I am a Canadian citizen working here in the US on VISA as a non-resident legal alien. I know I can legally contribute to an IRA, but will I be taxed when I withdraw the monies at retirement age by both Canada and the US? I plan to continue residing in the US until that time.

Regardless of the current tax treatment, no one can guarentee the future tax treatment or the future tax rate. Unfortunately, we have no contract with our own govenments, would that not be nice to know the future ground rules for twenty years! SSN rules have been changed more than 20 times since social security was initiated. Roth rules have already been revised/corrected once.

Under the current treaty between the U.S. and Canada, you would be taxed only in Canada, assuming you moved back there. However, as stated above, we cannot guarantee what the state of the law will be in 20 years.

Paul Vickers