How to report public service pension on 1040; 3520 required?

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fangle
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:00 pm

How to report public service pension on 1040; 3520 required?

Post by fangle »

Dual Citizen, residing and employed in Canada

Last year I started contributing to the public service pension plan, a defined benefit pension for federal employees. I am struggling to determine my reporting requirements to the IRS for this plan. I have determined that I do not meet the threshold test for form 8938 (single and under the 200k when totalling accounts & RRSP) so I do not need to report it there yet.

1. Do I report my pension contributions (deductions from pay) to this pension on my 1040 or is this excluded under treaty ? I read on the forum that it should not be reported on the 1040 as part of my wages, but I'm not sure if it must be reported elsewhere on the 1040.

2. Would this pension be considered a foreign trust, requiring me to indicate yes to having and yes to making contributions to a foreign trust on Schedule B, Part III? (I will say yes and yes anyway since I contributed to an RRSP in 2020)

3. If considered a foreign trust, do I file a Form 3520 for this pension? I read an article on Rev. Proc. 2020-17 but am still uncertain if this is waived for this pension.

Thank you.
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