Form 8854, Part V questions

416 · Post by **416** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:55 pm

Hello, all -

I'm working on Part V of the 8854. I'm not a covered expatriate - filing the form is an exercise in showing them I'm not.

Column A wants the FMV of the listed assets, and column B wants the "US adjusted basis", without explaining in the instructions what this is. Are they the same?

I'm trying to categorize the following (all are actually invested in mutual funds): a LIRA, an RRSP, an RESP and a cash account.

Any help appreciated.

primo · Post by **primo** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:37 pm

The FMV and the Adjusted Cost Base would be the same for cash. For your mutual funds in your RRSP, LIRA, RESP, you would add your initial investment plus any reinvestment plus commissions you paid to get your adjusted cost base.(column B) The difference between the adjusted cost base and FMV will be your capital gain or loss. That goes in column C. Personally, I couldn't be bothered to figure out how much I had contributed to my RRSP over 30+ years and I was well below the capital gain threshold ,so I just put the entire amount of RRSP as a capital gain. I had no professional advice but it's been a year now and I haven't heard back.

416 · Post by **416** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:17 pm

I'm one of those conscientious people who carves an RRSP contribution off each paycheck -

primo · Post by **primo** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 6:28 pm

I know if you have a CRA epass account, you can find a history of your RRSP contributions. I could get my contribution amounts back to 1993 there but I couldn't figure out the period back to 1980. Might be easier than finding your own records.