What do I file in Canada if all my income comes from Hong Kong?
If you are resident in Canada, you file a Canadian return reporting that income in Canadian dollars, whatever Hong Kong did with it. Where Hong Kong charged tax, a credit claim goes with it, by category of income and supported by the local assessment. Where Hong Kong charged nothing, the income still goes on the return. Alongside the income side there is a separate question about property held outside Canada, including accounts, shares and interests in companies, which is reportable because it exists rather than because it paid you. Clients tend to get the income half right and miss the holdings half.
Is anything left for me to file in Hong Kong if my employer reported my pay?
Treat the employer's reporting and your own filing as two separate things, because they are. The employer discharges its own obligation in respect of what it paid you; whether you have a filing of your own depends on your circumstances there and on what the authority asks of you. The safe course is to confirm your own position on the Hong Kong side rather than infer it from a payroll document. It matters for Canada too: the Canadian credit claim is evidenced by what was assessed and paid, so the local assessment is a document you need in hand either way.
Do I have to report my Hong Kong bank accounts to the CRA?
Canada asks its residents about property held outside the country, and bank accounts and securities holdings sit squarely inside that question. It is a reporting obligation attached to the holding, so it can apply to an account that produced almost nothing and to shares that paid no dividend. Two practical points. Gather the year-end and the highest balances from the institution itself rather than reconstructing them, because the figures have to be capable of support. And do the exercise in the first year of Canadian residence: an account that has gone unreported for several years is a larger job than the same account reported from the start.
I kept a company in Hong Kong, so what does that add to my Canadian filing?
Two things, and they are independent. The interest itself is reportable, which means the company appears in your Canadian filing even in a year it does nothing. Separately, the income the company earns has to be characterised, because certain kinds can be brought into a Canadian shareholder's return before any money is paid out. That makes the company's own bookkeeping part of your Canadian filing work: what it earned, from where, and whether it has people and activity behind it. Have that assembled before the return is prepared rather than after, since the answer can change what the package has to contain.
Which Hong Kong documents does my Canadian preparer actually need?
Ask for more than the payslips. The contract or assignment letter, because it shows where duties are to be performed. The annual employer statement and any local assessment, because that is what evidences the credit claim. Proof of tax actually paid over, not merely charged. Institution statements for every account and holding, with year-end and peak balances. For a company, its financial statements and a note of what it holds. And the exchange rate basis you intend to use, applied consistently. A filing assembled from this set can be explained years later; one assembled from memory and net figures cannot.
Do I still file in Canada for a year Hong Kong taxed nothing?
Yes, if you were resident here. A treaty and the relief rules decide how much tax you end up paying and to whom; they do not switch off the obligation to file. A year with no Hong Kong charge is simply a year with no credit to claim, and the income is reported and taxed on the Canadian basis. The filing also carries the holdings reporting, which never depended on any tax being charged anywhere. Skipping a return because the other country wanted nothing is one of the more common ways these files end up needing several years corrected at once.
How would a foreign tax authority know I am resident there?
Mostly from information you or your bank already provided. Account-opening forms ask you to self-certify tax residence, and that certification is reported between authorities under the Common Reporting Standard or, for US accounts, under the FATCA framework. Beyond that: employer and payroll filings, property registries, immigration records and the tax filings of anyone who paid you. The realistic planning assumption is that the data arrives. See FATCA and information reporting.
How do families with assets in two countries handle inheritance?
With paperwork built for both systems rather than one. In practice that means wills that work where each asset actually sits, an executor with authority a foreign bank or land registry will accept, clearance certificates before the estate distributes so the executor is not left personally exposed, and an estate tax exposure calculation done while the person is alive and can still act on it. Doing it afterwards costs more and forecloses most of the options. See cross-border wills and trusts.
