Do I need to come to your office?
No, though you are welcome to: we have offices in India, the USA, Canada and the UAE. Documents move through a secure portal, and meetings can be in person or by video, arranged around your time zone. Clients in the Gulf, India, Europe and across North America all work with us the same way.
Does it matter which of your offices handles my file?
No. The same named reviewer signs off, the same authorisation is filed with the tax authorities, and the same fixed fee is agreed in writing before any work starts.
I work on a construction project in the United States, where do I pay tax?
Both countries can have a claim, and which one prevails turns on facts you can evidence rather than on where your employer keeps its head office. The treaty gives the country where the work is physically performed the first right to tax employment income, subject to a short-stay exemption that depends on your presence there, on who bore the cost of your pay, and on whether your employer had a taxable presence at the site. If you remain resident in Canada, Canada still taxes your worldwide income and relieves the overlap by credit rather than by exemption. The practical work is proving days and payer, so keep the site sign-in sheets and the contract from the first week.
Does a building site abroad create a permanent establishment for my employer?
Construction has its own rule. A site, project or supervisory activity becomes a permanent establishment only once it lasts beyond the duration the relevant treaty sets, and the clock runs on the project rather than on any one worker, so a crew that rotates in and out does not reset it. Preparatory mobilisation and demobilisation are usually counted in. Once the threshold is passed the employer has registration, withholding and filing duties in that country, often backdated to the start of the site. That is a decision to take before the crew flies, because the position is far cheaper to establish in advance than to correct after the project has closed.
I was only on the foreign site for a few months, am I exempt there?
The short-stay exemption in most treaties has three conditions and every one of them must hold. Your presence has to stay below the treaty limit across the measuring period, which is often a rolling period rather than the calendar year. Your pay must not be paid by, or on behalf of, an employer resident in that country. And your pay must not be borne by a permanent establishment your employer has there. Trades workers on long projects usually fail the third condition, because once the site itself is a permanent establishment the labour cost sits with it. Time alone is not the test, and it is the condition people most often rely on by mistake.
Foreign tax was deducted from my trades pay, can I get it back in Canada?
Canada relieves it by credit, not by refund. The credit is limited to the Canadian tax otherwise payable on that same foreign income, calculated separately for each country and for each class of income, so an excess is not paid out to you. If the foreign deduction exceeded what the treaty permitted in the first place, the recovery is a return filed in that country, not a larger Canadian credit, and those two remedies have different time limits. Canada also wants evidence that the tax was finally payable rather than merely withheld, which means the foreign assessment, not just the payslip.
Do rotations in and out of Canada make me a non-resident for tax?
Rarely, on their own. Canadian residence is decided on ties rather than on a count of days, so a worker who keeps a home, a spouse, dependants, a driving licence and provincial health coverage here generally stays resident throughout a rotation, however much of the year is spent abroad. Where the other country also treats you as resident under its own domestic law, the treaty tie-breaker decides, working through permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode and nationality in that order. That is a documented analysis, not a preference, and the answer changes what you file in both countries rather than only what you pay.
What records should I keep when I work on projects in several countries?
Keep a dated movement log with something independent behind it, such as boarding passes, site inductions or gate records, because the day count is the fact most often challenged and the hardest to reconstruct later. Keep the contract or assignment letter showing who engaged you and who bore the cost of your pay. Keep payslips that show gross pay and each deduction under its local name, since some of those deductions are income tax and some are social contributions with entirely different treatment. Keep every foreign assessment or year-end statement. Finally, ask your employer in writing how long the site is expected to run.
How many days can I spend in a country before I become tax resident?
It depends on the country, and a day count is only ever the start. Many use a threshold in a tax year, some also look at averages across several years, and some have no day test at all and decide on where your home and life are. Two countries can both conclude you are resident, which is what the treaty tie-breaker exists to settle. Counting days without checking the tie-breaker is how people end up filing as resident nowhere. See the residency tie-breaker.
What is a totalization agreement and how do I use one?
A social security agreement that stops you contributing to two systems for the same work, and lets periods in both count towards benefit eligibility in either. Which system you stay in depends on the agreement's rules for your situation — a seconded employee usually remains in the home system for a set period, a locally hired one usually joins the host system. You evidence it with a certificate of coverage obtained before or shortly after the assignment starts. See certificates of coverage.
