Overwhelming stress of taxes

[BRENTWOOD 14]

Hello

 

I am from Canada and I am finding the tax situation completely overwhelming. I would love to just know that I am not alone in this...... it is so complicated and confusing. Did everyone hire a tax lawyer because I don't even know how to tackle all the concerns. From owning an apartment which I had to lowball sell in order to eliminate with holding tax, selling my TFSA and now I don't know what to do with RRSPs and even just reporting the FBAR. Any assistance would be greatly helpful.

 

thank you 

[kris&me 572]

some questions and sorry for this ?

but is the apartment and TFSA in Canada?

you just interviewed in March  so which year did you sell this property?

if,  in 2018,  you will not worry about the sale until next spring

you may not need a tax attorney but maybe a CPA (ceritifed public accountant ) can help

up to you as we do not know (and dont need to know)  the amount of money you are talking about

[T_P 872]

22 minutes ago, BRENTWOOD said:

Hello

 

I am from Canada and I am finding the tax situation completely overwhelming. I would love to just know that I am not alone in this...... it is so complicated and confusing. Did everyone hire a tax lawyer because I don't even know how to tackle all the concerns. From owning an apartment which I had to lowball sell in order to eliminate with holding tax, selling my TFSA and now I don't know what to do with RRSPs and even just reporting the FBAR. Any assistance would be greatly helpful.

 

thank you 

We decided to hire an specialist to report taxes this year for the exact same reasons, lots of rules that we dont know and didnt want to mess with it. If you want recommendation let me know in pvt and I can share the contact.

[LittleLeaf 38]

Definitely not alone.

I just went through this myself and decided to do paperwork by hand, but I had a fairly straightforward return (married in Sept, but haven't worked in the US yet). Was still a pain in the butt though.  I'll say the Canadian exit return was explained and walked through MUCH better than the US side. 

 

I don't have answers for you, but these resources were helpful to me:

I found this article very good on RRSP's: https://serbinski.com/working-in-usa/rrsp 

The Serbinski accounting forums are great too, esp for cross border questions.

I also found some of my answers on a great facebook group called 'Canadians living in the US.'

and I found this article a great overview of the whole US proceess: https://www.thebalance.com/residents-immigrants-tax-return-3193100

 

If you are still looking at doing it through a firm, these guys popped up as recommended on that facebook group: http://www.traveltax.com/index.html

or Im sure there are lots of others too, just have to look for cross-border/immigrant tax accountants.

Best of luck!

 

[SerendipityMuse 24]

On 4/12/2018 at 10:54 AM, LittleLeaf said:

Definitely not alone.

I just went through this myself and decided to do paperwork by hand, but I had a fairly straightforward return (married in Sept, but haven't worked in the US yet). Was still a pain in the butt though.  I'll say the Canadian exit return was explained and walked through MUCH better than the US side. 

 

I don't have answers for you, but these resources were helpful to me:

I found this article very good on RRSP's: https://serbinski.com/working-in-usa/rrsp 

The Serbinski accounting forums are great too, esp for cross border questions.

I also found some of my answers on a great facebook group called 'Canadians living in the US.'

and I found this article a great overview of the whole US proceess: https://www.thebalance.com/residents-immigrants-tax-return-3193100

 

If you are still looking at doing it through a firm, these guys popped up as recommended on that facebook group: http://www.traveltax.com/index.html

or Im sure there are lots of others too, just have to look for cross-border/immigrant tax accountants.

Best of luck!

 

You're an angel, thank you for all these resources, just what I was looking for!!

[noront 6]

Also Canadian. I do feel your pain. I had to file 3 separate tax returns this year (CRA, IRS and state) plus Canada exit forms, FBAR, tons of extra IRS paperwork for my TFSA (nightmare! I regret not closing it as it was a ton of extra work for just $150 in dividends earned in the TFSA last year.) I did have a tax accountant help with some of it, but even then it was a ton of work. Also I didn’t have any real estate or complicated trusts or investments to deal with. Accountant advised not to worry about the RRSPs - they’re covered by some international agreement (not so for the TFSA.)

 

I would suggest using a cross-border accountant for the first year. Then use your 2017 tax return to guide you through 2018 filings. Plus, I think it gets a bit simpler in year two if you’re no longer a Canadian resident. I moved mid-year so I was considered a resident of both countries in 2017 and earned income in both countries. The upside is that I stand to get a pretty decent refund this year.