Does Singapore tax my salary before Canada does?
For work done in Singapore under a Singapore employment, Singapore taxes it as the source country. What happens next depends on one fact: whether your Canadian residence ended when you took the posting. If it did not, Canada taxes the same income and gives credit for the Singapore tax, and because the Singapore tax on that income is commonly the lower of the two, the credit leaves a Canadian balance to pay. If residence did end, Canada's claim narrows to Canadian-source income. Most of the difficulty in this corridor comes from assuming residence ended rather than establishing that it did.
If I am posted to Singapore, does Canada stop taxing my income?
Only if your Canadian residence actually ended, and that is a conclusion drawn from facts rather than from the posting letter. Canada looks at what you kept and what you took with you: a home available to you, where your family lives, where your possessions, bank accounts, memberships and licences sit, and whether you established a settled life in Singapore rather than a temporary one. A posting with a return date, a house left standing empty and a family who stayed behind will usually not end residence. Settle the question at the outset and in writing, because every later filing on both sides depends on the answer.
Why is my Canadian tax bill so high after paying Singapore tax?
Because the credit is limited to the foreign tax on that income, and where that tax is lower than the Canadian tax on the same income, the difference is payable in Canada. That gap is structurally wider in this corridor than in most, which is why executives on Singapore postings are so often surprised by the first assessment. Nothing has gone wrong in the return. What is worth planning for is the consequence: a recurring Canadian balance in each year of the posting, which turns into an instalment obligation, and a cash requirement the Singapore payroll does not withhold for.
Do I pay Canadian tax on money I leave in Singapore?
If you are Canadian-resident, yes. Canada taxes residents on world income as it arises, and whether the money is remitted, spent locally or left sitting in a Singapore account makes no difference to the liability. This catches people who have moved from a system where remittance does matter. The same point applies to investment income earned on funds held there: interest and distributions are reported in Canada in the year they arise, and the holdings themselves may fall inside Canada's foreign property reporting, which is measured on what the holdings cost rather than on what they pay out.
Is my Singapore company's income taxed in Canada as well?
That depends on the company's position, not only on yours. Where a Canadian group holds Asian operations through a Singapore entity, two questions decide the outcome: whether the entity has the substance to support the treaty position it takes, and whether it is in fact managed from Canada, which can make it resident here regardless of where it was incorporated. Alongside that, a Canadian shareholder has annual information reporting to make about the interest itself, and certain kinds of income earned by a controlled foreign company can be brought into a Canadian return before any dividend is paid.
How do I prove my Canadian residence ended when I moved to Singapore?
With a contemporaneous record rather than an argument assembled later. The useful evidence is the ordinary paperwork of actually leaving: the property sold or let on a genuine lease, the family's move, the Singapore tenancy and employment terms, the closing of Canadian accounts and memberships, the driving licence and health coverage surrendered, and the date each of those happened. Set it out once, at the time, with the documents attached, and file the Canadian departure return consistently with it. Reconstructing the same file years afterwards, when a query arrives, is harder and reads as advocacy rather than as record.
Do I pay tax when I inherit property abroad?
The inheritance itself is often not income to you, but three other things can create tax: the estate may owe tax where the deceased or the property was situated, some countries tax the recipient directly, and the gain from the date you inherit to the date you sell is yours. Reporting obligations can also attach to holding the asset. See inheriting property abroad.
What is double taxation?
Double taxation means the same income being taxed by two authorities. It comes in two forms: juridical, where two countries each tax one person on one amount, and economic, where two different people are taxed on the same underlying profit — a company on its earnings and a shareholder on the dividend paid out of them. Relief comes from a treaty, a foreign tax credit, or an exemption, and which one applies depends on the income type. How to avoid double taxation sets out the routes.
