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.
Do I have to live in Toronto to become a client?
No. The office address matters to the tax authorities and to the post, and to little else. Documents go through the portal, meetings happen in person or by video according to what suits you, authorisations are lodged electronically, and the fee is agreed in writing before work starts. A client in another province goes through exactly the same steps as one who could walk to the office. What does change with location is the substance of the work, because the provincial computation follows the province you are resident in.
How do we actually meet if I live in another province?
By video, or in person when you are in Toronto and would like to be. Meetings are scheduled rather than taken as they come, because a cross-border file usually needs the preparer to have read the documents before the conversation is worth having. In practice most engagements run to a handful of scheduled calls: one to establish the facts and settle the fee, one to go through the draft, and one to deal with anything the tax authority raises afterwards. Between them, questions and answers go through the file itself.
How do you get permission to deal with the tax authority for me?
Through an authorisation you sign electronically, which the tax authority records against your account and which lets us see the information it holds and correspond about your file. It is specific to the representative and can be withdrawn by you without our involvement. The authorisation is a separate step from the engagement letter, and both are completed before work starts. Where more than one country is involved, each authority has its own process and its own paperwork, and they are not interchangeable however similar they look.
Does it cost more if I am outside Ontario?
No. The fee follows the work, and the work follows the facts of your file: how many countries are involved, how many years are open, and whether trusts, businesses or foreign property are in the picture. Where you happen to live in Canada adds nothing to that. What can move the figure is a provincial element that genuinely takes more work, such as a business allocating income between provinces. Either way the price is agreed in writing before any work is done, so you see it before you commit to anything.
I moved provinces during the year, who prepares that return?
We do, and it is one return rather than one per province. For personal income tax the province you are resident in at the end of the year generally determines which provincial rules apply to the year, so the return is prepared on that footing regardless of where the earlier months were spent. Business income earned through a permanent establishment in another province is allocated separately and is the usual exception. If the move also crossed a border, the residence question comes first and the provincial one follows from it.
Who actually works on my file if I never visit the office?
The same people who would work on it if you came in. There is one office and one review standard, so a file is prepared by a member of the practice and reviewed by another before anything reaches you. You are told who is handling the engagement at the outset. Nothing goes to you for approval without having been through that review, and nothing is filed with any tax authority until you have seen the draft and said yes to it.
What is double tax relief and how is it given?
Three mechanisms, and which one you get depends on your residence country's law and the treaty. Exemption leaves the foreign income out of the residence-country base. Credit taxes it and then subtracts the foreign tax, capped at the residence-country tax on that income. Deduction merely reduces taxable income by the foreign tax, and is usually the weakest. Canada and the United States lead with credit; several treaties give exemption for specific income types. See claiming the credit.
Which country do I pay tax to first?
Generally the source country — where the income arises — taxes first, often by withholding before you receive it. Your country of residence then taxes the same income and credits what the source country took. That order is why timing matters: a residence-country return filed before the source-country tax is settled has nothing to credit yet. Getting the sequence right is most of the work. See international tax planning.
