Case study 1
Unfiled years where the tax was nil and the reporting was not
A citizen abroad had not filed since leaving, on the understanding that foreign tax already paid and the exclusion between them meant there was nothing to send in. Once the exclusion was applied the income tax position for each year was close to nil, exactly as expected. The exposure sat entirely in the account reporting that should have travelled with those returns. The engagement produced a filed set of years with the election made on each, the missing account reports submitted through the route the facts fitted, and a written account of the delay on the file rather than left to be asked for.
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Case study 2
Establishing whether the election survived the delay before filing anything
Two of the missed years were recent and two were old, and the question was not the same for each. The work began with the election rather than the arithmetic: for each year, whether the exclusion could still be claimed on a return filed at that distance, what the position looked like if it could not, and whether the year had already been raised from the other side. Only then were the returns prepared, in the order that protected the strongest years first. The engagement produced a year-by-year assessment on the file and a filing sequence that followed it.
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Case study 3
A timely return that had claimed no exclusion at all
The return went in on time, prepared by someone who treated the foreign salary as ordinary wages, so US tax was paid on income the exclusion would have removed. Nothing was late; the claim was simply missing. The work was confirming the year was still inside the window for a repayment claim, testing whether the exclusion or the credit gave the better outcome once carry-forwards were taken into account, and amending on that basis. What the engagement produced was an amended year, a documented qualifying position, and a repayment that would otherwise have expired unclaimed.
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Case study 4
Balance paid, return never filed, and then the letters began
The filer had estimated and paid, year after year, without ever sending a return in. Paying is not filing: the years stayed open, the elections were never made, and the correspondence arriving asked for returns rather than for money. The work was reconstructing each year from foreign payslips and assessments, making the election where it remained available, and applying the payments already made against the resulting positions. The engagement produced a filed set of years, an agreed allocation of the amounts held on account, and a request dealing with the charges accrued in the meantime.
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Case study 5
A late election prepared alongside the relief that applies if it fails
The years were far enough back that the election could not be treated as certain, and the filer wanted the worst case before authorising the work. Every year was computed twice: once with the exclusion claimed, and once on the foreign tax credit alone, which was the fallback if the election were not accepted. The difference was set out in writing, with the fixed fee agreed, before anything was filed. The engagement produced returns claiming the exclusion, a fully computed alternative position held on the file, and no surprise for the client about either.
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Case study 6
Years late because the foreign assessment had not yet arrived
The delay was not neglect. The host country assesses on a different fiscal calendar, and the filer had been waiting each year for final figures before sending anything in, which put every return well past its date. The work was separating what genuinely needed the foreign assessment from what did not, filing on provisional figures with the extension used properly instead of letting the date pass, and amending once the assessments came through. The engagement produced the missed years brought current and a filing calendar no longer hostage to another country’s timetable.
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Case study 7
Catching Up From Inside the United States
The domestic route suits a filer who was resident in the US through the missed years, and it differs from the offshore one in what it asks for and what it costs. Choosing between them before anything is filed is the whole engagement.
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Case study 8
One Salary, Two Countries Claiming It
A US citizen resident in Canada, taxed in full on both sides because each return was prepared without the other in view. Deciding which country has the first right to the income, then claiming relief on the second return in the right order, is what stops the same dollar being taxed twice.
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