Paying US taxes on Canadian Military pension

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speco1959
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Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2014 2:12 pm
Location: Florida

Paying US taxes on Canadian Military pension

Post by speco1959 »

I am a Candian citizen living in the US as a permanent resident. I receive a military pension and pay 15% tax to Canada before I receive the pension. I have always treated this as just foreign income and claimed the tax credit but I'm not sure that is the right approach. Seems like I never get full credit for the taxes paid either for the past few years. Should I be claiming this as pension income on line 16a of my 1040 and when I do this in TurboxTax it asks me how much tax was paid which implies it was paid to the IRS. Do I put the income in line 16 then calculate the credit using form 1116? Any help is appreciated.
nelsona
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Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:33 pm
Location: Nowhere, man

Post by nelsona »

The pension gets included on 16a and 16b (it ius all taxable in US), and the 15% tax is used on 1116. You do not include the CDn tax anywhere else but on 1116.

It is typical that not all of the 15% tax is absorbed on 1116, and you have carryforwrd to use, as well as paying a little tax to US. That is the nature of foreign tax credits.
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
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