Do I have to file at home while living in Romania?
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 Romania?
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 Romania. 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.
I pay very little Romanian tax under a sector relief. What do I claim at home?
You claim what was actually paid, which may be very little. Local reliefs have applied to particular occupations in Romania, and where your role qualified, the Romanian charge falls. But a foreign tax credit at home is limited to tax genuinely suffered, not to the tax that would have been due without the relief. The practical effect is that relief in Romania can move the liability to your home country rather than remove it. Clients are often surprised by that. It is better to know the shape of the result before the assignment starts than after the first return.
Does Romanian payroll withholding mean I do not have to file at home?
No. If you remain resident at home, your return reports worldwide income whatever was deducted abroad. Romanian payroll does most of the collecting locally, which makes the annual position there largely a reconciliation, but that reconciliation is not a substitute for the home filing. The two systems work on different definitions, sometimes on different years, and they treat allowances and benefits differently. The home return is where they are brought together, and it is where any credit for Romanian tax is claimed and evidenced.
How do I prove to my home tax authority what I paid in Romania?
With primary documents rather than a summary you typed yourself. The annual statement from the Romanian employer, the payroll records showing each deduction, and any assessment or receipt issued locally are what a reviewer wants to see. Where a sector relief applied, keep the evidence of why your role qualified as well, because it explains why the tax paid looks low against the income reported. Collect these while you are still in Romania and while the employer's records are easy to obtain. Reconstructing them from abroad years later is the expensive version.
I moved back to Canada from Romania. Do I still file there?
Often yes, for the part of the year you were resident and for anything that stays connected to Romania afterwards, such as a let property or a payment relating to work performed there. Leaving also creates a split year at both ends, and the two authorities will not necessarily divide it the same way. The order of work matters: settle the Romanian position for the departure year first, because the home return has to reflect it and claim credit against it.
Do I have to declare rent from my Romanian flat at home?
If you are resident at home, yes. Rental income is reported where you are resident, with a credit claimed for tax properly paid in Romania on the same income. The two calculations rarely match: the expenses each system allows are different, the treatment of the building's cost is different, and the accounting periods may not align. So the amount you report at home is not simply the figure from the Romanian return converted into your own currency. It has to be recalculated on home rules and then reconciled against what was paid locally.
Who taxes my Romanian pension now that I live in Canada?
It depends on your residence and on what the treaty in force for that year says about pensions, which is not a uniform rule. Some pensions are taxable only where the recipient lives, some stay with the paying country, and public-service pensions are frequently treated differently again. The payer will usually apply its domestic position unless a claim is made in advance. Establish the correct treatment before the first payment rather than after a year of deductions, because recovering an over-deduction is slower than preventing one.
What is expat tax?
Not a separate tax — it is the ordinary tax of one or more countries applied to someone living outside the one that claims them. In practice it means two systems at once: the filing your home country still requires, the filing the country you live in requires, and the relief provisions that stop the same income being taxed twice at full rates. What makes it specialist work is that the relief has to be claimed in the right country, in the right order. See our expat filing work.
Who qualifies for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion?
A US citizen or resident with a tax home outside the United States who meets one of two tests: bona fide residence in a foreign country for an uninterrupted period including a full tax year, or physical presence abroad for a qualifying number of days in a twelve-month window. The day count and the exclusion cap both come off Form 2555 for the year in question. Failing both tests does not end relief — the foreign tax credit is the alternative. See Form 2555.
