What to gather before the engagement starts, and why each item is asked for.
16 pages in this section. What to gather before the engagement starts, and why each item is asked for.
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Every page in this section is written to the same standard: it opens with the block that exists nowhere else on the site — a threshold, a treaty article, a rule that applies to one group and not the one beside it — and it carries one worked example, worked through in full rather than a set of generalities.
Where a page needs a statutory threshold, a rate or a day-count, that figure is verified against the issuing authority before it ships. Where it cannot be verified for the year in question, the page states the mechanism and quotes no number, because a wrong threshold on a page like this is worse than no page at all. Every statutory page also carries the name of the person who reviewed it and the date they did.
Fees are fixed and agreed in writing before any work begins, and you review the finished work before it is filed. Documents move through a secure portal and you can meet us at any of our offices, so where you are makes no difference to how it works.
Reviewed against current guidance for the 2025 and 2026 filing seasons by Udit Gupta, International Tax, Cross-Border Tax & Transfer Pricing Expert, Legal Quotient Consultants. General information, not advice for your circumstances — call our 24-hour helpline to discuss your own position.
16 pages. What to gather before the engagement starts, and why each item is asked for. Each one opens with the part that applies to that situation and nowhere else — a threshold, a treaty article, a filing that one group owes and the group beside it does not — and works one example through in full.
The fee is fixed and agreed in writing before any work begins, priced from the documents you send rather than estimated afterwards, and it does not move once accepted. You see the finished work and approve it before anything is filed.
A named adviser reviews every return and every information filing before it goes out, and the statutory pages on this site carry the name of the person who reviewed them and the date they did it. You approve the finished work yourself as the last step.
Send what you have — a return, a notice, a set of statements, in whatever state it is in — through the secure portal after the first call, and you get a written fixed fee back. Or call the 24-hour helpline on +1 (416) 619-0068 and we will tell you what is needed.
Because knowing why a document is requested helps you find the right version of it — a prior year's return, a specific slip, a particular statement — rather than guessing which paperwork in a folder satisfies a bare list item.
Most checklists are a starting point rather than a strict gate — send what you have and we will identify what is genuinely missing versus what can be reconstructed or substituted from other records you already hold.
You are not the go-between for two sets of advisers with two sets of assumptions. One engagement covers each country the file touches.
Meet us in person in India, the USA, Canada and the UAE, or send everything through the secure portal — the same process either way.
Where you are resident for treaty purposes is a question with a method. We work through it and write down the answer, with the facts it rests on.
Individuals, expats and corporations across India, the USA, Canada and the UAE have filed with us — 15+ years of cross-border work.
Quoted up front, in writing.
Contact Us 24-hour helpline +1 (416) 619-0068We keep the promises short so they stay checkable: a fixed fee in writing before work begins, 18,000+ clients served over 15+ years, and a 5.0/5 Google rating — with the case files published so you can read how engagements actually ended.
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Browse sideways: the pages below answer the neighbouring questions.
The executor had boxes of correspondence, statements in more than one language, and no list of what the deceased actually owned or where. Nothing could be filed until that was known. The work started with the checklist rather than a return: identifying each asset and each account, establishing which jurisdiction had a claim on it and on what basis, and requesting from institutions what the family could not find. The engagement produced a documented inventory with a source for every line, which then drove the filings in each country.
The papers arrived complete and entirely unordered, which is a better problem than the opposite but still a problem. Working the checklist against the pile did two things. It turned the material into a filing set organised by year and by income stream, and it exposed what was genuinely missing rather than merely mislaid. The gaps were identified in the first week and requested immediately, so nothing was discovered late. The engagement produced an ordered document set, a short list of outstanding items, and a scope that did not move after it was agreed.
The client's relief claim depended on evidencing tax withheld abroad, and the certificates for the earlier years had not been kept. Asserting the amounts was not an option, because a relief claim has to be supported. The work was to identify each payer, request duplicate documentation for the years concerned, and reconcile what came back against the bank credits actually received, so that every figure was traceable. The engagement produced a supported claim for each year in the span, with the evidence held rather than promised.
A group knew it needed transfer pricing documentation and wanted a fee before anyone knew what existed. Working the checklist first answered that: intercompany agreements existed for some flows and not others, and the flows without paperwork were the ones carrying most of the value. The gathering stage therefore determined the work, rather than the other way round. The engagement produced a mapped set of intercompany transactions, the agreements and records supporting each, and a fixed fee agreed in writing for the documentation that followed.
The client was leaving the country and had drafted their own list of what they owned, from recollection, over an evening. Departure computations turn on what was held on a particular date and what it was worth then, so a list without sources is a computation that cannot be defended. The work was to rebuild the list from statements, registers and title documents as at the departure date, and to value each item on evidence contemporaneous with it. The engagement produced a sourced inventory that the departure filing was then prepared from.
The client had decided to come forward and wanted to submit quickly, with whatever was to hand. A disclosure is read as a whole, so an incomplete one invites exactly the enquiry it is meant to close. The checklist set the order of work: establish the span of years, obtain account-level detail for each, reconcile the accounts against the income reported, and only then draft. The engagement produced a submission in which every year was supported by documents obtained from the institutions themselves.
A business incorporated where the owner lives is a foreign corporation to the IRS, with a reporting package of its own and schedules that need local accounts restated. Classification comes first, because it decides what is reportable and when profits are taxed.
Read how this one runsElecting to treat a non-resident spouse as a US filer buys joint rates and brings that spouse's worldwide income and foreign accounts into the return. The election is easy to make and hard to revoke, so both positions are modelled first.
Read how this one runsAll case studies — every published engagement in one place.
Strategy and compliance for income, assets and families spread across borders.
Cross-border tax for sellers shipping worldwide: marketplace withholding, foreign registrations and inventory nexus handled before they become audits.
Marketplaces withhold, remit and report in their own right, so the tax position of a single sale is decided by where the stock sat, where the buyer was and which platform collected — not by where the company is registered. We reconcile the platform's own filings against the returns before either is submitted.
Where our partners studied — CPA Canada (In-Depth Tax Program), AICPA, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.
