I am doing taxes in the USA for the first time and I completely underestimated how difficult it would be. In the past I've always been able to figure it out with a little Googling and reading, but I'm struggling...and clearly I'm down to the deadline! I'm really struggling with understanding how to use TurboTax for one issue. Maybe someone else has been there and know what to do?
I'm a Canadian living in the California. I have an RRSP in Canada which has some dividend income and no capital gains (have not sold anything since moving to the USA). I already know I need to do FBAR (complete! At least that was easy) and I know that I need to file form 8938, the new form for "Statement of Specific Foreign Financial Assets."
In TurboTax I have reported my RRSP dividend income and have also reported it on form 8938. So am I getting charged federal income tax on those dividends? Because they are supposed to be excluded from taxation, like a Trad IRA. How the hell do I deal with that? Then, of course, in California they are NOT excluded from Taxation because California is a special flower and the only state in the union that doesn't recognize the US/Canada tax treaty.
Ok, this is getting a little ranty. Has anyone done this before and do you have ideas? I've been through the TurboTax forums extensively but still don't feel clear. Obviously I'm down to the wire so I'll probably just end up taking a guess, but I'd rather keep things as tidy and accurate as I can.
