Dividing capital gains between Canada and the US

This is our main tax information forum which deals with topics concerning Canadians living and working in the U.S., U.S. citizens contemplating working in Canada, and all aspects of Canadian and U.S. income tax and related adminstrative issues.

Moderator: Mark T Serbinski CA CPA

Post Reply
Oceansunshine
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:46 pm
Location: Florida

Dividing capital gains between Canada and the US

Post by Oceansunshine »

I emigrated from Canada on Jan 1, 2011, so the mutual funds I owned at that time are deemed disposed of on that date for my Canadian 2011 taxes (i.e., I pay tax on those capital gains to Canada)

I sold all my funds 2 months later on Feb 4 2011.

I am now filing my US taxes, form 8621 for the PFIC. I am electing mark to market, and putting '0' for lines 5a,b,c (since the fund's value at the end of 2011 is $0 - make sense?).

My question is what to enter on line 8a and b. Since I am paying tax on capital gains in Canada for the fund's value on Jan 1, do I enter the 'difference' in values between Jan 1 and Feb 4, or do I enter the full value on Feb 4 and then account for the fact that I already paid tax on those capital gains to Canada somewhere else (foreign tax credit?).

Thanks!!
nelsona
Posts: 18675
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Post by nelsona »

Under IRS rules you are suposed to report gain based on the 'original' cost basis (ie. the one you used to determine your deemed disposition gain)>

But, if you wish to only report the post-deemed disposition gain, then you neeed to follow the rules of Rev Proc 2010-19.
After 20 years, I am severely cutting back on responses. Do not ask specifically for my help. There are a few others on this board that can answer most questions. All the best
Oceansunshine
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:46 pm
Location: Florida

Post by Oceansunshine »

@nelsona - thanks for that, the Rev Proc 2010-19 was good to read about...after some more digging though, I am now concerned that I CANNOT elect mark-to-market in the same year I sold my funds...Is this correct? 2011 is both my first US tax year and the year I sold. Can I still mark-to-market?

If I am not eligible for mark-to-market, and I do not have enough info to QEF, where does that leave me? Excess Distributions? How do I calculate that if I was not a US resident prior to 2011 and thus could not have owed tax on the fund during those years?
nelsona
Posts: 18675
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Post by nelsona »

How can you mark to market something that you no longer own? mark-to-market takes shares you hiold (at year-end) and 'pretend to sell them".

You have no shares to pretend to sell.
After 20 years, I am severely cutting back on responses. Do not ask specifically for my help. There are a few others on this board that can answer most questions. All the best
NickH
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:28 pm

Post by NickH »

If you acquire and dispose of PFIC stock in the same year, it doesn't matter whether it's a Section 1291 or 1296 stock. The penalties in Section 1291 don't apply if you do not hold the stock across a year-end, and both sections allocate the gains to ordinary income anyway.

I've read the first two sections of Rev. Proc. 2010-19 and it looks like you can simply let the PFIC be a Section 1291 fund and include the two months of gain as ordinary income.

This blog post describes a same-year PFIC disposition in depth: http://hodgen.com/pfic-excess-distribut ... same-year/
Post Reply