Case study 1
One earnings schedule used for two returns
A client on an Australian posting had a US preparer working from payslips and an Australian agent working from the local payroll summary, and the two returns never showed the same salary. We built a single schedule of earnings and tax by month and workday, agreed it against both sets of records, and had each return prepared from it. The engagement produced two filings that reconcile line by line, relief claimed against the Australian assessment rather than against withholding, and a schedule template the employer now issues at each year end.
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Case study 2
A departure-year filing prepared alongside a first US return
A client was leaving Australia for the United States and wanted both sides handled together. We prepared the Australian departure-year filing on the basis that residence ceased, dealt with what cessation brought into that year for the assets held, and used the same dates and values to compute the first US year. The engagement produced a closed Australian file, a first US return consistent with it, and a written record of the carried-over basis, so a question about either filing can be answered from one set of papers.
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Case study 3
A superannuation position recorded once and used in both filings
A client had two sets of advisers giving different answers about superannuation: one treating it as outside the US computation, the other reporting fund income as it arose. We settled the characterisation on the fund's actual terms, wrote up the reasoning, and applied that single position to both the tax computation and the informational filings. The engagement produced consistent returns for the open years, the fund reporting the position required, and a document both advisers now work from, so the treatment no longer changes with whoever prepares the year.
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Case study 4
Fund reporting rebuilt for several unfiled years
A client had filed US returns for years, claiming relief for Australian tax, but had never made any of the informational filings for the Australian funds and accounts held. The tax side looked complete, so the gap had gone unnoticed. We inventoried the holdings, established which reporting applied in each open year, and filed them. The engagement produced the missing informational set, a reconciliation with the returns already on record, and a checklist tying each fund and account to the filing it generates.
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Case study 5
A consultant invoicing an Australian company for visiting work
A US-based consultant invoiced an Australian company for work performed partly on visits to Australia and partly at home. The company had withheld on the whole fee. We allocated the fee by where the work was actually done, established what Australia was entitled to tax, and reclaimed the balance on the Australian side while computing the US return on the full amount with relief for the tax properly due. The engagement produced a recovered withholding, a documented allocation method, and invoicing wording that keeps later years straightforward.
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Case study 6
A couple with one filer in each system
A couple had one spouse filing in the United States and the other only in Australia, with joint accounts, a jointly owned property and separate superannuation. Each adviser had assumed the other was covering the shared items. We established ownership and reporting responsibility for every asset, allocated rental income and expenses between them, and set out which filings each spouse generates. The engagement produced returns on both sides that agree about the shared assets, the informational filings for the reportable accounts, and a written split the couple apply each year.
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Case study 7
Never Filed a US Return — and Only Just Found Out
Born in the United States, left as an infant, and told by a bank that the returns were owed all along. The work is sequencing: establish which years are actually open, choose the catch-up route on the facts rather than filing quietly, and claim the exclusions and credits that were never taken.
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Case study 8
An IRS Notice for a Year the Client Believed Was Settled
Most notices are proposals rather than assessments, and they carry a response window that is shorter than it looks. The engagement reads what is actually being proposed, gathers the support, and replies inside the window with the position rather than a request for time.
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