# American-born Canadian moving to the US



## karenchase (Jan 10, 2018)

Greetings, I hope I can find some info here.

I was born in the US, but moved to Canada when I was a baby (with my parents). I have lived 40+ years in Canada and never lived, worked, earned money or paid taxes in the US. Now, I am considering a move "back home."

Does anyone here have advice about how this might work? I have always assumed that since I have a US birth certificate and an SSN that I acquired several years ago when I did an advanced degree at a US university, that if the mood struck me I could simply pack up all my stuff and show up at the border, without much (or any) difficulty.

Am I dreaming? Will this be more complicated than I thought?

Will the IRS come after me for 30 years of working in Canada and never paying any US taxes?

Enquiring minds want to know!

Karen


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

It's doubtful that the IRS will come after you (unless you have some sort of "conspicuous" wealth) - but you will probably need to consider going through the "Streamlined Compliance Procedure" to get up to date on your tax filing obligation. Basically, it consists of filing the current tax year plus 3 years in arrears, and then 6 years back for the FBAR filings (i.e. a list of your "foreign" bank and financial accounts with the high balance for each year).

One word of "warning" - the Streamlined Compliance thing for overseas residents is a bit easier than the one for US residents. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/streamlined-filing-compliance-procedures It might be a good idea to get the streamlined filing stuff out of the way before you move to the US, because chances are you will owe little or no tax over the period for which you need to file. That will get you up to date and then you can start filing "like a normal person" once you have moved to the US.
Cheers,
Bev


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## FairWindsTax (Nov 9, 2017)

Bev is right about the need to follow the Streamlined Compliance if you kept your US citizenship. 

If you gave up your US citizenship (especially more than 6 years ago), then I do not see a need to 'make good' with the IRS (i.e., they would not come after you).


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