Do I have to file at home while living in India?
It depends on residence, not on address — except for US citizens and green-card holders, for whom the answer is yes regardless of where they live. We settle the residence question first, because every other answer follows from it.
Is there a treaty between my country and India?
Treaty networks change with each protocol and each multilateral-instrument position, so we confirm the treaty in force for your specific year with the issuing authority rather than relying on a published summary. Where there is none, unilateral relief and domestic law do the work instead.
I own property in India. 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.
My employer is in Canada but I work from India, who taxes me?
In most cases the country where you physically perform the work has the first claim on the employment income, and the employer's address does not change that. Your residence then decides who else may tax it and who has to give relief. That is why the sequence matters: establish where the work was done, establish where you are resident, then apply the treaty. Starting with the employer's location is the common error, and it usually produces a return that reports the income in the wrong place.
Why is Canadian payroll still deducting tax from my salary?
Because payroll deducts on the status it holds, and nothing about your working arrangements reaches it automatically. Once the duties are being performed abroad, the deduction may no longer be appropriate, but stopping it takes an application and the employer's cooperation, and until that is in place you can be paying at source in one country while becoming liable in the other. The money is recoverable through a return, a year later. Raising it with payroll early is the difference between a correction and a cashflow problem.
Can my working from India create a tax problem for my employer?
It can. A foreign company can acquire a taxable presence in a country through what its people do there: a fixed place from which business is carried on, or an individual habitually playing the principal role leading to the conclusion of contracts. Somebody writing code alone is a very different case from somebody negotiating sales, and the distinction turns on what you actually do rather than on your job title. Employers are entitled to ask, and the answer should be documented before an arrangement becomes long-standing.
Should I be a contractor or stay on the payroll?
The label on the agreement does not settle it. Both countries look at the substance: who controls the work, who provides the tools, whether you carry any risk of loss, whether you could send somebody else. Being treated as a contractor changes who accounts for tax, who owes social contributions, and what has to be invoiced and registered locally, and being recharacterised later changes all of it retrospectively for both sides. Decide it deliberately, with the facts written down, before the first invoice goes out.
Do my social security contributions continue while I am in India?
That is a separate question from income tax, and it is answered by whether a social security agreement covers your situation and whether a certificate of coverage has been obtained. Where one applies and the paperwork is in place, contributions can continue in one country and not start in the other. Where nothing is in place, you can find contributions being made in both, or a gap in your record that only becomes visible when you claim a benefit decades later. Deal with it at the outset.
How are my vesting share awards taxed if I moved mid-grant?
Equity is usually sourced over the period of work it rewards, not at the moment it vests. A grant made while you worked in one country and vesting after you moved is therefore normally divided between the two, in proportion to where the work was performed across that period. The employer withholds on the vesting event on whatever basis it has been given, which is frequently not that proportion. Keep a record of your working locations from grant to vest; reconstructing it afterwards is the hard part.
How do I claim the foreign tax credit?
You report the foreign income, the foreign tax paid on it and the category it falls into, then compute the limit — the credit cannot exceed your own country's tax on that same income. You need evidence the foreign tax was actually paid or accrued, not merely withheld on paper. The form differs by country: Form 1116 in the US, T2209 and T2036 in Canada, Form 67 in India, and the Indian form must be filed before the return. See Form 1116.
What happens if I have not filed for several years?
Missed years are handled as one package, not one at a time, because the route chosen for the first year determines the relief available for the rest. Each country has a disclosure or relief programme with its own conditions, and entering the right one — before the authority contacts you — is usually what keeps penalties down. Filing quietly outside a programme forfeits that protection. See catching up on missed returns.
