Capital Gains on US 1040 for Can resident Art XIII Tax Treaty - 


QUESTION:

HELP!
I'm doing my US 1040 and have crashed & burned.  I retired half way through the year, so have pension income not excluded on 2555 and TAXABLE in US, No allowance for  Canadian RRSP contributions, as far as I can tell, 50% of Capital Gains are taxed in Canada and 100% in the US?
I got a good refund in Canada but looks like I still owe the US $1000 even after form 1116.
Is there any hope of '0' tax?
Do you do 'short' phone consultation?
Thanks, 
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david ingram replies:

try using form 1116 for the whole return and do not exempt the first six months salary.

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If it is a shortage of foreign tax credit because you bought a big RRSP, you might want to claim less RRSP on your Canadian return and carry it forward to next year.  Then your refund would be less in Canada but you can get it in the future and by paying more to Canada, your foreign tax credit should be larger.

When you are claiming the foreign tax credit for your wages make sure that you remember to claim the CPP and EI as part of the foreign tax credit.  And, remember that your CPP and OAS and any Social Security you might be getting are 'NOT' taxable on the US return under Art XVIII(5) of the US / Canada Income Tax Convention (treaty).

And,  if you have lived in Canada for more than 10 out of the past 20 years, Canadian capital gains are also exempt on the US 1040  under Article XIII(4) and (5) as shown here

4.  Gains from the alienation of any property other than that referred to in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall be taxable only in the Contracting State of which the alienator is a resident.

5.  The provisions of paragraph 4 shall not affect the right of a Contracting State to levy tax on gains from the alienation of property derived by an individual who is a resident of the other Contracting State if such individual:

and if such property (or property for which such property was substituted in an alienation the gain on which was not recognized for the purposes of taxation in the first-mentioned State) was owned by the individual at the time he ceased to be a resident of the first-mentioned State.


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Good luck
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SUGGESTED PRICE GUIDELINES - May 17, 2008

david ingram's US / Canada Services
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pert  US Canada Canadian American  Mexican Income Tax  service and help.
David Ingram gives expert income tax service & immigration help to non-resident Americans & Canadians from New York to California to Mexico  family, estate, income trust trusts Cross border, dual citizen - out of country investments are all handled with competence & authority.
 
Phone consultations are $450 for 15 minutes to 50 minutes (professional hour). Please note that GST is added if product remains in Canada or is to be returned to Canada or a phone consultation is in Canada. ($472.50 with GST for in person or if you are on the telephone in Canada) expert  US Canada Canadian American  Mexican Income Tax  service and help.
This is not intended to be definitive but in general I am quoting $900 to $3,000 for a dual country tax return.

$900 would be one T4 slip one W2 slip one or two interest slips and you lived in one country only (but were filing both countries) - no self employment or rentals or capital gains - you did not move into or out of the country in this year.
 
$1,200 would be the same with one rental
 
$1,300 would be the same with one business no rental
 
$1,300 would be the minimum with a move in or out of the country. These are complicated because of the back and forth foreign tax credits. - The IRS says a foreign tax credit takes 1 hour and 53 minutes.
 
$1,600 would be the minimum with a rental or two in the country you do not live in or a rental and a business and foreign tax credits  no move in or out

$1,700 would be for two people with income from two countries

$3,000 would be all of the above and you moved in and out of the country.
 
This is just a guideline for US / Canadian returns
 
We will still prepare Canadian only (lives in Canada, no US connection period) with two or three slips and no capital gains, etc. for $200.00 up. However, if you have a stack of 1099, or T3 or T4A or T5 or K1 reporting forms, expect to pay an average of $10.00 each with up to $50.00 for a K1 or T5013 or T5008 or T101 --- Income trusts with amounts in box 42 are an even larger problem and will be more expensive. - i.e. 20 information slips will be at least $350.00
 
With a Rental for $400, two or three rentals for $550 to $700 (i.e. $150 per rental) First year Rental - plus $250.
 
A Business for $400 - Rental and business likely $550 to $700
 
And an American only (lives in the US with no Canadian income or filing period) with about the same things in the same range with a little bit more if there is a state return.
 
Moving in or out of the country or part year earnings in the US will ALWAYS be $900 and up.
 
TDF 90-22.1 forms are $50 for the first and $25.00 each after that when part of a tax return.
 
8891 forms are generally $50.00 to $100.00 each.
 
18 RRSPs would be $900.00 - (maybe amalgamate a couple)
 
Capital gains *sales)  are likely $50.00 for the first and $20.00 each after that.

Catch - up returns for the US where we use the Canadian return as a guide for seven years at a time will be from $150 to $600.00 per year depending upon numbers of bank accounts, RRSP's, existence of rental houses, self employment, etc. Note that these returns tend to be informational rather than taxable.  In fact, if there are children involved, we usually get refunds of $1,000 per child per year for 3 years.  We have done several catch-ups where the client has received as much as $6,000 back for an $1,800 bill and one recently with 6 children is resulting in over $12,000 refund. 

Email and Faxed information is convenient for the sender but very time consuming and hard to keep track of when they come in multiple files.  As of May 1, 2008, we will charge or be charging a surcharge for information that comes in more than two files.  It can take us a valuable hour or more  to try and put together the file when someone sends 10 emails or 15 attachments, etc. We had one return with over 50 faxes and emails for instance. 

This is a guideline not etched in stone.  If you do your own TDF-90 forms, it is to your advantage. However, if we put them in the first year, the computer carries them forward beautifully.
 





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