Do I have to file at home while living in Italy?
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 Italy 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 Italy?
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 Italy. Where is the rent taxed?
In Italy, 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.
I inherited a house in Italy, do I pay Canadian tax?
Receiving an inheritance is not itself a taxable event in Canada, so the arrival of the house does not create Canadian tax. What it creates is a reporting question now and a computation later. The property's value at the date of death becomes the starting point against which any future gain is measured, so the time to establish that value is now, while it can still be evidenced, not on the day you sell. Whether the house has to be reported to Canada in the meantime depends on what it is held for. The Italian side runs independently: obligations attach to the estate and the property there whatever Canada does.
Do I have to report an Italian property I never rent out?
The reporting question turns on the purpose the property is held for rather than on whether any money came in this year. Property held for the personal use of you and your family is treated differently from property held to earn income, and a house let for part of the year is not obviously either. The distinction is decided on the facts, and it is worth deciding deliberately, because the answer governs an annual filing that is easy to overlook and unpleasant to correct in bulk. Write the basis down in the first year and apply it consistently after that.
I have Italian citizenship but live in the US, do I file in Italy?
Citizenship is not the test in Italy the way it is in the United States. Italy's claim on someone living abroad generally follows Italian-source income and Italian assets rather than the passport, so an Italian citizen living in America can have real obligations arising from a property or an inheritance and none at all from an American salary. The American side works the other way, where the return follows the citizenship. The two systems are asking different questions about the same person, so having something to do in one and nothing to do in the other is normal rather than a sign of error.
Can I claim Italian property taxes on my Canadian return?
Relief for foreign tax is built for taxes on income, so a local charge on the ownership of property does not behave like income tax paid on rent. Where a property produces rental income and Italy taxes that income, the tax on it is the item to work with. Charges attaching to ownership itself generally belong to a different analysis, and some may bear on the rental computation as an expense rather than as a credit. Keep the Italian assessments separated by type when you send them over, because one translated total makes the distinction impossible to draw afterwards.
I am on assignment in Milan, where do I file?
Probably in both places for at least the year you move, and the useful question is not where but in what order. Establish residence under each country's own rules first, apply the treaty tie-breaker if both say yes, decide which country has the first claim on the employment income, and only then work out the credit or refund on the other side. Assignments are also where payroll runs ahead of the analysis: withholding starts somewhere on the first day and the position is often settled months later. Keep the assignment letter, the dates and the payroll records from the beginning.
The notary handled everything in Italy, is that enough?
For the Italian transaction, often yes, and a notary's work on a deed or an estate is not something to duplicate. What a notary does not do is your filing at home. The Italian obligations attaching to property and inheritance are administered locally and can be complete and correct while the Canadian or American treatment of the same event has not been looked at once. Ask for copies of everything signed and every payment made, in Italian, with dates. That paperwork is the evidence your home-country position will be built on, and it is much harder to obtain later.
What is the treaty saving clause, and why does it matter to Americans abroad?
It is the provision that lets each country keep taxing its own residents and citizens as though the treaty did not exist. Because the United States taxes on citizenship, the saving clause is what stops an American in Canada or India using the treaty to remove US tax on ordinary income. A short list of articles is carved out of it — certain pensions, social security, government service, students — and those exceptions are where a treaty position for a US citizen usually lives. See our treaty work.
Can I claim the child tax credit if I live abroad?
Partly, and the split matters. The non-refundable part can reduce US tax if the child meets the identification requirement in time. The refundable part is calculated on earned income, so excluding your salary with the foreign earned income exclusion removes the very figure it is built on — which is one of the clearest cases where the exclusion costs more than the credit route. Modelling both is the only way to know. See exclusion against credit.
