How to handle T4A-NR income from Canada for spouse while living in US?

This is actually a common situation for cross-border work. Let me help clarify: For Canada: You generally don't need to file a Canadian tax return if the only income was from employment where tax was withheld on a T4A-NR. The T4A-NR indicates non-resident withholding tax was already applied at source (that's why the numbers don't match up with the T1). The withholding is typically considered your final tax obligation to Canada. For the US: Yes, as US residents, you must report worldwide income on your US tax return. You'll include this income on your 1040. The good news is you can claim a Foreign Tax Credit for taxes paid to Canada using Form 1116. This helps prevent double taxation. To report this on your US return: - Include the income as foreign wages on Schedule 1 - Complete Form 1116 to claim credit for the Canadian tax withheld - Attach these to your 1040 Keep the T4A-NR as documentation of the foreign tax paid. This should give you credit for those Canadian taxes already withheld.

After struggling with cross-border tax issues for years, I finally found something that helped me tremendously. I used this service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) when I had a similar situation with income from Canada. It analyzes all your tax documents including foreign forms like T4A-NR and tells you exactly what to do with them on both sides of the border. I uploaded my Canadian tax forms and my previous year's US return, and it identified the exact forms I needed to file, where to report the income, and how to claim the Foreign Tax Credit properly. Their system even flagged a tax treaty provision that applied to my situation that I had no idea about. The step-by-step instructions were way more helpful than TurboTax or H&R Block's general advice. They even explained which boxes on the Canadian forms correspond to which lines on the US returns.

Just wanted to update about my situation since I mentioned it earlier. I ended up trying taxr.ai like you suggested for my UK income problem, and it was incredibly helpful! The system detected that my UK withholding fell under a specific provision in the US-UK tax treaty. It gave me step-by-step instructions for reporting the income on my US return and claiming the Foreign Tax Credit. I was actually over-reporting in previous years and potentially paying more tax than needed. The system even flagged that I didn't need to file in the UK since the withholding tax was considered final. I was able to complete everything myself using their guidance, which saved me from paying a cross-border tax specialist. For anyone dealing with foreign income forms like T4A-NR, T4, or in my case UK forms, it's definitely worth checking out.

This reminds me of the nightmare I had trying to reach the IRS about my foreign tax credit questions last year. After weeks of calling and getting nowhere, I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that actually got me through to an IRS agent in about 15 minutes. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I had specific questions about how to report my wife's Canadian income and what documentation I needed to support my Foreign Tax Credit claim. Getting those answers directly from the IRS gave me confidence I was doing everything correctly. Before using Claimyr, I spent days trying to get through on my own with no luck. If you have specific questions about your T4A-NR situation that aren't covered by the general advice here, getting through to the IRS directly might be worth it. They were surprisingly helpful once I actually got to speak with someone.

I need to apologize and correct myself. After posting my skeptical comment yesterday, I decided to try Claimyr out of desperation since I've been trying to get IRS clarification on my foreign income situation for weeks. I'm shocked to report it actually worked! Got a call back in about 20 minutes connecting me to an IRS representative. I asked specifically about reporting requirements for T4A-NR income and how to properly document foreign tax credits. The agent walked me through exactly what forms I needed and even explained a special rule about certain types of Canadian income that I had no idea about. This saved me from potentially filing incorrectly. After months of uncertainty and stress about my cross-border tax situation, I finally have clear guidance directly from the IRS. Never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually feeling confident about my tax filing now.

One important thing to consider with your T4A-NR situation is the US-Canada tax treaty. Under Article XV of the treaty, if your spouse was present in Canada for less than 183 days during the tax year AND the employer is not a Canadian resident AND the compensation isn't borne by a Canadian permanent establishment, there might be tax relief available. Since you mentioned only 11 days of work, you might be eligible to claim a refund of the Canadian tax withheld by filing a Canadian return. I went through this exact process last year and got most of my Canadian withholding refunded.

Has anyone used SprintTax or OLT for reporting foreign income like this? TurboTax is completely confusing me with how to enter the T4A-NR information.

I'm dealing with a very similar situation - my husband worked in Canada for about 3 weeks and we received a T4A-NR form. What really helped me was understanding that the T4A-NR withholding rate depends on whether you're covered by the US-Canada tax treaty. If your spouse is a US resident, the treaty rate should be 15% for employment income rather than the standard 25% non-resident rate. You might want to check if the correct rate was applied to your withholding. If they withheld at 25% when the treaty rate should have been 15%, you can file for a refund of the excess. Also, make sure to convert the Canadian dollar amounts to US dollars using the average exchange rate for the year (the IRS publishes these rates). This is important for both reporting the income correctly on your US return and calculating the proper Foreign Tax Credit amount. The good news is that even though this seems complicated, it's actually a pretty straightforward situation once you know the steps. The key is just making sure you report it correctly on both sides to avoid double taxation.