Do I have to file at home while living in Moldova?
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 Moldova 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 Moldova?
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 Moldova. 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.
How do I prove tax paid in Moldova to claim a credit?
This is the practical problem on most files in this corridor. A credit at home is allowed for foreign tax actually paid, and the tax office asks for evidence of it — not your word, and not a payslip on its own. Local certificates of tax paid are the usual proof, and they are not issued as a matter of course; somebody has to request them, often in person or through a representative, and the wording matters as much as the figure. Start the request before you file rather than after a query arrives, because obtaining one retrospectively takes longer than a filing season allows.
I inherited a flat in Moldova — what do I report at home?
Inheriting is not usually the taxable event at home; holding the property, earning from it and selling it are. Two things start immediately. First, the flat counts towards the foreign holdings you are required to disclose, and that disclosure is owed whether or not it produces any income. Second, you need a value at the date you acquired it, because the gain on an eventual sale is measured from that value and nobody will reconstruct it for you a decade later. Get a local valuation and have the succession documents translated while the people who dealt with them are still reachable.
Is rent from a Moldovan property taxable in Canada?
If you are resident in Canada, yes — worldwide income includes it, and the rent is reported whether or not it is ever brought into the country. The figure reported is not the local taxable figure. It is recomputed under home rules, which allow their own deductions and take their own view of what is an expense and what is an improvement, then converted into home currency. Tax paid in Moldova on the same rent is relieved by credit, capped at the home tax on that income, provided you can evidence it. Keep the lease, the receipts and the proof of tax.
Do I still file at home while on assignment in Moldova?
Almost certainly, and the assignment itself rarely changes it. Residence turns on ties rather than on where you sleep during a posting: a home kept available, a family that stayed, bank and professional arrangements left running all point the same way. A posting with a return ticket and a house waiting is the clearest case of continuing residence there is. That means a home return reporting the assignment income, with credit for what Moldova withheld from it — and it means the certificate question arrives in your first year abroad, not your last.
What if my employer withheld tax but issued no certificate?
The credit is not lost, but it has to be evidenced by other means and the claim is weaker for it. Payslips showing the deduction, the employment contract, bank statements showing the net amount that arrived, and any annual reconciliation the employer filed locally can be assembled into a file that supports the figure. Ask the employer in writing and keep the reply, even a refusal. Where a certificate arrives after the home return has gone in, the return can be adjusted — a late credit claimed on evidence is better than a credit claimed on nothing at all.
Do I have to report a Moldovan bank account I never use?
Generally yes, and dormancy is not a defence. Reporting of foreign accounts is triggered by holding them, not by using them, so the account opened to receive a rent payment or to settle an estate counts the same as the one you live out of. Balances also move without you: interest credited, a tenant's deposit, a share of a sale. Account information reaches home tax authorities through exchange arrangements between countries in any event, so an unreported account is far more likely to be noticed than it once was. Where years have been missed, the route out is a disclosure rather than a quiet correction.
Does the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion apply to self-employment tax?
No — it does not reduce self-employment tax at all. The exclusion removes income from income tax only, so a US self-employed person abroad can exclude the profit for income-tax purposes and still owe self-employment tax on it. What can relieve that is a totalization agreement with the country where you actually work, which assigns you to one social-security system instead of both. See totalization agreements.
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.
