Do I have to file at home while living in Namibia?
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 Namibia?
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 Namibia. Where is the rent taxed?
Where the property is. That is close to universal, and it usually arrives as withholding on the gross rent rather than as a return on the profit — which is why the election onto a net basis, where Namibia offers one, is normally the first thing to check. Your home country taxes the same rent and credits what was paid.
Does working a rotation in Namibia make me non-resident in Canada?
Usually not. Rotational work is built around going home: the house stays, the family stays, and the schedule assumes a return. Residence is decided on those ties, not on the number of days a roster puts you on site. That means the home return continues, the Namibian employment income goes into it, and relief for tax paid in Namibia comes through a credit. Where the position genuinely changes it is because the household moved and the home base went with it. Decide this in the first year of a contract, because the evidence is easiest to gather then.
My Namibian employer issues no tax certificate — can I claim credit?
You can claim, but the figure has to be evidenced another way and you should expect the claim to be examined. Build the file from payslips showing each deduction, the contract, the roster that shows when the work was done, bank records of the net amounts received, and any written request to the employer with its reply. Ask for the certificate in writing regardless, and keep the refusal if one comes. Where the document arrives after filing, the return can be adjusted. What does not work is claiming a round figure from memory.
Is my Namibian salary taxed twice?
Both countries can assess the same pay, but the system is designed so that you do not bear it twice. The country where the work is performed generally taxes it first, and your country of residence taxes worldwide income and then allows a credit for what was paid abroad, limited to its own tax on that income. Double taxation in practice comes from two things rather than from the rules: a credit claimed without evidence, and a mismatch between the two tax years, so that the foreign tax lands in a year the home return has already closed.
I moved to Canada from Namibia — what do I need to report?
From the date you become resident, worldwide income is reportable, including anything still arising in Namibia — rent, employment, business income, investment returns. Property you already owned is generally treated as acquired at its value on the day you arrived, so that only growth after arrival is taxed here; that value should be documented now rather than when you eventually sell. Foreign holdings caught by the disclosure rules have to be reported as well, and the first return is where the residence date and those values are set out. It is the cheapest year in which to get both right.
Do camp accommodation and travel allowances count as taxable pay?
Sometimes, and the two countries can disagree about the same allowance. What matters is the character of the payment: reimbursement of an actual cost incurred for the employer's benefit is treated differently from a flat allowance the employee keeps whatever is spent, and accommodation provided at a work site is looked at differently from a housing payment made because somebody lives away from home. Employers abroad often treat these favourably under local rules, and the home country then asks its own question. Keep the policy document and the payslip breakdown; both arguments are built from them.
Do travel days on a rotation count where I am taxed?
They can, which is why the roster is a tax document. Where income has to be split between countries, the split is normally built from a day record, and days spent travelling, on standby or on paid leave are not automatically treated the same way as days worked on site. Different rules count them differently, so the same roster can produce more than one defensible figure. The practical answer is to keep the roster itself, the flight records and the leave record, and to apply one consistent method you can explain, rather than reconstructing it later.
Is my Indian provident fund or PPF still tax-free now that I live abroad?
The exemption is an Indian one, and it does not travel. Your new country of residence taxes worldwide income under its own rules, and several — the United States in particular — may treat the annual growth in a foreign retirement or savings plan as currently taxable and separately reportable, whether or not you withdrew anything. So an account that is genuinely tax-free in India can be a taxable, reportable asset where you now live. See Indian pensions received abroad.
Do US citizens abroad have to report foreign bank accounts?
Yes, and under two separate regimes with different thresholds and different filing homes — one report to FinCEN covering foreign financial accounts, and one to the IRS with the return covering a broader class of foreign assets. Both are keyed to balances rather than income, so an account earning nothing can still require reporting, and each carries penalties of its own. See filing both.
