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 am a US citizen living in Toronto, do I still have to file US returns?
Yes. The United States taxes its citizens on worldwide income wherever they live, so residence in Canada changes what relief you claim but not whether you file. A Canadian salary, a Canadian rental property and Canadian investment income all belong on the US return, with relief coming through the foreign earned income exclusion or the foreign tax credit, whichever produces the better result on your facts. Separately, your Canadian bank, investment and registered accounts may have to be reported on FBAR, which is a disclosure filed with a different agency and on its own footing. The two Canadian and US returns need to be prepared together, because the elections made on one drive the other.
I live in Mississauga and own property in India, what do I report to Canada?
As a Canadian resident you are taxed here on your worldwide income, so Indian rent belongs on your Canadian return recomputed under Canadian rules, in Canadian dollars, with credit for the Indian tax finally payable on it. Ownership itself is a separate question: specified foreign property is disclosed on form T1135 once the cost of your holdings crosses the reporting threshold, whether or not the property earns anything. A flat occupied by family and producing no rent is still reportable. Indian filings continue in parallel, and it is the reconciliation between the Indian tax year and the Canadian calendar year that usually takes the time.
We incorporated a US company from Toronto, what does Canada want to see?
Two things in the first year, and they are commonly missed. The first is where the company is actually managed, because a company incorporated abroad but directed from the Greater Toronto Area can be resident in Canada under common law and therefore taxable here on its worldwide income. Board minutes, signing authority and where the real decisions are taken carry more weight than the certificate of incorporation. The second is your own shareholding, which brings reporting obligations on your personal return for an interest in a foreign affiliate. Both questions are far cheaper to settle in the founding year than after the first funding round.
Will I be taxed twice on the same income as a dual filer?
Not usually taxed twice on the same dollar, but you will file twice, and relief is mechanical rather than automatic. Each country taxes under its own rules and one of them gives credit for the other, within a limit set by its own tax on that income. The mismatches that cause real double taxation are timing and character: the two countries can allocate the same income to different years, treat the same instrument differently, or disagree about which of them has the first right to tax. Those are treaty questions settled with documentation and, where needed, by claiming a treaty position expressly on the return.
My Indian bank pays me interest, does the CRA need to know about it?
Yes. Interest credited to an account abroad is taxable in Canada in the year it is credited, whether or not you repatriate it and whether or not a local return is filed on it. Tax deducted at source in India supports a credit against the Canadian tax on that interest, limited to what Canada charges on the same amount. The account itself also feeds the foreign property disclosure. The frequent problem on these files is not the tax but the record: interest certificates are issued for the Indian tax year, so they have to be broken down before they fit a Canadian return.
Which return should be prepared first when two countries both tax me?
It depends on which country has the first right to tax the income, because the other one is the one giving the credit and it needs a final figure to give credit for. Preparing them in the wrong order produces an estimated credit that has to be amended once the real assessment arrives. On a dual Canadian and US file the order also depends on the elections available, since a choice made on one return can change the foreign tax available to the other. The practical approach is to draft both, settle the elections, then file in the order the credits require.
Branch or subsidiary — which should we use to expand?
A branch keeps one taxpayer: results consolidate at home, losses are usable sooner, and the exposure is that the branch is a permanent establishment whose profit the host country taxes, sometimes with a branch tax on repatriation. A subsidiary is a separate taxpayer with limited liability and local rates, at the cost of withholding on dividends home and transfer pricing on everything between them. The deciding facts are usually expected losses, liability and exit plans. See branch against subsidiary.
What happens if I have not filed for several years?
Missed years are handled as one package, not one at a time, because the route chosen for the first year determines the relief available for the rest. Each country has a disclosure or relief programme with its own conditions, and entering the right one — before the authority contacts you — is usually what keeps penalties down. Filing quietly outside a programme forfeits that protection. See catching up on missed returns.
