Checklist for Filing Back Taxes to the US
Please provide the following:
Bank Account Reporting (F-Bar Reporting)
You MUST report all foreign bank accounts (including Canadian) to the US Treasury if you have a total of over $10,000 in the combined accounts (aggregate value).
So---- what we need for this is a list of: Six year history of all bank accounts and/or any account that you have signing authority over.
Please use the Banking spreadsheet or supply:
For RRSP’s we need six years history of same as above as well as the year end balance.
Failure to report faces a minimum penalty of $10,000 and 5% to 25% of the balance if they decide to enforce it.
Please note that the Canadian Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) is usually not a good investment vehicle for a dual citizen. The TFSA is considered a trust in the US and is NOT TAX FREE.
Note on Capital Gains: capital gains are taxed at 50% in Canada but 100% in the U.S.
Please consider this when investing.
Also, in Canada there is a Canadian Dividend Tax Credit which is not available in the U.S. If you have Dividend income it will be to your financial advantage to supply us with the "actual" dividend amount as opposed to the "taxable" dividend amount that appears on your Canadian tax return.
For more information please see
IRS F-Bar reporting at the following links:
http://www.fincen.gov/forms/bsa_forms/
Last Updated Monday, January 29 2024 @ 12:04 PM PST|13,017 Hits