actually went back through the past 15 years of my returns to see how my various accountants handled this issue. I had 3 different accountants/tax preparers (all specialized in cross-border returns who had to deal with cap gains distribut...