Do I have to file at home while living in Indonesia?
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 Indonesia?
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 Indonesia. 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.
Is my foreign income taxed in Indonesia when I first arrive?
Not always, and that is the point to settle first. Indonesia has applied territorial features to certain foreign income for qualifying new residents, so what has to be reported depends on the status you arrive with and on the conditions attached to it. Those conditions are established at the outset, not asserted later on a return. We work out which category you fall into, what evidence supports it, and how long it runs, before anybody prepares a filing that assumes an answer.
Does leaving Canada for Indonesia end my Canadian tax residence?
Not by itself. Canadian residence is decided on ties, such as a home available to you and where your family lives, together with a longer list of secondary connections, rather than by where your employer happens to post you. If those ties remain, Canada continues to tax your worldwide income, and a concession available in Indonesia does nothing to shelter it. Resolve the Canadian side and the Indonesian side together, because each of them is written on the assumption that the other question has an answer.
I am American, does an Indonesian tax break help me?
It can help a good deal less than it appears. The United States taxes its citizens wherever they live, so your American return continues regardless of the status you hold in Indonesia. Relief on the US side generally comes through credits for foreign tax paid or through the exclusion for foreign earned income, and a local concession that reduces the Indonesian tax also reduces the credits available. The result can be that tax saved abroad is simply collected at home. Model both returns together before treating a concession as a saving.
What do I need to prove my arrival status in Indonesia?
Contemporary documents, kept from the beginning. The permit under which you entered, the employment or service agreement, the date duties began, the residence history that determines whether you count as newly arrived, and any approval issued in respect of the status itself. Conditions attached to a concession are tested against the record rather than against your recollection. Collecting that file in the first weeks is straightforward; reassembling it two years later, in support of a position already taken on a filed return, rarely is.
How is rent from property I still own abroad treated?
It depends on whether your arrival status keeps foreign income outside the Indonesian net, and if so for how long. Where it does, the rent may still have to be reported in the country the property sits in, which usually taxes it at source before anything reaches you. Where it does not, the same rent is taxed in both places and relieved by credit. The property does not change; the answer changes with your status, which is why the status question comes before the rental computation.
My company charges fees to its Indonesian subsidiary, what should we watch?
Two things, and they interact. Payments leaving Indonesia to a related party abroad are generally subject to deduction at source, reduced under a treaty only where the documentation is held before the payment is made. Separately, the charge itself has to be supportable as an arm's length price, with documentation of what was provided and how it was priced. A charge that survives the transfer pricing question can still be taxed heavily on the way out if the withholding paperwork was never lodged.
Can I take the foreign tax credit and the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion together?
On the same income, no — you cannot exclude income and then claim credit for foreign tax on the part you excluded. You can use both in one return on *different* income: exclude qualifying earned income, then claim credit for foreign tax on what remains, such as investment income or earnings above the cap. Which combination leaves you better off is an arithmetic question on your figures. Our FEIE vs foreign tax credit calculator works it through.
Would a state exit tax even be constitutional?
A levy imposed purely for leaving would face serious challenge under the constitutional protections for interstate commerce and the right to travel, which is part of why proposals stall. But that is not what most states are doing. Taxing income that was earned or sourced within the state before you left is conventional, long upheld, and where almost all real disputes sit — which is why the useful question is sourcing and domicile, not constitutionality. See state non-resident returns.
