Thread for outland Buffalo applicants!

[ddobro2]

Obviously, I can't speak as someone who has personal experience landing, but from reading what others had to say I doubt you need to go into minute detail.....maybe if the BO has OCD or something.... just kidding. From what I gleaned on CBSA's site, the officer will use the goods declaration form you give him to fill out a Form B4 anyway so perhaps it's better to just fill that out. It basically just has a column for the description of the goods and another for the value in Canadian dollars. Although the description column did note to include serial numbers if applicable so I guess a good rule would be to describe with more specificity things that are electronics or valuables and to describe with less specificity things that are not. This person who landed also put up an example online of what how he organized such a list: http://mypage.intergate.ca/~rajanr/Van_File/List_GTF.html.

By the way, I responded to your PM and I'd love to know what you think of what I wrote.

For anyone on here who landed recently, how detailed were you on your goods declaration forms? I'm preparing mine so I can go straight to the border and land when my passport & COPR come back, and I'm not certain how detailed I need to be. Right now a lot of it is rather general, for example, "clothes, shoes, small personal mementos, small home decorations," but I take the time to obviously identify any larger items such as an air conditioning unit I may bring, lamps, printer, etc., and of course my car. Did you go into further detail with the smaller items, or were they okay with a more general statement?

Most of what is still in the U.S. is really random stuff stuck in my parents' basement that they want me to either sell or move, so I'm not even certain I'll be importing it in the long run. I also can't really remember a lot of what it is in detail, because it's been sitting in boxes since 2009. I just don't want to have some grumpy customs officer get mad, because I didn't list out every single pair of shoes or photo album that may be coming with me! :

 

[ddobro2]

Lol, didn't see this when I replied to americaninquebec. I would venture to say that you can fill out the B4, especially since it does say "You can make the process easier by filling out Form B4 as completely as possible in advance." Perhaps if you're worried about improperly filling out some of the other fields on there (in the event of which I'd presume the BO would point it out), you could have a list/spreadsheet of the stuff printed on your own sheet and just submit that for the BO to do his thing with the B4.

Hi AmericaninQuebec,
My husband just got his passport back and COPR, and is going to land next week. He's starting to prepare his goods declaration form and was wondering if you can make up your own, or if you have to use that form: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/forms-formulaires/b4-eng.pdf
Any idea ?

Thanks !

 

[Hobby]

Hi guys, this is a question about US taxes.

I am Canadian, my wife is American. Right now, I am in Canada, she is in the US. How should she file her tax return? I do not need to pay US taxes do I? I know this is a stupid question but just want to make sure. She should put she is single, no? I have no US income and have not conducted business with the US

This is an excellent question, especially since after your wife lands in Canada she will still want to fill out taxes faithfully year after year. The US has a law out that they want every American to file, no matter where in the world they are. I believe that also includes Green Card holders. (Yikes!)

She will want to file married, separate (not joint), and indicate that you are in Canada, and are a Canadian. That should work, without you giving a foreign nation personal information. YOU will not need to pay taxes to the foreign entity. You folk are married, living separately (at least for now.) I believe it was scylla that came across this information speaking with the IRS itself, in the Buffalo thread, if I recall correctly.

 

[awor]

Hi guys, this is a question about US taxes.

I am Canadian, my wife is American. Right now, I am in Canada, she is in the US. How should she file her tax return? I do not need to pay US taxes do I? I know this is a stupid question but just want to make sure. She should put she is single, no? I have no US income and have not conducted business with the US

I use TurboTax to do my taxes (I have to use the Small Business program, it handles all the business tax crap for me) and after scouring the internet I found that you have to have lived with your "alien" spouse for the whole year to use married filing separately, otherwise, to use Head of Household. This is what I'm using. The software wanted DH's SSN and I just entered all 0s.

 

[pcdmontreal]

Lol, didn't see this when I replied to americaninquebec. I would venture to say that you can fill out the B4, especially since it does say "You can make the process easier by filling out Form B4 as completely as possible in advance." Perhaps if you're worried about improperly filling out some of the other fields on there (in the event of which I'd presume the BO would point it out), you could have a list/spreadsheet of the stuff printed on your own sheet and just submit that for the BO to do his thing with the B4.

Thanks ddobro2, I think we'll go with our own list and fill out the B4 at the border with the help of an agent.

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

This is an excellent question, especially since after your wife lands in Canada she will still want to fill out taxes faithfully year after year. The US has a law out that they want every American to file, no matter where in the world they are. I believe that also includes Green Card holders. (Yikes!)

She will want to file married, separate (not joint), and indicate that you are in Canada, and are a Canadian. That should work, without you giving a foreign nation personal information. YOU will not need to pay taxes to the foreign entity. You folk are married, living separately (at least for now.) I believe it was scylla that came across this information speaking with the IRS itself, in the Buffalo thread, if I recall correctly.

I disagree about filing separately if your wife has earned any money in the U.S during the tax year. I filed last year my 2010 taxes (I'm American and my hubby is Canadian, and have never worked in the U.S. a day in his life) jointly, so that I could take advantage of tax deductions like interest paid on student loans, etc. as I had earned income in the U.S. during 2010. If you file jointly you really miss out on a lot of tax deductions and any sort of extra stimulus refunds that may be in place (which you can still be eligible for even if you didn't earn income that year). It does require the non-U.S. spouse to get a tax ID number from the IRS. This doesn't take much more than filling out a form and sending in an official copy of your passport. Then when your wife files her taxes she can file jointly, but simply exclude your first $90k in income as foreign earned income. She then proceeds to do her taxes as she would normally with only her U.S. based income being considered (assuming she has no Canadian based income, which if she did she'd want to exclude as well up to that $90k point. After $90k you can use credit for foreign taxes paid, though it's slightly more complicated I believe).

I haven't yet done this with income earned completely in Canada. I could see filing separately being beneficial at that point if combined income would be over $90k, as it gets more complicated to file with the credit for foreign taxes paid rather than simply excluding foreign earned income.

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

This is an excellent question, especially since after your wife lands in Canada she will still want to fill out taxes faithfully year after year. The US has a law out that they want every American to file, no matter where in the world they are. I believe that also includes Green Card holders. (Yikes!)

She will want to file married, separate (not joint), and indicate that you are in Canada, and are a Canadian. That should work, without you giving a foreign nation personal information. YOU will not need to pay taxes to the foreign entity. You folk are married, living separately (at least for now.) I believe it was scylla that came across this information speaking with the IRS itself, in the Buffalo thread, if I recall correctly.

Btw, just an extra note to say that you can file jointly or separately at any time, it doesn't matter if you live together or not.

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

I use TurboTax to do my taxes (I have to use the Small Business program, it handles all the business tax crap for me) and after scouring the internet I found that you have to have lived with your "alien" spouse for the whole year to use married filing separately, otherwise, to use Head of Household. This is what I'm using. The software wanted DH's SSN and I just entered all 0s.

I'm very surprised you were able to properly file with Turbotax by entering all 0s. I tried that last year, and it didn't work (we got hubby's alien ID number at the same time we filed taxes). I ended up doing it with the simple IRS tax forms, and the expat IRS hotline. I think it worked out better for me, to be honest, because Turbotax didn't report as much of a refund as I got doing my own taxes (and which the IRS did pay me in the end).

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

Thanks ddobro2, I think we'll go with our own list and fill out the B4 at the border with the help of an agent.

I filled out a copy of the B4 forms to bring with me. I figure worst case scenario the border guard will redo the list. I did see on the CSBA website though that they recommend filling out your own B4 forms to bring with you, as it will make the process faster.

 

[yooper]

I filled out a copy of the B4 forms to bring with me. I figure worst case scenario the border guard will redo the list. I did see on the CSBA website though that they recommend filling out your own B4 forms to bring with you, as it will make the process faster.

I tried, but failed to print B4 forms at home. They look like they're not letter sized, but something larger -- which I was unable to print. Just something to look out for.

 

[yooper]

...I haven't yet done this with income earned completely in Canada. I could see filing separately being beneficial at that point if combined income would be over $90k, as it gets more complicated to file with the credit for foreign taxes paid rather than simply excluding foreign earned income.

Not expert here, and frankly a little groggy this day -- but research this very well before choosing credit vs. exclusion. If I remember right, the credit is usually recommended because unused credit can be carried forward. Or maybe its the other way around. So my point is to be pretty sure about this.

Glad we're talking about this, as I've been looking into my (Canadian Sponsor) wife's taxes a lot, and now its time to file again. In her case, what's difficult is that she's a 'contractor', not employee -- so there are issues of self-employment tax and how you avoid paying both countries correctly. (You don't have to pay both, but there are a few rules about how to do it.)

 

[ddobro2]

Did you try to fit or shrink to the printable area in the "page scaling" section in the Print window? If it's something between letter and legal sized, there's a button on the first page (I doubt you missed it, it's one of the bright blue ones) that apparently converts to legal (8.5 x 14). Did that not help?

I tried, but failed to print B4 forms at home. They look like they're not letter sized, but something larger -- which I was unable to print. Just something to look out for.

 

[yooper]

Did you try to fit or shrink to the printable area in the "page scaling" section in the Print window? If it's something between letter and legal sized, there's a button on the first page (I doubt you missed it, it's one of the bright blue ones) that apparently converts to legal (8.5 x 14). Did that not help?

Since I'm in the computer industry, I hate to admit that I didn't see button. (hope my stupidity is a lesson to others.)

Thanks, ddobro2...

 

[ddobro2]

Lol, no worries. Seriously, if it's that much of a hassle it's better to just have the list and leave the transcribing of the items to Border Services. I luckily have no importing issues to deal with, car or otherwise. All my humble worldly possessions are already in country, the only thing that's not is the damn visa.

Since I'm in the computer industry, I hate to admit that I didn't see button. (hope my stupidity is a lesson to others.)

Thanks, ddobro2...

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

Not expert here, and frankly a little groggy this day -- but research this very well before choosing credit vs. exclusion. If I remember right, the credit is usually recommended because unused credit can be carried forward. Or maybe its the other way around. So my point is to be pretty sure about this.

Glad we're talking about this, as I've been looking into my (Canadian Sponsor) wife's taxes a lot, and now its time to file again. In her case, what's difficult is that she's a 'contractor', not employee -- so there are issues of self-employment tax and how you avoid paying both countries correctly. (You don't have to pay both, but there are a few rules about how to do it.)

I've read up on it quite a bit, but I'm also no expert. Very generally, it is recommended to stick with the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. I honestly would have to look back into it to confirm if the limit on the FEI exclusion is $90k total if you file jointly, or $90k per person.