Do I have to file at home while living in China?
Residence decides it, and residence is a question of facts rather than of where your post arrives. The one exception is US citizenship, which carries the filing obligation with the person wherever they go. So the first thing we establish is which system still claims you.
Is there a treaty between my country and China?
Possibly, and the version in force for your year is the one that matters — protocols and multilateral-instrument positions change what a treaty does without changing its name. We check it against the authority rather than a summary. Where no treaty applies, domestic relief takes over.
I own property in China. Where is the rent taxed?
Rent from immovable property is almost always taxable where the property is situated, frequently by withholding on the gross amount, with your home country taxing the same income and giving credit. A net-basis election, where one exists, is usually the difference between tax on profit and tax on turnover.
How long can I work in China before my foreign income is taxed?
Chinese individual income tax uses a residence day-count, and the consequences escalate with years of presence rather than switching on at a single point. In broad terms, the longer a posting runs, the wider the range of income that falls within the local charge, and a short stay is treated differently from settled residence. Because the test is measured in days across years, the travel record is the substance of the position rather than paperwork assembled after the fact. Anyone whose posting might be extended should be counting from the start, since the decision to extend is often taken after the year in which the counting mattered.
My China posting was extended, does that change my tax position?
It can change it substantially, because the local charge widens with years of presence. An extension agreed for commercial reasons therefore carries a tax consequence that is rarely priced into the discussion, and it can reach income with no connection to the Chinese employer at all: investment income, property at home, equity awards granted before the posting began. The employer's own reporting obligations can change at the same time. The right moment to look at this is before the extension is signed, while the assignment terms and any equalisation arrangement can still be adjusted to reflect it.
Does my employer report my China pay, or do I?
Usually both, in different ways. The employer withholds and reports through the payroll it operates locally, and the individual may still have an annual filing that brings in income the payroll never saw. Split payroll arrangements, where part of the salary is paid at home, are where this breaks down: the local payroll reports what it pays, the home payroll reports what it pays, and nobody reports the whole. Reconciling the two, in one currency and over the same period, is worth doing each year rather than when a question is eventually asked about the gap.
I am American on assignment in Shanghai, do I file in both places?
Yes. United States filing follows citizenship and continues throughout the assignment, while China taxes according to its own residence day-count. Double taxation is relieved through a credit for the Chinese tax, or through the exclusion available to people living and working abroad, and which combination works better depends on the particular year rather than on the assignment as a whole. Accounts opened locally for the salary, and any local savings or investment arrangement, generally fall within the annual foreign account reporting, which is due whether or not any tax is payable.
Can I claim the Chinese tax I paid against my Canadian bill?
If you remain resident in Canada, the Chinese income goes on the Canadian return and the Chinese tax is claimed as a credit against the Canadian tax on that same income, limited to that amount. What causes trouble is evidence and timing. The credit needs the Chinese tax documents for the right year, and the two tax years may not align with each other or with the period the assignment actually ran, so income and the tax paid on it can fall into different years. Tax settled by an employer under an equalisation policy needs care too, because whoever bore it is not always whoever claims it.
We have a sales office in China, what does that mean for pricing?
Once a group has a local entity performing functions, the prices charged between group companies stop being an internal matter and become a filing position in both countries. The question the authorities ask is what an unrelated party would have been paid for the same functions, assets and risks, and the answer has to be documented rather than asserted. A sales entity that carries stock, sets prices or negotiates terms is doing more than a limited-risk distributor and should be remunerated accordingly. Deciding the policy before the intercompany invoices are raised is far easier than defending one reconstructed afterwards.
Does my child born abroad need a US identification number before I can claim them?
Yes, and which number it is decides which benefits you get. The child credit requires a Social Security number issued in time for the return — an individual taxpayer identification number does not unlock it, though it does let a dependant be claimed for other purposes. For a child born overseas that means starting the consular birth registration and number application early, because the sequence takes longer than a filing season. See ITIN applications.
Is my Indian provident fund or PPF still tax-free now that I live abroad?
The exemption is an Indian one, and it does not travel. Your new country of residence taxes worldwide income under its own rules, and several — the United States in particular — may treat the annual growth in a foreign retirement or savings plan as currently taxable and separately reportable, whether or not you withdrew anything. So an account that is genuinely tax-free in India can be a taxable, reportable asset where you now live. See Indian pensions received abroad.
