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Hello,
Just recently I found out that US citizens living in Canada are supposed to file & pay US taxes. I have lived in Canada for 20+ years & have never done so. The US Government has never contacted me about this. During this time I have worked part-time & have made less than $15,000. yearly. I have been married to a Canadian for 20 years. I do not have all of my Canadian tax returns for all of those years & some of the companies I have work for are no longer in business. What would you suggest I do about not filing these taxes? Should I find an accountant or use your company & try filing my taxes for the past 20+ years? Any advice you can give me would be appreciated.
Also, as of this year I lived in the USA, as a snow bird, for 4 months. I plan to go back from Oct. to May. I was hoping to work part-time & of course filing & paying US taxes for the time I am working. I have not worked in Canada during the year of 2003.
When you say $72,000. is that for a one year period or for life?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Mrs. S.
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david ingram replies:
What a neat email address - you must be an Ian Tyson Fan.
A US citizen living in Canada MUST file his or her US returns even if there is no income coming from the United States. RRSP and other Canadian Accounts must also be reported to the US treasury on separate forms with possible penalties of up to $500,000 plus 5 years in jail for failure to file forms TDF-90-22.1 which you can find at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-fill/f9022-1.pdf
When you read the bottom of page 1, you will see the penalty provisions. I admit that I have only seen the penalties applied twice to people that I have known. One was a $10,000 US penalty applied to a 105 year old lady who had an account at the Royal Bank of Canada in Edgemont Village in North Vancouver and the other was a $60,000 US penalty applied to a 68 year old lady who had not reported a significant number of accounts. She also received "one" day in jail.
And just yesterday, we received threats of a penalty against a 78 year old man who had omitted reporting an Iranian account.
I do not know of anyone more qualified to look after your returns than our office. We do returns by long distance for people in at least 60 different geo-political areas every year and specialize in Americans living in Saudi Arabia or Libya or Indonesia or Thailand, etc. A Snowbird is just an everyday return in our office and would send most tax preparation offices into a tizzy.
I would suggest that Sonja Clark CPA, CA, LLB BSc in our office would be ideal for you. Sonja is a member of the Certified Public Accountants, A member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC, a graduate of UBC law school and has a Bachelor of Science just in case you want a frog dissected.
She is also a dual citizen (as you are) and understands your situation completely.
You can get hold of Sonja at the address and phone number below and I have copied this specifically to her.
We would only go back 6 years as a matter of course. Although the IRS "could" ask for every return, it is highly unlikely that they would unless they thought you had deliberately set out to defraud them.
The exemptions for earned income for the last six years range from $70,000 to $80,000 per YEAR.
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
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 and the author and any and all non-contractual duties are expressly denied. All readers should obtain formal advice from a competent and appropriately qualified legal practitioner or tax specialist in connection with personal or business affairs such as at www.centa.com. If you forward this message, this disclaimer must be included."
Be ALERT, the world needs more "lerts"
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