Do I have to file a UK return if I only have UK rent?
Normally yes. Land is taxed where it sits, so UK rent is UK source income and the UK expects a return from a landlord living abroad, separately from anything filed in Canada. A treaty allocates the tax between two countries; it does not consolidate the paperwork, and neither revenue authority accepts the other's return as a substitute. Expect two filings on the same rent, each computed under its own rules, with the Canadian one giving credit for the UK tax on that income. Order matters, because the Canadian credit depends on a settled UK figure.
What do I file where if I rent out my old UK house?
Three things, typically. A UK return reporting the rental business under UK rules. A Canadian return reporting the same rent in Canadian dollars, recomputed under Canadian rules, with a claim for credit for the UK tax on it. And Canada's annual disclosure of foreign property, which turns on what the property cost and how it is held rather than on whether it made any money. That third item is the one most often missed, because a house that breaks even still has to be disclosed. Use one exchange-rate basis across all three.
Do I report my UK pension in Canada if UK tax was already taken?
Yes. A Canadian resident reports worldwide income gross and then claims credit for foreign tax; deduction at source does not lift the income out of the Canadian return. What it does affect is the size of the credit, which is limited both to the UK tax properly payable on that pension and to the Canadian tax on the same amount. If more was deducted than the treaty allows, the excess is recovered on the UK side rather than claimed in Canada. So the pension appears twice in your papers and is taxed once in substance.
Do I need to report my UK savings and pension pots to Canada?
Income from them, certainly. Disclosure of the assets themselves depends on what each one is. Canada's foreign property reporting does not treat every overseas holding alike, and some pension arrangements sit outside it while ordinary accounts and investments do not. The practical step is an inventory: each account, each policy, each scheme, what it cost, who holds legal title. Then test each line against the reporting rules, rather than reporting or ignoring the lot. A UK arrangement described as tax-free in Britain is not automatically outside the Canadian net.
I sold my UK house after moving to Canada. What do I file?
Both sides, in sequence. The UK taxes disposals of UK land by people living abroad and expects the disposal reported on its own timetable, which can be far shorter than an annual filing deadline. Canada taxes the same disposal within your resident return, with the gain measured in Canadian dollars from a Canadian-dollar cost, so exchange movement alone can change the figure. The Canadian credit is for the UK tax on that gain. Settle the UK computation first if you can, or expect to amend the Canadian return afterwards.
Do I still file in the UK after I become resident in Canada?
Only for what remains UK source, or what UK rules still catch: rent from UK land, certain UK pensions, a disposal of UK property. Going the other way, once you leave Canada your Canadian filing narrows in the same fashion. The transition year is where the real work sits, with a part-year return on one side, an arrival position on the other, and income that has to be cut cleanly at the date you moved. Because the two tax years do not align, that cut rarely falls at a convenient point in either.
How do I actually stop being taxed twice?
In this order. Fix your residence under each country's own rules, and if both claim you, apply the treaty tie-breaker. Identify where each type of income is sourced. Read the article that covers that income type, because it decides who taxes and at what maximum rate. Then claim the relief on the residence-country return, with proof of the foreign tax. Most of the tax people lose to double taxation is lost at the last step, not the first. See how double taxation is relieved.
Do I get credit for all of the foreign tax I paid?
Only up to your own country's tax on that same income, and only for tax you were legally obliged to pay. Two consequences follow. Living somewhere that taxes you more heavily than your residence country does leaves an excess that becomes a carryover rather than a refund. And withholding suffered above the treaty rate is not creditable — the route back to that money is a refund claim in the country that took it. See claiming the credit.
