Canadian married to an American and currently living in

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
QUESTION:
Hi,
We live in California where my husband, who is Canadian, works. I am
American. We file US tax forms, married filing jointly.
If we move out of the US (probably to Britain), what is the best way to
continue filing US tax forms? As married filing jointly, or as married,
filing separately (which I assume means that only my tax return is filed and
everything my husband does is independent of the US tax system since he
isn't American).
My husband has ESPP stocks, a Roth IRA, and a joint investment account here
in the US. Would these need to be liquidated and/or put in my name only? He
also has an RRSP and cash in Canada.
Thank you,
RXXXXXXXXX
PS What are your rates for handling these types of tax returns? I am
interested in having our taxes handled by someone knowledgeable in US,
Canada, and UK/world taxation (we have lived in many places...). It is hard
to find someone with non-US tax experience here.
============================================================
david ingram replies:
If your husband has a green card and wants to keep it alive, he should do two things:
One:    Apply for permission to go and live in Great Britain and keep his card alive. This has to be filled out every year and the longest I have seen it allowed was eight years and then the person moved back to the US and he and his wife and children are now US citizens.
Two:    When living in Great Britain, continue to file his US tax return.  There is a school of thought that this is sufficient to keep the Green Card alive without the application and I have had clients who have done just that, lived out of the US for several years and then moved back without incident.  One who did have an incident, had his green card taken away and then got it back in immigration court (I was a witness by telephone which was an unusual experience).and has since become a citizen.
===========
Of course, I would suggest that he get his US citizenship BEFORE he leaves for GB.
The preparation of your multi-country tax returns is something that I could do and would do IF you promise me that you will not start buying some sort of Great Britain Tax shelters other than a basic pension amount.  In other words, no movie deals, no offshore trusts, no GB limited liability partnerships..
Trying to put these things together in "one-off" deals can take fifty hours at $350 an hour to figure out what to do with it.  I guarantee that you cannot save enough tax to pay my fee.
American Citizens or residents should be very careful about buying any other country's tax shelter.  And, when I suggest that a GB pension might be okay, that action results in the necessity to file. a form 3520 (50 hours according to the manual) to report the contributions and / or withdrawals and an annual  3520A to report internal earnings (another 18 hours). In real terms, the accounting can cost more than the tax saved.
And you have to be careful about multi-jurisdiction claims.  Several years ago, I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I hired a fellow with a GB law Degree, a GB CA degree AND a US CPA degree in taxation.  He had actually been brought to BC by one of the big Six Accounting firms.
What a disaster.  I had to redo everything he touched from the simplest to the complicated. Even though he had the specific credentials for the individual jurisdictions, he just could not meld them together.
On the other hand Sonja Clark in our office now has a Canadian Law degree form UBC, Is a US CPA from Portland and a member of the British Columbia Institute of Chartered Accountants.  She is always pointing out my inadequacies  (women make a habit of doing that) and has the multi-jurisdictional tax stuff down pat between the US and Canada.
I am the only one I know of who will tackle a GB / Canada / USA / Australia / New Zealand return and come up smiling. I actually put a reference to it in my 1973 to 1991 Income tax Book.
However, in the long run, they are only slightly more difficult than doing a sports figure like Wayne Gretzky where we have to do a different state return for every state in which the athlete played a hockey or basketball or football game.
One of the silliest things we HAVE TO DO is calculate the individual provincial taxes for Non-resident airline personnel flying interprovincially in Canada   
As an example:  
the plane leaves Vancouver for Calgary - one half is credited to BC and one half to Alberta for tax purposes.
        
the plane continues to Winnipeg and - one half is credited to Alberta and one half to Manitoba
the plane continues to Toronto and - one half to Manitoba and one half to Ontario
The plane continues to Ottawa and the whole flight is credited to Ontario.
The next morning the flight leaves Ottawa for Vancouver and one half of the flight is credited to Ontario and the other half to BC.
It takes 3 to 6 hours to figure out a year's flights and the six hours is more usual than the three.
I have already quoted my hourly charge.  In practical terms, the usual US / Canadian return (about half) being $700 and the other half  running all the way up to $5,000.  Less than 10% would be over $1,500 and always involve the ownership of a foreign corporation and the preparation of form 5471.
Hope this helps.
David Ingram's US/Canada Services
US / Canada / Mexico tax and working Visa Specialists
US / Canada Real Estate Specialists
4466 Prospect Road
North Vancouver,  BC, CANADA, V7N 3L7
Calls accepted from 10 AM to 10 PM 7 days a week
Res (604) 980-3578 Cell (604) 657-8451
(604) 980-0321 
[email protected]
www.centa.com www.david-ingram.com
Disclaimer:  This question has been answered without detailed information or consultation and is to be regarded only as general comment.   Nothing in this message is or should be construed as advice in any particular circumstances. No contract exists between the reader & the author and any and all non-contractual duties are expressly denied. All readers should obtain formal advice from a competent financial, or real estate planner or advisor & appropriately qualified legal practitioner, tax or immigration specialist in connection with personal or business affairs such as at www.centa.com. If you forward this message, this disclaimer must be included."
This from "ask an income tax and immigration and bankruptcy expert" from www.centa.com or www.jurock.com or www.featureweb.com. Canadian David Ingram deals daily with tax returns dealing with expatriate:
multi jurisdictional cross and trans border expatriate problems  for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, South Africa,  Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt, Antarctica,  Japan, China, New Zealand, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia, Georgia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Scotland, Ireland, Hawaii, Florida, Montana, Morocco, Israel, Iraq, Iran, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mali, Bangkok, Greenland, Iceland, Cuba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Barbados, St Vincent, Grenada,, Virgin Islands, US, UK, GB, American and Canadian and Mexican and any of the 43 states with state tax returns, etc.
  Alaska,  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Arizona,  California,  Colorado, Connecticut,  Delaware, District of Columbia,  Florida,  Georgia,  Hawaii,  Idaho,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Kentucky,  Louisiana,  Maine,  Maryland,  Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,  Mississippi,  Missouri,  Montana,  Nebraska,  Nevada, New Hampshire,  New Jersey, New Mexico,New York, North Carolina,  North Dakota,  Ohio,  Oklahoma,  Oregon. Pennsylvania,  Rhode Island,  South Carolina,  South Dakota, Tennessee,  Texas,  Utah, Vermont,  Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec City, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Yukon and Northwest and Nunavit Territories,  Mount Vernon, Eumenclaw, Coos Bay and Dallas  Taxman and Tax Guru Your name has been added to our email list because of an enquiry we have received,  we may not answer your question but 
another similar question will be as we lump them.
You may find more answers at www.centa.com
David Ingram of the CEN-TA REALTY  Group
US / Canada / Mexico tax and working Visa Specialists
US / Canada Real Estate Specialists
108-100 Park Royal South
West Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V7T 1A2
(604) 980-0321 - Fax 913-9123 [email protected]
www.centa.com www.david-ingram.com
---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.centa.com/CEN-TAPEDE/centapede/attachments/bf390d50/attachment.htm
---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--

Trackback

Trackback URL for this entry: http://www.centa.com/trackback.php/UsCaWeekofMon20031215000547.html

No trackback comments for this entry.

0 comments