Dear Mr. Ingram
My wife and I hold dual American & Canadian citizenships . We currently live in XXXXXXXX ,Texas. My wife is to receive a large inheritance from her father sometime this fall. He was a resident of Ontario,Canada. We would like to keep the money in Canada. The amount is > 250,000.00 and < 750,000.00 .Could you advise us as to the feasibility of our request ? If it is possible to do this we would like to consult with you as to the best way to proceed.
Sincerely, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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david ingram replies:
I would be happy to look after you but you may want to deal with someone from Ontario who now lives in Dallas, Texas and you can find in the number one or two spot if you type "Income Tax Expert" into google.
Gary Gauvin is / was my ex partner in my Ottawa Office and now has a home office in Rockwall, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. His office number is (469) 273-3399, his web site is www.garygauvin.com and his email is [email protected].
Now neither of us deal with securities. We are cross border tax specialists.
Your biggest problem will be finding a broker or someone in Canada who is willing to deal with you.
999 out of 1000 licenced financial people in Canada can NOT deal with you because neither they, nor their company, are licenced to deal with you when you live in Texas.
They can lose their licence if they deal with someone who does not live in the province where they are licenced.
I don't know if you intend to come back to Ontario and maybe Toronto or if you intend to retire out here in god's back yard.
It is completely feasible for you to keep the money in Canada. Just do NOT do it by setting up a Canadian address for the account and making it look like you are living her for the sake of getting a broker to take your account.
I am happy to consult with you of course. I charge $450 (plus GST if you are in Canada) for an up to an hour consultation. further pricing details follow the next question. A couple of people you may want to deal with are included in the answer.:
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QUESTION:
I am a U.S. resident with my own one-person North Carolina corporation. I have all of my investment money inside my one-person company's defined benefit pension trust here in the U.S. (it is like a self-directed I.R.A. although it is not exactly that). I want to invest some of that money in one particular Canadian commodities trading fund which is structured in B.C. as a "mutual fund trust". I have no problem doing any of this on the U.S. side. I have all of the U.S. side under control. The problem is that this particular Canadian commodities trading mutual fund trust operator will not take my investment because I am in the U.S. They are not registered with the U.S. CFTC or S.E.C. and are afraid of want to run afoul of U.S. securities regulators by dealing with U.S. residents (namely my U.S. pension plan trust). However, they would be willing to accept the investment from a Canadian corporation if I set one up. Could I incorporate a Canadian corporation to buy and hold the units, without too severe adverse tax consequences? The only reason to create this Canadian corporation would be to convince the mutual fund trust operator that he was not dealing with a U.S. person for U.S. securities-regulation purposes. It would be owned by my U.S. defined benefit pension plan trust. In the U.S., my defined benefit pension plan trust pays no taxes at all, so I would hate to pay Canadian taxes and withholding taxes along the way. Another way of approaching this problem would be to create some entity that would be considered a non-U.S. resident for securities regulation purposes but a U.S. entity for taxation purposes. That might be the ideal solution. Maybe an offshore corporation would be an option. Or maybe I am missing some option..... Thanks for any comments! ------------------------david ingram replies:
This is too specific to get a detailed answer without a fee. In fact, it was rejected first. However, I spotted it as I was going to bed and always like to give an answer to what starts off as unsurmountable problem. In my opinion, the broker is dealing with fire if he or she sells to a Canadian corporation with non-resident owners as well.
What you need is a different broker, one who is licensed IN CANADA to deal with you in the USA.
I would NOT buy the stock in US registered plan. If it is worth buying, buy it outside the tax shelter and take advantage of lower capital gains tax rates and use the 15% Canadian tax deducted on the dividends as a personal tax credit on form 1116.
------------------------------------------ Don Walkow of Seabank Capital Management in Surrey, BC is one Canadian who can help you with the process
while you are still in the United States. His licensing allows him to deal with 401(K) plans, IRA's, RRSP's and
straight securities in any state in the US - He is one of two people I know of who can do this. -
His North American telephone number is 1-800-541-9952 and you can find out more at www.seabankcapital.com. Darrell Thompson of Blackmont Securities is the other person and is located in Toronto.
His phone number is 866-775-7704 If you are in Canada and in BC or Ontario in particular, Fred Snyder, host of "Its Your Money" every Sunday Morning
from 9:00 to 10:30 AM Vancouver Time can also look after you but can NOT talk to you if you are in the US.
(999 out of 1,000 other Representatives in Canada can NOT talk to you either). You can listen to this Canadian
Program (I am a regular guest - used to be the first co-host) live at www.600am.com---------------------
SUGGESTED PRICE GUIDELINES - May 17,
2008
david ingram's US / Canada Services
US / Canada / Mexico tax, Immigration and working Visa Specialists
US / Canada Real Estate Specialists
My Home office is at:
Calls welcomed from 10 AM to 9 PM 7 days a week Vancouver (LA) time - (please do not fax or phone outside of those hours as this is a home office) expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service help.
$1,700 would be for two people with income from two countries
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.
david ingram's US / Canada Services
US / Canada / Mexico tax, Immigration and working Visa Specialists
US / Canada Real Estate Specialists
My Home office is at:
4466 Prospect Road
North Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V7N 3L7
Cell (604) 657-8451 -
(604) 980-0321 Fax (604) 980-0325
North Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V7N 3L7
Cell (604) 657-8451 -
(604) 980-0321 Fax (604) 980-0325
Calls welcomed from 10 AM to 9 PM 7 days a week Vancouver (LA) time - (please do not fax or phone outside of those hours as this is a home office) expert US Canada Canadian American Mexican Income Tax service help.
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.
