Canadian Employee Benefits taxable in US?

cbtp · Post by **cbtp** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 11:36 am

I'm a USC working in Canada for a Canadian employer. I have wage income of about 150 thousand and my employer and I both make contributions to the following benefits: extended health care, dental, life insurance, long term disability, and an employer pension plan. I have figures from my employer as to how much they contribute and how much I contribute. I have no bonus, stock options, etc.

My questions are about line 7 of the 1040:

1. Do I just take the amount from Box 14 of my Canadian T4 -- or do I need to add or subtract something to that?

2. Do I need to add in any of the contributions that my employer made to any of my benefits? That is, are these Canadian benefits taxable in the US?

3. Am I correct that my contributions to these benefits are already included in Box 14 of the T4 and don't need to be added back or subtracted off?

4. Are there any other boxes from the T4 that are usually added to Box 14 for US taxes?

Thank you and sorry for so many questions. I'm a little confused on this.

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:13 pm

You can exclude form line 7 your contributions to your health coverage and dental, and your contributions to an employer RRSP or RPP. Nothing to add to your wages.

You would submit an 8833 form explaining the exclusion of RRSP and/or RPP contributions.

This does not apply to a personal RRSP, just a company-sponsored plan.

cbtp · Post by **cbtp** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:33 pm

Great! I didn't know I could exclude those.

Can I pull my contributions to health, dental, and RPP from my T4 or do I need to rely employer estimates or pay stubs?

Also, is this new or can I amend any back years to exclude these contributions from my income?

Thank you!

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:40 pm

Why bother. Surely you aren't paying taxes in US on your Cdn income!

If you are, there must be something wrong with the way you are filing.

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:45 pm

I would not expect that your health and dental contributions would appear on your T4, but I may be wrong. Your RPP contributions most surely do.

Your year-end slip would have this info. You should always keep your year-end paystub.

MGeorge · Post by **MGeorge** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 2:45 pm

I looked into employer contributions to medical and dental insurance plans and these are not considered taxable benefits on the 1040.
As far as I know box 14 on the T4 has the same meaning as line 7 on the 1040 (not considering treaty adjustments)
The only place that taxes these benefits (employer contributions to health insurnace) is on the Quebec provincial tax return.

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 2:48 pm

Our poster was asking for those treaty adjustments, whcich I gave him.

Agrred that employER paid benefits are not more taxable in US than in Canada (federal). He was aksing about employEE contributions.