Do I have to file at home while living in India?
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 India?
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 India. Where is the rent taxed?
In India, because that is where the property sits. The complication is the base: gross-rent withholding takes no account of mortgage interest, tax or repairs, so a leveraged property can face tax on turnover. An election onto net profit, where it exists, is what fixes that — and it has its own timing.
What happens to my Canadian taxes in the year I leave?
The year you leave is a split year. You file as a resident up to the date residence ends and as a non-resident after it, and the return has to state when that date was. Most of the difficult work sits in that single date, because it decides which income is taxed on the ordinary resident basis and which is taxed only because it has a Canadian source. Departure also triggers a reckoning on what you own. None of that is automatic; it belongs on the departure-year return and nowhere else.
Do I pay tax on assets I keep when I leave?
On departure most property is treated as though it had been sold at its value that day and immediately reacquired, so gains accrued while you were resident are brought into the departure-year return even though nothing has actually been sold. Some categories of property sit outside that treatment, and there is an election that lets you post security and defer payment until the asset is genuinely disposed of. Both the exclusions and the election have to be dealt with on the departure return itself, not later.
Should I tell my Canadian bank and employer that I have left?
Yes, and before you go if you can. Once you are non-resident, certain payments out of Canada are subject to deduction at source, and the payer applies whatever status it holds. A payer still treating you as resident deducts nothing and leaves you with a liability; a payer applying the default treatment without your treaty documentation deducts more than is due. Either way the correction runs through a return, months later. A short conversation with each payer before departure removes most of that work.
How does arriving mid-year affect my first Indian filing?
India's year runs April to March, so an arrival at almost any point lands part-way through it, and your first Indian year covers only the months after you arrive. Your Canadian departure year and that Indian year overlap without matching. Deductions made at source in India during those months belong to the Indian year, while the income they relate to may sit in either of your Canadian returns. Keeping a month-by-month record from the day you arrive makes the first two filings straightforward instead of reconstructive.
Does my registered retirement plan have to be cashed out before leaving?
Usually not, and collapsing it on the way through is often the worse answer. A plan left in place continues to grow inside its wrapper, and payments made out of it to a non-resident are dealt with by deduction at source and by the treaty article that covers pensions. Cashing it out in the departure year instead can place the whole amount into a year when you were still resident for part of it. It is a decision to take before the departure date, with the projected figures in front of you.
What records will I need that I cannot get once I have moved?
Anything that needs a branch visit, a wet signature or a local address. Cost information for investments held a long time, confirmations from plan administrators, employer letters covering the year of departure, and the valuations supporting the departure reckoning are all far easier to obtain while you are still here. So is putting somebody in place who can act for you afterwards. We hand clients that list at the start of the engagement rather than at the filing deadline, when half of it has become difficult.
Do NRIs have to file an Indian tax return?
If you have Indian-source income above the filing threshold, or you want a refund of tax withheld at source, or you are claiming treaty relief — then yes. Interest, rent, capital gains on Indian shares or property, and TDS deducted at a rate higher than your real liability all commonly force or reward a return. Filing is also how a lower-rate treaty claim and a foreign tax credit get onto the record. See NRI tax return filing.
How does an NRI prove residence to get the treaty rate?
With a tax residency certificate issued by the country you are resident in, plus Form 10F giving the details the certificate does not carry, plus a PAN in the payer's records. The certificate has to cover the period of the payment, and the payer needs it before paying, not afterwards. Missing any of the three and the deductor is obliged to withhold at the domestic rate, which turns a rate reduction into a refund claim. See TRC against Form 10F.
