Are you a US citizen in Canada who has never filed your US taxes or fallen behind in your filing? Are you nervous about the IRS?
Don’t worry! SKL can help. You can enter an amnesty program called the streamlined procedures, which helps US citizens in Canada (and elsewhere) catch up on overdue tax returns without fear of penalties. Don’t delay, as the IRS has said they may close this program at any time.
To take advantage of the streamlined foreign offshore procedures you must:
1. Have been outside of the United States for at least 330 days during one of the last three years;
2. File complete US tax returns for the three most recent tax years;
3. File 6 years of the FBAR form electronically. The FBAR form is required if at any point during the tax year you had more than USD $10,000 in foreign bank accounts;
4. Certify that your failure to file the required US tax forms was non-willful.
US citizens in Canada are subject to US federal tax and usually not subject to state tax. Canadian federal and provincial tax rates are generally higher than the US federal tax rate. The Canadian taxes you pay are credited against your US taxes, so most US citizens in Canada will not owe anything to the IRS. As such, for most people getting caught up means filing some paperwork. However, the paperwork can be really complex.
We can help. We’ve been helping US citizens in Canada file US tax returns for more than forty years.
Contact us to get started.