# Declare RRSP dividends on form 8938?



## SailingDreams

Hi Folks

This question pertains to form 8938 Part III where Turbotax asks you to enter gains, dividends, interests, etc on your foreign accounts. I have an RRSP in Canada that has earned dividends and gains, but since we have a tax treaty, these dividends/gains are not taxed until I withdraw from the RRSP. Since I have not drawn from the RRSP, and therefore did not receive any income, do I enter zeros in these fields? 

If I enter the gains and dividends from my RRSP statements, Turbotax tries to link the dividends/gains to the schedule/form line where its reported. But because of the tax treaty, they don't have to be reported until I withdraw from the RRSP. 

Cheers
Eddie


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## BBCWatcher

I'm not too familiar with TurboTax, but does TurboTax have a section where you can take a treaty position that then shows up on an IRS Form 8833?

....Answering my own question, it doesn't look like it. It looks like that's a gap in TurboTax's coverage.

Have you tried asking in the TurboTax forums?

One option I can think of is to leave that information off IRS Form 8938 in TurboTax. Do everything else you can, and make sure it all looks OK. But then instead of e-filing you'd print your tax return. Then you'd manually insert IRS Form 8938 and IRS Form 8833 as part of your printed package. You'd sign, date, then mail that package in. Ugly, but that'd be one way to work around the gap.

Or switch to TaxAct (for example) which does support IRS Form 8833. Even TaxAct's free edition does. If you've done all the work in TurboTax so far I think TaxAct has some way to import that work.


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## SailingDreams

Hi

Thanks for the reply.

I posted on TurboTax thinking that surely someone has dealt with this (there are a LOT of 8938 posts), but did not get a reply ( 

I'll try your suggestion tonight on form 8833 and also investigate TaxAct.
Cheers
Eddie


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## maz57

Well, I haven't heard that one before but back in Form 8891 days, the IRS didn't ask what happened inside a Canadian RRSP. They were only interested in whether there was a distribution from the account during the tax year. If so, it was, of course, taxable income. 

I have heard nothing to suggest that anything has changed other than the elimination of Form 8891 and moving the reporting of RRSPs over to Form 8938. This means that you would just report the account on 8938 and the distribution (if there is one) on the appropriate line on Form 1040. I admit this is a guess but it seems a sensible approach to me. The IRS announced the elimination of Form 8891 late last year but without much explanation as to what the new regime was to be. Whatever happens during the year inside of the RRSP is not a taxable event until there is an actual withdrawal so reporting that activity would be pointless. Taking a treaty position seems unnecessary because that is the IRS' default assumption for the RRSP anyway. No need to over think this.


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## BBCWatcher

Then again, filing an 8833 certainly doesn't _hurt_, so why not?


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## SailingDreams

Hi

I found an interesting comment about Form 8833 in the TurboTax forum. The post is saying that its not required. So confusing.

Unfortunately this forum won't let me post the link here because of some "post count". I'll try later.

Cheers
Eddie


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## SailingDreams

Here is the link for the Form 8833 not needed Turbotax post.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2755664-do-i-need-to-file-a-8833-every-year-that-i-own-a-fund


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## maz57

BBCWatcher said:


> Then again, filing an 8833 certainly doesn't _hurt_, so why not?


From the instructions for Form 8833:

Recordkeeping.......3hr., 7min.
Learning about the law or the form......1hr., 35 min.
Preparing and sending the form to the IRS......1 hr., 45 min.

Life is short, spend it wisely.


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