Treat exemption

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
nanic
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:26 pm

Treat exemption

Post by nanic »

I have the following question:

My employment income and my wife employment income can be excluded completely as per the Tax treaty article XIX. However, in order to get the additional child credit, you need some income declared. Can we chose to exempt 80% of our income and declare the other 20% so that we can get the additional child tax credit of $1000 per child?

How would the IRS react to this????
nelsona
Posts: 18688
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Post by nelsona »

So, to be clear, you have US citizen children (how many?), and you work for the Cdn/Prov government. Correct?

Are either of you citizens of US?

Assuming that neither of you are US citisens, if you feel that it is worth the reporting headache to get the ACTC, I don't see why you could not do this.

However as I'm discussing in a current thread with rsargent, you need to make sure that you owe no US taxes at the end.

However it would proably be much simpler just to use 1116 and take credit for Cdn taxes. That is guaranteed to get you the ACTC.

Curious: What were your numbers for AGI for MFJ that get you the max back, without owing any tax?
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
nanic
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 2:26 pm

Post by nanic »

Hi Nelsona,

Myself, my wife and 3 kids are all dual Canadian and US citizen. We both work for the CDN Federal Government. We will claim Treaty exemption for all our employment income on Form 8833 as per Article XIX. So our 1040 will show no income (we had not investment income this past year). But this means we are not allowed additional child tax credit. I tried declaring $30K as income using TAX ACT and I was able to get the maximum $1000 credit. My guess is the IRS would say, you either exempt all of your income or you don't. If we declare all of our income, we exceed the threshold for the additional child tax credit so we get $0. We end up owing no US taxes because we use form 1116, but we get no credit.
nelsona
Posts: 18688
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Post by nelsona »

Like I said, use 1116 for all of your income, and you should get ACTC. That is how mist Cdns are doing it.
That would be safer than only partially exempting your govt income.


Since you don't use 2555 as it is, there is no switching issue. And since you are USC's, you have to file anyways with all tyhe reporting, so.....
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
Post Reply