Does a posting to Singapore end my Canadian tax residence?
Not on its own. A posting is a fact about where you work, and residence is decided on ties: where your home is, where your family lives, what you kept in Canada and what you set up in Singapore. Two people on identical assignments can land on opposite sides of that line. This matters for filing because a continuing Canadian resident reports worldwide income in Canada, while someone whose residence genuinely ended files for the part of the year before departure and then only on Canadian-source items. Settle the residence question first; the filing follows from it, and doing it the other way round is how a return gets filed on the wrong basis for years.
My Singapore employer files for me, so is anything left to do in Canada?
Usually yes, and it is the part clients miss. An employer's filing discharges the employer's duty in Singapore; it says nothing about your own Canadian obligation. If you remained a Canadian resident, the employment income still has to appear on a Canadian return, converted into Canadian dollars, with a claim for what Singapore charged on it. The employer's paperwork is evidence for that claim rather than a substitute for it. Keep the assessment, the payslips and proof of what was actually paid over, because a credit is allowed for tax borne, and the person who has to show it is you.
What does the CRA look at in a Singapore holding company?
Whether the company is genuinely doing in Singapore what its structure says it does. That is the substance question, and it decides whether the Singapore entity's treaty position holds up. In practice it comes down to who takes the decisions and where, whether there are people and premises behind the name, where board business actually happens, and whether the contracts and the money follow the same route as the paperwork. A holding company for Asian operations can be perfectly sound, but the file has to be built while the facts are happening. Minutes written later to describe decisions taken elsewhere are the weakest possible evidence.
I left Canada for Singapore in the middle of the year, so how many returns?
If your residence ended on departure, the Canadian return for that year covers the period you were resident, and income earned after that date is outside it except for Canadian-source items that carry their own obligation. Singapore then picks you up from its own side on its own basis. The practical work is drawing the line: fixing the date the ties actually changed, splitting employment income and any bonus or equity that straddles it, and keeping the supporting record of the move. Both filings will be prepared from the same set of facts, so the split has to be decided once and used consistently.
Do my Singapore housing and schooling allowances go on my Canadian return?
Package elements are the part of a Singapore assignment most likely to be handled differently by the two systems, so the answer starts with a list rather than a rule. Get the assignment letter and the annual employer statement in front of whoever prepares the Canadian return, and identify every component: base pay, bonus, housing, schooling, home leave, tax equalisation and any equity. Each is then placed on its own merits, and the amount reported in Canada may not equal the figure Singapore worked from. Where the employer equalises your tax, note that too, because it changes who ultimately bears any Canadian balance.
Do I report my Singapore company's profits in Canada before they are paid out?
Possibly, and this is the assumption that costs Canadian groups the most. Canada has rules that can bring certain kinds of income earned by a foreign company into a Canadian shareholder's hands before anything is distributed, and separate reporting that applies simply because the interest exists. So a Singapore entity sitting on retained profits is not automatically a deferral. What the answer turns on is the character of the income the entity earns and how the business is actually run, which is the same substance enquiry that supports the treaty position. Work it out before the structure is built, because the reporting starts with the shareholding, not with the first dividend.
How do you avoid double taxation?
You claim relief once, in the right country, in the right order. Usually the source country taxes first, the residence country then gives a credit for that tax against its own charge on the same income, and a treaty caps the source-country rate. Getting the order wrong is what produces a double charge you then have to unwind. The mechanism differs by income type, which is why we map the whole position before filing either return. See how to avoid double taxation.
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.
