Case study 1
A contractor who was an employee in the other country
A company engaged a worker abroad on a contractor agreement and paid gross for well over a year. The host country applied its own test to the substance of the relationship and reached the opposite conclusion. The work was to compare the classification tests on both sides, document the features of the engagement that actually drove the result, and register the employer where registration should have been running. The engagement produced a corrected classification, the host-country payroll filings brought into existence, and an agreement rewritten to match what the parties were really doing.
Case study 2
Resident in two countries until the treaty decided
The client met the domestic residence test in both countries in the same year, and each authority's guidance, read on its own, said they were resident there. The work was to apply the treaty's tie-breaker in sequence rather than argue about the domestic tests, gathering the evidence each stage of it turns on. It did not end there, which was the important part: the country that lost the tie-break still had filings of its own. The engagement produced a documented tie-breaker position and returns in both countries that reflect it consistently.
Case study 3
Credit claimed before anyone asked what the treaty allowed
The client had been relieving foreign tax against domestic tax for years without asking whether the source country was entitled to charge what it had charged. On part of the income it was not. The work was to establish the treaty position first, reclaim from the source country where its charge exceeded what the treaty permits, and restate the credit claimed at home to match. The engagement produced a corrected position in both countries and an order of operations the client now applies each year.
Case study 4
Which half of the moving year belonged to which country
The client had filed a full-year return on one side and nothing on the other, because the alternative looked complicated. The year in fact split at the date residency changed, with departure consequences attaching at that point and only certain income reachable afterwards. The work was to fix the date of the split on evidence, allocate each income stream to the period it belonged to, and prepare the two filings so they agreed. The engagement produced a filed pair of returns for the year, and the departure position documented alongside them.
Case study 5
Choosing between a disclosure and an ordinary late filing
The client wanted the missed years gone by the weekend and was ready to file them as they stood. The work was to make the choice deliberately first: what the exposure actually was, whether the history could be explained plainly, and what protection each route offers. On these facts the disclosure route was the right one, and filing first would have closed it. The engagement produced a submission prepared as a whole, with the account of how the omission arose drafted to match the documents rather than the other way round.
Case study 6
An estate caught between situs rules and treaty relief
The family assumed that because the deceased had never lived in the other country, that country had no claim on the estate. Certain assets are reached by where they are situated rather than by where their owner lived, and some of the holdings were. The work was to identify which assets the situs rules reach, then test what relief the treaty gives against the resulting charge. The engagement produced a schedule of assets classified by the basis of charge, the filings in each country prepared from it, and the relief claimed with its evidence attached.
Case study 7
A Home Kept in Canada After the Move Abroad
A dwelling left available is the tie the CRA weighs most heavily, and its treatment differs depending on whether it is rented at arm's length. The file settles the residence position first and the rental reporting second.
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Case study 8
Treaty Rate Refused Because the Paperwork Was Missing
A reduced rate under a treaty is available only where the payer is satisfied the recipient is resident in the treaty country. The certificate and the withholding form are what make the rate available at source instead of recoverable a year later.
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