Software suggestions for 1040, form 2555 & possible 1116

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rafa02
Posts: 95
Joined: Sat May 26, 2012 3:18 pm

Post by rafa02 »

I am using Turbotax but MaggieA got me thinking if there was some way to do something similar in Taxact.

I have discovered that there is an Self-Employment Tax Adjustment Worksheet available and I am able to reduce the SE Tax to zero, and Taxact reports that the return is eligible for efile; however, I do not see any place to add an explanation, but perhaps an 8833 form could be used to provide the explanation that I am excluding the SE tax by treaty.

Of course, the IRS could still want to see verification of coverage, but I would prefer to mail a one page certificate of coverage rather than a 20+ page tax return.

Any thoughts?
MGeorge
Posts: 313
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 9:23 am
Location: Canada

Post by MGeorge »

My 2 cents.
I think TaxACT is the best option for US citizens in Canada. It supports form 8621 (now up to 20 copies) and it allows efiling with a NRA spouse with no ITIN number.

However, the recent price hike to $64 has made me reconsider. Next year, I'm going to manually fill the IRS forms from the website. Most of the work is form 8621, and taxACT doesn't help with this anyway - you have to know how to fill out the form.

I hope TaxACT lowers there price to $35 or less. They've lost me as a customer!
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MGeorge is neither an accounting nor taxation professional.
fangle
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:00 pm

Post by fangle »

Thanks all. Appreciate the suggestions.

I ended up using online TaxAct for my late 2016 US return. I thought that I was going to be blocked at the payment screen by my Canadian billing address as it was demanding a zip code. A call to tech support later, it seems you can just fill in zeros for the zip code and then its happy to charge my card.

The foreign billing address remains an issue for purchasing the Turbo Tax online or download, I found a FAQ where Turbo Tax suggested, as some did here, that folks purchase the software CD from Amazon. I would have considered this, but my computer doesn't have a CD drive and that's just too many workarounds . . .

For 2017, since my income is modest, I plan on filing on time and using one of the free e-file programs listed on the IRS website.

(I did figure out how to enter the foreign tax credit related to my passive income (interest) and Canadian employment insurance, so that's there as a carryover for the future.)

Cheers
MaggieA
Posts: 150
Joined: Sun Oct 31, 2004 4:06 pm

Re: Software suggestions for 1040, form 2555 & possible 1116

Post by MaggieA »

Old thread, but seems relevant. Due to annoyance with TurboTax not supporting exclusion of Social Security income (CPP, OAS, SSA) from US tax by treaty, this year I bought TaxAct. The download version because I'm suspicious of entering my tax information on a website. Learning a new look-and-feel (TaxAct vs TurboTax) was painful, but I persevered, and wish to report that I think TaxAct is better, for the well informed user. It shows you the actual form in Q&A mode, which is less obscure. It caused me to find a form I should have filled out last year, but I had missed in TurboTax. (This was the Simplified Method worksheet for pension income. Applicable to my spouse's US pension which includes top-up self contributions from after-tax income). Seemed more clear for 2555 and 1116. Less voodoo like than the TurboTax approach.
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