Does Canada or Australia tax me first when I emigrate?
In the year you move, both systems have a claim on part of the year, and the sequencing question is really about which return must be finished first. Canada closes your resident period and runs a departure computation on the assets held at that point. Australia opens a resident period from arrival. The two cannot simply be done in parallel, because the credit each may allow depends on a figure the other produces, and the years themselves do not line up, so the Australian period straddles two Canadian ones. Fix the dates before touching either return.
The Australian tax year ends mid year. How do I claim my credit?
By apportioning, not transposing. Because the Australian year ends part way through the Canadian one, income running through a single Australian year falls into two Canadian years, and an Australian assessment cannot be lifted whole into a Canadian return. The credit has to sit in the Canadian year holding the income it relates to, supported by the share of Australian tax attributable to that slice. Keep the payment summaries and the assessment so the split can be evidenced. If the Australian figure settles after the Canadian return is filed, expect to amend it.
I moved to Australia part way through the year. Do I file in Canada?
Yes, for the part of the year you were resident, and that return does more than report income. It is also where the departure computation lands: ending Canadian residence triggers a deemed disposal of certain property, and the gains go into that final resident year rather than waiting for an actual sale. Migration along this corridor is usually permanent, which makes the departure computation a real event rather than a formality, and it happens in the same twelve months as your Australian arrival position. One window, two systems.
Who taxes my Australian superannuation once I live in Canada?
Start with what the fund is and what has happened inside it, because the treatment of contributions, of growth within the fund, and of a payment out of it are three different questions. The recurring problem for Canadian residents is not the payment; it is whether growth accruing inside the fund is taxable in Canada year by year while nothing has been received and nothing taxed in Australia. That is a characterisation question about the arrangement itself, and it must be settled before any credit question arises. Obtain the fund documentation before forming a view.
I am moving back to Canada from Australia. What about my super?
It becomes the main item in the file. Two dates matter: when Australian residence ended and when Canadian residence resumed, because they may not fall on the same date and the fund's treatment can turn on both. Then the characterisation question, what the arrangement is under Canadian analysis, decides whether anything is reportable while the money stays in the fund. Settling that on arrival costs far less than settling it years later with a run of Canadian returns already filed on an assumption nobody wrote down at the time.
Does Australia tax my Canadian income when I arrive there?
Once you are resident there it taxes you on income wherever it arises, including anything still flowing from Canada, and it gives credit for Canadian tax on that income. Canada meanwhile keeps taxing what has a Canadian source, rent from a property you kept for instance, and withholds on some payments at source. So the order flips relative to your old filings: the country you now live in taxes and credits, while Canada goes first only on what arises within it. The credit then has to be mapped across two non-aligned years.
Is the sale of foreign property taxable where I live?
For a resident, yes — worldwide gains are taxable, and the gain is computed in your own currency, so the exchange rate at purchase and at sale changes the number even when the local-currency price did not move. The country where the property sits usually taxes it too, often with a withholding or clearance step before closing, and that tax becomes a credit. A principal residence relief may apply to a home abroad on the same terms as one at home. See principal residence and foreign property.
I work remotely from another country for a company back home — who taxes me?
Usually the country you are physically in, because employment income is generally sourced where the work is done, with your residence country taxing it as well if you are resident there and giving credit. Three things follow: your employer may acquire withholding and social security obligations where you sit, a treaty tie-breaker may be needed if both countries call you resident, and a short trip that becomes a long stay can cross a residence threshold nobody was watching. See remote workers and digital nomads.
