Case study 1
Fixing the order of relief on a Sydney assignment
A US citizen working in Sydney had computed both returns from the same annual figure and claimed relief for the tax shown on Australian payslips. The claim stopped reconciling once the Australian year was assessed. We built a workday and earnings schedule for the employment, identified the income Australia had the first claim to, and recomputed the US position on tax finally determined rather than tax withheld. The engagement produced a relief claim supported by the Australian assessment, a reconciliation between the two returns, and a schedule the client reuses each year.
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Case study 2
An Australian exit position settled before the first US year
A client leaving Australia for a US role had begun with the US paperwork. We stopped and dealt with the Australian side first, working through the consequences of ceasing residence for the assets held and for the departure year itself. Only then did we compute the first US year, using the exit date to decide which income belonged where. The engagement produced a documented Australian exit position, a first US return built on it, and a record of the basis carried across, so neither filing has to be revisited when the other is examined.
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Case study 3
Characterising superannuation contributions for a US filer
An employee on a long Australian posting had employer superannuation contributions running throughout, and the US returns had simply ignored the fund. We obtained the fund's terms and the contribution history, characterised the arrangement under US rules on its actual features rather than by analogy to a domestic plan, and decided the treatment of contributions and internal earnings. The engagement produced a stated position with the reasoning written up, the returns for the open years computed on that basis, and the fund reporting the characterisation required.
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Case study 4
A relief claim made in the wrong year and refiled
A client had been claiming Australian tax as relief on the US return in the year it was withheld. Because the Australian year closes on a different date, part of each claim belonged to a different US year and the totals never agreed. We re-cut the earnings and tax by month, reallocated each amount to the correct year, and refiled the years that remained open. The engagement produced consistent returns across the period, a claim that ties to the Australian assessments, and a mapping method that removes the problem for later years.
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Case study 5
Reporting for a self-managed fund brought up to date
A client controlled a self-managed superannuation fund and had never reported it on the US side, on the understanding that retirement funds are left alone. We reviewed the deed, the trusteeship and the way the fund was actually run, settled the characterisation, and identified the reporting obligations that followed from it. The engagement produced the fund reporting for the open years, a note explaining the characterisation for the client's own records, and an annual routine keeping the fund accounts and the US filings on the same footing.
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Case study 6
Splitting a clinician's income across a mid-year move
A clinician moved from an Australian hospital post to a US position partway through the year, with Australian income continuing briefly after the move. We allocated earnings by where the work was physically performed rather than by where they were paid, fixed the residence dates on both sides, and computed each return from the same underlying schedule. The engagement produced two returns that agree on the split, relief claimed on the correct side, and a written note of how the move year was treated in case either authority asks.
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Case study 7
A Family Trust Abroad With Reporting on Both Sides
A trust settled in one country and a beneficiary living in another produces reporting for the trust, the settlor and the beneficiary, on different forms and different dates. The engagement maps who files what before anything is prepared.
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Case study 8
Residency Changed Mid-Year and Both Returns Assumed a Full One
A move part-way through a year produces two part-year positions, not two full ones. The engagement establishes the date residence actually changed, allocates income either side of it, and amends whichever return was filed on the wrong footing.
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