Really?

Ben was told a couple of months ago that the International Students' Office would provide him with an online code to a tax program that is equipped to handle our particular (complicated) US tax situation. I collected our forms, added up numbers and made a few feeble attempts using free online programs such as TurboTax, H&R Block and something else I can't remember.

We finally received the tax code a little over a week ago. I input our information in the program and was unimpressed that there were some glitches. Let's just say that by increasing our charitable contributions by several hundred, the program told us that we OWED an extra $1400 in taxes. Topsy-turvy as things can be down here, I highly doubt the accuracy of that conclusion.

I was also unimpressed with a few other things, so I searched again for a program that could handle our non-resident alien status. Since this is the first year that we have to pay income tax in the US, it gets more complicated than in previous years when I used a (nameless) accountant who was rather disorganized, tardy and error-prone. We have been told various things about our tax status now that Ben's income has exceeded the US-Canada treaty limit for the 2009 tax year. The responses to our situation have varied from saying that we will retroactively owe tax on all income made here since 2005 (which would be kind of ridiculous, especially since we paid tax on that income in Canada) to saying that we may owe back-tax on the income for 2009 that was previously considered tax-exempt.

Long story short, I admitted defeat.

We had received a letter in the mail from an accountant introducing his practice to the neighbourhood. His name? Mr. Starbuck. Now clearly I thought this was a sign that he was the one who could help us out.

Ben called him last week and explained our tax situation. At first, he thought we could simply use the regular forms. Um, no. We need to use the 1040NR - that's NR for Non-Resident, which is what we are. Even if we were somehow considered resident for tax purposes, we are still considered non-resident aliens and need to file as such. After a few minutes of conversation, Mr. Starbuck concluded that since he had never filed these forms before, he'd pass on the name of a "national" firm that had a local office.

At this point, Ben headed out with the girls to Rachel's Kindermusik class and I went upstairs to call Firm #2. A bored-sounding receptionist answered. I gave her the basics of our situation and asked if this was something that their firm could do. She had no idea but volunteered to check for me. After a few minutes, I was transferred to someone else. I asked her if she offered tax preparation services for form 1040 non-resident. Her response: "Um, where are they resident of then?"

Not really being in the mood, I simply said, "You know, I'm not sure. Let me check and get back to you! Thanks, bye!"

Back to square one we went. There was another firm in the phone book that had a website so I poked around on there enough to see that they at least sounded competent online. I called and was soon transferred to one of the accountants. This lady was:

1. Helpful
2. Knowledgeable
3. Smart
4. ABLE TO HELP US!

Ben dropped off our large envelope of tax forms, figures and immigration information on Friday. She said that the usual turn-around time is about a week but that it might take her longer due to our situation. However, she has filed forms for non-residents before and sounded pretty sure that it wouldn't be difficult. Time will tell, I suppose.

I did chuckle when she told me that she'd once had to prepare Canadian tax returns and found them very confusing. It's all what you know.

I'll conclude with my final surprising discovery, which is that I believe we will be paying more tax on Ben's income in the US than we would have done on the same income in Canada. Yet "socialist" Canada has higher taxes according to so many down here. Yes, I fully agree that the rich are taxed at a higher rate, but it looks like for the average working-class family that income tax is considerably lower in Canada. I'll be sure to update once we get our US returns back and can file the Canadian ones.