RRSP lack of details problem

Ingtar17 · Post by **Ingtar17** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 5:06 am

US/Can Dual citizen. When I made a withrdawl for the Home Buyers Plan (HBP) in 2002 I was told on this forum that I need to report any gains/interest that I had made on this account on my 2002 return. When I contacted the RRSP provider, they told me (after much back and forth) that they couldn't break down the gain/loss into interest/cap gains/fees, etc. and that the only thing they could tell me is how much my fund had gone up or down (turns out it was down).

Question 1) What does the IRS do when you are unable to get all the details like this? What do I do? So far I plan to not report anything since the fund was down (but technically, I probably did make some interest - they just won't tell me how much!)

Question 2) When I finally retire down the road, am I going to have to supply this kind of breakdown of the gain/loss on the fund? Again - What does the IRS typically DO if I simply have no way of providing this? Sounds like I need to transfer out to a bank that will give me detailed info like this, but what do I do about the past 9 years of data I simply can't get?

Thanks,
Ingtar

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 5:12 am

It is usually pretty simple to know what you depasited in the account at first. Whatever it is worth on any day (minus your original contribution) is gain.

Get used to knowing these values. It is up to you to figure these out.

Your other choice is to merely include all withdrawals as 100% income. That should get your math abilities started

Ingtar17 · Post by **Ingtar17** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 2:45 pm

I am quite happy to consider the current value minus the contributions as gain, but I thought it was required to figure out what is specifically interest, what is specifically cap gains and what is specifically fees. If the bank doesn't tell me what the mutual fund fees are then I am basically just subtracting this off my real gains For example - I put in $1000. This turns into $1100 through cap gains/interest, but they charge me $100 in fees. Current value minus original contribution = $0, so I pay no tax, but technically I had a $100 gain. Don't they care about this?

Thanks,
Ingtar

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 6:19 pm

You are only required to report the type of gains if you are not electing to defer taxation on form 8891. Once you've made that election, the only thing that matters is gain/loss, not type of income.

Ingtar17 · Post by **Ingtar17** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 6:58 pm

Awesome!

Thanks.

glenm · Post by **glenm** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:06 pm

For what it is worth, for others who may not have elected on form 8891 and who therefore care about the details, I've found that while I can't get dividend/gain/interest breakdowns from my RRSP trustee, I am able to get them through the funds directly. My RRSP account manager helped with this, through his contacts with the fund companies. But it should also be possible to go direct, you should know your account# with each fund you hold in your RRSP and may already be getting statements from them.

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Sun Aug 23, 2009 7:17 am

Indeed. The finanancial staements for each funds are required to give the breakdown.

Greg · Post by **Greg** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 12:54 pm

I realized just recently I made a mistake on my 2004 1040 return with my HBP. I opened an RRSP in 2003 reported it to the IRS, in early 2004 withdrew almost all of it under the HBP. Filed 1040 with 8833 and 8891 showing the amount I withdrew with the remaining amount.

My Mistake came because I thought my RRSP made no income, but in reality it did. It made a total of $750.00. It was a stupid mistake on my part which I now know I should have added to my income on my 2004 return. I however kept deferring what was left of the original contribution along with the $750 income it generated, on my 8891 in 2005, 2006, 2007, and in 2008 when I cashed the rest of the RRSP and closed the account, I filed 8891 again showing the distribution and the taxable amount.

It was in plane site the whole time it even showed it on my 8891, not sure why I or the IRS didnâ€™t catch it in 2004.

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:12 pm

Was there a question here?