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Author: Spiffy99 Three stars, 500 posts Old School Fool Add to my Favorite Fools Ignore this person (you won't see their posts anymore) Number: of 1188  
Subject: Re: Help - A Canuck living in the US Date: 9/1/2009 12:42 AM
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Everytime I talk to someone they say they can't help me because I'm a US resident and they don't have a brokerage license for Georgia.

Am I screwed here?


Short answer: Yep you are screwed.

Less Short Answer: You are technically supposed to declare the existence of the RRSP to the IRS and claim an exemption under the US-Canada tax treaty. Otherwise you are supposed to pay tax on the earnings to Uncle Sam. You can't change your investment options inside the RRSP unless you have a Canadian address. But then that opens up Canadian tax issues (Canada will want to tax your income). You might try pulling the money out of the RRSP, paying the 25% withholding tax to Canada, and putting the cash into a US Roth. That might work. But it'll cost you 25%.

When I moved to the US I had some significant dollars in "Locked-In" RSPs (LIRAs) that I could not cash out (they were from company pensions). So I put them into low-cost TD e-funds and left then on auto-pilot in general market index funds with re-invested dividends. I declare the income every year to both the IRS and California (and have to pay tax on the earnings to California).

Spiffy
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