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 for the Canadian government abroad, where do I pay tax?
Treaties deal with government service under an article of its own, separate from the ordinary employment article, and the usual effect is that pay for services rendered to a government stays taxable in the country paying it. The host country's ordinary rules for residents do not simply take over because you have moved there. Whether the article applies turns on who your employer actually is and the capacity in which the services are rendered, which is why a contractor engaged by a department and a person employed by that department can reach different answers on otherwise identical facts.
Are diplomats exempt from tax in the country they are posted to?
Exemption in a posting usually comes from the arrangements governing the mission rather than from the tax treaty, and it is narrower than most people assume. It tends to cover official emoluments and leaves private income outside its protection entirely: investments, a let property at home, a spouse's local employment. The exemption also says nothing about filing obligations in the country you remain resident of. The practical work is separating the protected income from everything else, and then reporting the remainder correctly in both places rather than in neither.
Does an international organisation salary in Ottawa get taxed in Canada?
It depends on the organisation and on the instrument that governs it. Some organisations carry exemptions for their officials under the agreement establishing their presence in a country, and those exemptions are granted by that instrument rather than by any tax treaty. They differ from one body to the next and frequently attach to a class of staff rather than to everybody on the payroll. The starting point is the organisation's own headquarters or privileges agreement together with the grade of the appointment, not the wording of the employment contract.
Does a posting abroad make me a non-resident of Canada?
Not by itself, and in government service often not at all. Residence turns on ties, and a posted official typically keeps a home, a family and a payroll connection here throughout. Where the government service article applies, the salary stays taxable in Canada in any event, so the residence question matters mostly for everything else you hold: investments, property, and the annual foreign property disclosure on Form T1135. Settling residence first and applying the treaty article second is the order that keeps the two countries' filings consistent with each other.
My spouse took a local job while I was posted abroad, what changes?
A good deal. The protection attached to your own position does not extend to a spouse's local employment, which is taxable in the host country under its ordinary rules and may also be reportable where you remain resident. A household filing that was straightforward while only one salary existed becomes two separate analyses under different articles. Local social security contributions are a further question again and are not necessarily covered by the same agreements. We treat each person's income on its own footing first, and only then look at the household position as a whole.
Is my government pension taxed where I earned it or where I live?
Pensions paid in respect of government service are usually dealt with under the same article as the service itself, which commonly keeps them taxable in the paying country even after you have settled elsewhere. That differs from an ordinary private pension, which more often follows residence. Where a career has mixed government and private service, the payments may be split between the two treatments rather than falling wholly under either. Identifying which article each payment belongs to, before the first return in the new country is filed, avoids setting a position that is awkward to unwind later.
Do Canada and the United States share tax information?
Yes, through more than one channel. The treaty has an exchange-of-information article that supports both routine and on-request exchange. Separately, an intergovernmental agreement has Canadian financial institutions identify US-reportable accounts and report them to the CRA, which passes them to the IRS, with the reverse flow for Canadian residents. Most other country pairs use the Common Reporting Standard for the same purpose. See FATCA reporting.
What happens if the two countries disagree about which of them can tax me?
The treaty has a procedure for exactly that. You apply to the competent authority in your residence country, which takes the case up with its counterpart, and the two negotiate a position that removes the double taxation. Some treaties add binding arbitration if they cannot agree. It is slow and it runs on documents, so the practical work is preserving the record and filing protective claims while the clock runs. See our treaty work.
