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.
Can you fit the Canadian work around my UK filing deadline?
Yes, and it is usually the first thing we settle. Your local filing calendar is fixed and ours is the one with room to move, so the order of work is set around yours. That is not only convenience. Where one return claims relief for tax paid under the other, preparing them in the wrong order means claiming against an estimate and amending afterwards. We agree the sequence at the start, in writing, together with the dates we need documents by in order to hold it.
I live in Europe but still own property in Canada, what do I file?
Two things are in play. Rent paid to someone who is not resident in Canada is subject to withholding at source, and that withholding is taken on the gross rent rather than on the profit left after mortgage interest, agent's fees and repairs, so it commonly exceeds the tax actually due. There is an election that allows the property to be reported on a net basis by filing a return instead, and for a mortgaged property that is usually the better outcome. The second thing is the eventual sale, which carries its own notification and its own withholding.
How is my European pension treated on a Canadian return?
It depends on the type of pension and on the treaty between the two countries, and pensions are the area where treaties differ most from one another. A state pension, an occupational scheme and a private arrangement are not necessarily treated alike, and the country with the right to tax is not always the country paying it. What we do first is identify the scheme precisely, from the documents that establish what it actually is, before deciding what goes on the return. Guessing the category is the usual source of a later correction.
Do I need to report my UK bank accounts to Canada?
If you are resident in Canada and your foreign holdings pass the reporting threshold set in the legislation, there is an annual disclosure, the T1135, that sits alongside your return and lists them. It is a disclosure of what you hold, separate from reporting the income those holdings produce, and the income has to be reported whether or not the disclosure itself is required. Accounts, shares held abroad and property held for investment can all count towards it. We work out where you sit before deciding whether the form is needed.
Will your fee change if my accountant in Europe does part of it?
The fee is quoted for a defined piece of work, so anything that sits with your own accountant is not in our quote. What we do ask is that the split is written down before anything starts: which figures come from them, on what basis, and by when. The commonest cause of extra work on a file like this is two advisers each assuming the other had dealt with something. Once the split is agreed, the price is fixed in writing and does not move.
Which country taxes my salary if I work across two of them?
The starting point is where the duties are physically performed, and the treaty then modifies it. The presence of the employee, who bears the cost of the employment, and whether there is a permanent establishment in the country where the work is done all matter. Because it turns on facts rather than on a rule of thumb, the contract, the travel record and the arrangement between the employers have to be read before an answer is worth anything. Where the position is genuinely finely balanced, we say so and document the reading we took.
How do I actually stop being taxed twice?
In this order. Fix your residence under each country's own rules, and if both claim you, apply the treaty tie-breaker. Identify where each type of income is sourced. Read the article that covers that income type, because it decides who taxes and at what maximum rate. Then claim the relief on the residence-country return, with proof of the foreign tax. Most of the tax people lose to double taxation is lost at the last step, not the first. See how double taxation is relieved.
Do I pay tax when I inherit property abroad?
The inheritance itself is often not income to you, but three other things can create tax: the estate may owe tax where the deceased or the property was situated, some countries tax the recipient directly, and the gain from the date you inherit to the date you sell is yours. Reporting obligations can also attach to holding the asset. See inheriting property abroad.
