For some unknown reason, a December Canadian pension payment that in prior years hit my US bank account on or before the last day of December, didn't reach the account until Jan 2, 2025.
My understanding is that the IRS considers the arrival date in my account to be the determinant of which tax year this income is associated with, so I think that means that I need to exclude the December payment from my 2024 income, and save it to report in 2025. Is that correct, or is there some wiggle room?
It's really tempting to pretend the money hit my account on Dec 31, because the 2024 "NR4" form issued by the Canadian payer includes the December amounts, so the paper trail will be much cleaner if I report those values on my US return, instead of manually reducing them by approx. 1/12th.
Note that I have no financial incentive to shift the income to 2025, because there are foreign taxes withheld on each pension payment, such that the net I end up owing to the IRS for this income is near zero after foreign tax credits, regardless of whether it is reported in 2024 or 2025.
So... does anyone have wise words to share about the best way to handle this?
