Human error at TDDI cost me several hundred dollars -- any recourse?
TLDR: A CS rep at TDDI screwed up, and as a result I have paid $$hundreds in unnecessary taxes. Is there a way to get it back?
Hi,
Just a quick question for anyone who may have been through a similar situation.
I have a self-directed RSP account with TD Direct Investing. In my USD account there I own some shares of Vanguard's VTI ETF. Around May of this year, I noticed that withholding taxes were now being deducted from US dividends paid into this account. This is not supposed to happen in an RSP.
The first CS rep I spoke with at TD (back in May) told me I needed to send in an updated form W8-BEN to fix this situation. I did so electronically and this rep confirmed their systems were now up to date. The problem was not actually fixed, however. There were withholding taxes applied to the next two dividend payments -- I waited two cycles just to be sure.
After phoning in again, a different CS rep this time told me that their systems actually hadn't been correctly updated back in May. Apparently there is a hard-to-spot checkbox somewhere in the TD backoffice software that actually disables the withholding tax; in my case this checkbox had not been checked even after the W8-BEN was received.
This human error entirely the fault of TD CS reps has cost me several hundred dollars in pointless withholding taxes in my USD RRSP account. I asked for compensation but the rep claimed there is no direct compensation in cases like this. Her advice was to talk to a tax expert and get the money refunded somehow at tax time. I'm not tax resident in Canada at the moment, and given that RRSP accounts are never supposed to be taxed (or even mentioned in my tax return, aside from withdrawals?) this advice seems totally weird and impractical.
Is there anything I can do, or should I just assume this money is gone forever?
Thanks!
Hi,
Just a quick question for anyone who may have been through a similar situation.
I have a self-directed RSP account with TD Direct Investing. In my USD account there I own some shares of Vanguard's VTI ETF. Around May of this year, I noticed that withholding taxes were now being deducted from US dividends paid into this account. This is not supposed to happen in an RSP.
The first CS rep I spoke with at TD (back in May) told me I needed to send in an updated form W8-BEN to fix this situation. I did so electronically and this rep confirmed their systems were now up to date. The problem was not actually fixed, however. There were withholding taxes applied to the next two dividend payments -- I waited two cycles just to be sure.
After phoning in again, a different CS rep this time told me that their systems actually hadn't been correctly updated back in May. Apparently there is a hard-to-spot checkbox somewhere in the TD backoffice software that actually disables the withholding tax; in my case this checkbox had not been checked even after the W8-BEN was received.
This human error entirely the fault of TD CS reps has cost me several hundred dollars in pointless withholding taxes in my USD RRSP account. I asked for compensation but the rep claimed there is no direct compensation in cases like this. Her advice was to talk to a tax expert and get the money refunded somehow at tax time. I'm not tax resident in Canada at the moment, and given that RRSP accounts are never supposed to be taxed (or even mentioned in my tax return, aside from withdrawals?) this advice seems totally weird and impractical.
Is there anything I can do, or should I just assume this money is gone forever?
Thanks!