What goes into a tax risk register for a group with foreign subsidiaries?
One row per exposure, and against each one the jurisdictions affected, the quantum, the mitigation in place and the evidence held to support it. The last of those is the column most registers leave empty and the one that does the work: an entry naming a worry without naming the document that answers it is an anxiety, not a control. Write each row so that somebody who was not in the discussion can find the file. Where no document exists, that absence is itself the exposure and belongs on the register in those terms rather than as a blank cell.
Who should own each entry on the register?
Somebody by name, inside the group, who can actually move the item. The purpose of the register is to turn a set of unrelated worries into a ranked list with owners; an exposure with no owner sits on the list for years and is usually the one that surfaces at the worst moment. Ownership often belongs outside finance, to a contracting practice, a travel pattern or a payroll instruction, and that is precisely why those rows stall when finance is assumed to hold them. Record the owner, a review date, and what closing the row would require.
Does a tax risk register help if we are audited?
It is the main thing that does help, provided it has been kept. A register reviewed periodically becomes the audit-readiness file for the positions the group has taken: the exposure, the countries involved, the reasoning and the material supporting it, all recorded while the facts were fresh. The alternative is reconstructing a position years later from the memory of people who may have left. When a question arrives about something the group did, the answer is either in the file or it is not, and the register is what decides which of those you are dealing with.
How often should we review our group's tax risk register?
Often enough that it describes the group as it is now, which in practice means a scheduled review rather than a review prompted by bad news. Two events should always trigger one outside the cycle: a change in where the group operates or employs people, and any position being implemented for the first time. Periodic review is also what keeps the register useful as an audit-readiness file, because each entry then carries the date it was last examined. A register nobody has opened since it was written tells a reader only what was true when it was written.
Our board learns about tax positions after the fact — what fixes that?
Putting the position on the register before it is implemented, in the form a board can act on: what is proposed, which jurisdictions it affects, the quantum, what supports it, and what would change the answer. That is the difference between a board approving a position and discovering one. It also changes the record, because the decision becomes a minuted approval of a described exposure rather than an assumption that somebody had looked at it. Advice sitting in a letter that nobody has read into the register has not reached the people who are accountable for it.
Do we need to put a number against each exposure?
Yes, even a rough one, because ranking is the whole point. Quantum is one of the columns for a reason: without it every row looks equally urgent and the register cannot tell a board where to spend attention. Where the amount genuinely cannot be estimated, record the range and what would narrow it, which is usually a document or a fact nobody has yet established. Say which currency and which period the figure relates to, and record the basis beside it, so a later reader can see whether the number is a calculation or a placeholder.
What is a totalization agreement and how do I use one?
A social security agreement that stops you contributing to two systems for the same work, and lets periods in both count towards benefit eligibility in either. Which system you stay in depends on the agreement's rules for your situation — a seconded employee usually remains in the home system for a set period, a locally hired one usually joins the host system. You evidence it with a certificate of coverage obtained before or shortly after the assignment starts. See certificates of coverage.
I have not filed for several years while living abroad — what are my options?
Both countries have routes back, and using one before they contact you is what preserves the relief. On the US side there are procedures aimed at taxpayers whose failure was not wilful, including one designed for people living outside the country, and separate procedures for late account reports and information returns alone. Canada has its voluntary disclosures programme and taxpayer relief for penalties and interest. Filing quietly and hoping is the one approach with no protection attached to it. See catch-up filing.
