Do I have to file at home while living in Germany?
For most people the answer turns on whether the ties that made them resident have actually ended. For a US citizen or green-card holder it does not: the return is due in Germany exactly as it would be at home. Everything else on the file follows from which of those you are.
Is there a treaty between my country and Germany?
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 Germany. 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.
Do I stop being a Canadian tax resident when I move to Germany?
Not automatically, and not on the day the flight leaves. Residence ends when the ties that made you resident are given up, and that is a question of facts: the home, the family, the settled pattern of your life. A German contract with a fixed end date, a house kept available, a spouse who stays behind — each pulls against the departure. Where the ties genuinely end, they end on a date the documents support, and that date splits the year. Where they do not, you remain resident through the posting and the German income is reported at home with relief by credit.
Do I file a Canadian return for the year I moved to Germany?
Almost always, and the year of the move is the one to get right. If residence ceased during it, the return covers the period to your departure date, plus anything the home country continues to tax afterwards — income from property left behind, for example. The departure itself can also carry consequences for what you own on the day it happens. If residence did not cease, it is an ordinary resident return that happens to include German employment income. Either way the departure date is the first thing to settle, because every other line follows from it.
What should I do with my Canadian house when I move to Germany?
Decide deliberately, because the choice affects your residence position as much as your tax. A house kept available for your own use is among the strongest ties pointing to continued residence at home. Letting it at arm's length to an unconnected tenant is a different picture, and it starts a rental filing obligation with its own withholding rules once you are non-resident. Selling removes the tie and settles the question. None of the three is automatically right. What is wrong is deciding by default and meeting the consequence in the year of the move.
Can I keep my bank and investment accounts after leaving for Germany?
You can, but their treatment changes when your residence does. Non-residents are generally taxed at home only on home-source income, often by withholding at source rather than by filing, and the institutions holding your accounts need your status in order to apply the right treatment. Tell them. The other half of the question is what ceasing residence does to what you own on the departure date, which for some kinds of property is treated as a sale at market value even though nothing has been sold. Identify which of your holdings that reaches before you go.
Will Canadian tax be withheld as well as German payroll tax?
It can be, particularly in the months around the move, and it is a cash-flow problem rather than a permanent cost. German payroll begins deducting when the German employment does. Home-side deductions stop when your employer and the institutions holding your income are told your status has changed, which is often later than the change itself. The overlap is sorted out in the returns, where one side gives relief for the other or refunds what was over-deducted. The way to shorten it is to notify everyone on the departure date rather than at the first filing deadline.
I am American moving to Germany, do I stop filing US returns?
No. American filing follows citizenship rather than where you live, so the US return continues throughout the German posting, alongside the German obligation on employment income earned there. The relief available runs on different mechanics from the credit a Canadian in the same position would use, and the choices made in the first year shape the later ones, so this is a decision to take across the posting as a whole. Build the US figures from the German annual assessment rather than from payslips, which settle tax provisionally rather than finally.
How do I actually stop being taxed twice?
In this order. Fix your residence under each country's own rules, and if both claim you, apply the treaty tie-breaker. Identify where each type of income is sourced. Read the article that covers that income type, because it decides who taxes and at what maximum rate. Then claim the relief on the residence-country return, with proof of the foreign tax. Most of the tax people lose to double taxation is lost at the last step, not the first. See how double taxation is relieved.
Which country do I pay tax to first?
Generally the source country — where the income arises — taxes first, often by withholding before you receive it. Your country of residence then taxes the same income and credits what the source country took. That order is why timing matters: a residence-country return filed before the source-country tax is settled has nothing to credit yet. Getting the sequence right is most of the work. See international tax planning.
