Do I have to file at home while living in Jamaica?
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 Jamaica?
That is verified rather than assumed: we confirm which treaty text governs Jamaica and your home country for the year in question, because a protocol can move a rate or an article between years. If there is no treaty, unilateral credit rules are what prevent double taxation.
I own property in Jamaica. 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.
Will Jamaica tax my Canadian pension if I retire there?
Two systems have to be read together. Canada generally withholds on pension payments made to a person resident abroad, taking the tax before the money leaves. Jamaica then taxes according to its own rules for people resident there, and returning-resident status can affect that local treatment. The treaty position decides which country has the first claim and how the second relieves the charge, so the deduction taken at source is rarely the final answer. Retirees who assume the withholding settles everything often find they have either overpaid or left a local obligation unattended.
What does returning-resident status actually do for my taxes?
It is a local status with local consequences, and it is regularly confused with the tax treatment of leaving your former country. Returning-resident status affects how Jamaica treats you and what you may bring in. It has no effect whatever on whether Canada or the United States considers that you have ceased to be resident, or on what that country charges you on the way out. Those are governed by the home country's own departure rules. So the two halves of a move home need separate advice, and people who take advice on only one half usually take it on the local half.
I inherited family land in Jamaica, do I have to report it in Canada?
If you are still resident in Canada, very likely. Canadian residents report specified foreign property once their holdings pass the reporting threshold, and the obligation is triggered by holding the property rather than by earning anything from it, so land sitting idle still counts. T1135 is where that reporting goes. Inherited family land is the asset most often missed, because it feels like a family matter rather than an investment and because title is frequently informal. Establishing what you actually own, and when you acquired it, is the first piece of work, and it also fixes the cost base for later.
Do I still file in Canada after I move back to Jamaica?
For the year you leave, yes, and possibly after it. The departure-year return covers worldwide income to the date residence ceased and Canadian-source income after it, and that date has to be supportable from your ties rather than chosen for convenience. Ceasing residence also brings a deemed disposition of certain property, the departure tax, calculated as though you had sold at the point of leaving even though nothing was sold. After that, Canadian-source income such as pensions and rent continues to be taxed here, usually by withholding at source.
I rent out the family house in Jamaica while living abroad, where do I declare it?
In both places, with relief in one for the tax paid in the other. Jamaica taxes rent from property in Jamaica because the source is there. Your country of residence taxes you on worldwide income, so the same rent appears again on the home return, where you claim credit for what Jamaica has taken. The two returns rarely compute the rent identically, because each system has its own rules on what may be deducted and over what period. Keeping one set of records capable of supporting both computations is what makes the credit claim defensible if it is examined.
I am a US citizen moving back to Jamaica, do I keep filing?
Yes. US filing follows citizenship rather than residence, so the return continues for as long as you hold the passport, whatever Jamaica treats you as. What changes is the content: foreign earnings, foreign accounts, and the credit claimed for Jamaican tax paid. The account reporting sits outside the return and is triggered by holding accounts abroad rather than by owing tax. FBAR is the one people meet first, usually as soon as a local account is opened to receive a pension or rent. Returning-resident status in Jamaica neither reduces nor suspends any of this.
Do dual citizens have to file US taxes if they live abroad?
Yes. US filing follows citizenship, not residence or where the income arose, and the obligation continues for as long as the citizenship does. Two further obligations travel with it and are keyed to account balances rather than income, so they can apply in a year with no US tax at all: the foreign bank account report to FinCEN, and the specified foreign asset statement with the return. Most people who discover a problem discover it there. See two returns as a dual citizen.
How do I qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion?
The exclusion means exactly what it says — foreign earned income left out of the US tax base — and to qualify you need a tax home in a foreign country and then one of two tests. The bona fide residence test asks whether you were genuinely settled there for an uninterrupted period including a full tax year — a facts-and-circumstances judgment. The physical presence test is arithmetic: a set number of full days in foreign countries within any twelve consecutive months, which you may choose to maximise the exclusion. They are alternatives, and a housing amount sits alongside. See the foreign earned income exclusion.
