Thanks for this great answer. My initial question was really about whether it is worth it to ask for seven years' of statements when in fact the policies were held for much longer and thus I would not have a complete paper trail. I entered the US initially as a graduate student at Tufts (1985-89) then got a job and stayed. The term policy was probably bought in 1982, or thereabouts. The whole life policy was bought by my father when I was probably 4 or 5 years old, say 1959-60 roughly. My father paid the premium on the whole life until probably when I was in college or even beyond, so let's say I started paying premiums roughly in 1979-80 on that policy and they were only about 425CAD, but probably by the time I bought the term policy, I had them both on automatic pilot and each year the dividends spun off from the policies paid the dividends with the rest, if any, accrued as added value to the policies. Over the years the insurance company (originally London Life, now Canada Life) changed their procedures for allowing premiums to be paid from accrued dividends and so on various years, probably most likely in the 90's and 00's, I paid the annual premiums to maintain the policies, but most of the time I was able to draw on the dividends to pay it. The premiums on both policies were not expensive, probably 400-500CAD each per year. I probably have records from Quicken for the past 20 years but I guess it would be good to know if they were accurate if I were to get the last seven years of information directly from the insurance company, and, more importantly, they would tell me the change in value of each policy each year, which I would not have in my records.
I turned over both policies this past September, and, after paying Canadian federal non-resident tax, and with the exchange rate, I netted $19,300 US total. Obviously, I do not want to get in trouble if audited, and I want the easiest way to have records available if I am. Can you tell me whether I should use the last seven years' data, that is, would this be useful, or just go with the final net money sent to me (the $19,300 US). Should I call this Other Income or as you suggest, and sorry if I get this wrong, that I can use the occasional premium payments I did pay and/or the dividends to offset some of the final value I received as income.
I really appreciate the time, attention and expertise you are putting towards this and I promise I will not keep asking questions.
Thanks!
Gary
