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.
Where is your Toronto office and can I meet someone there?
The practice is at 381 Front St W in Toronto, and you are welcome to come in. Most files do not require it. Documents are usually exchanged through secure cloud software and returns are signed electronically, which is simply faster than arranging a time that suits both of us for papers that could have been sent. Where a meeting genuinely helps, and a first cross-border year or an estate often is such a case, it is worth the hour. Call the practice on +1 (416) 619-0068 and we will tell you honestly whether your file needs one.
Who actually reviews my return before it is filed?
Every file is prepared by one person and reviewed by another before anything leaves the practice, and nothing is filed until you have approved it. That second read is the point of the arrangement rather than a formality. Cross-border returns fail in predictable places, a residence date taken from the wrong document, a credit claimed against the wrong year, a disclosure form omitted because the underlying asset looked domestic. The reviewer is looking for those specifically. The same standard applies whichever office opened the file, so where the work is done does not change how it is checked.
How do you handle a file that touches Canada and the UAE?
One engagement, one fee and one file, with the work drawn from whichever office holds the relevant expertise. The practice has offices in India, the United States, Canada and the UAE, and the point of that is that the two halves of a cross-border position are argued out internally before anything is filed, rather than by two unconnected advisers after the event. What you see is a single set of computations that reconcile with each other. Where a genuine conflict exists between the two systems, we say so in writing and set out the options rather than quietly picking one.
How is the fixed fee set and when is it agreed?
It is agreed in writing before any work starts, and it is priced from your own documents rather than from a standard schedule. Send what you hold. We read it, establish how many returns and disclosures the position actually requires, and quote on that. If something turns up mid-file that changes the scope, and on cross-border work it occasionally does, we tell you what it is and what it would cost before doing it, not afterwards on an invoice. Call +1 (416) 619-0068 if you would rather talk through the papers before sending them.
What do I need to send before you can give me a quote?
Whatever you already have. People delay because they think a complete set is required first, and the incomplete set is usually enough to price the work. Slips and statements for the years concerned, any correspondence from a tax authority, prior returns on both sides if they exist, and a short note on the dates that matter such as arrival, departure or the sale of a property. If records are missing we will tell you which ones we can reconstruct and which you will need to request, and that assessment is part of the quote.
My Canadian and US returns are prepared separately, is that a problem?
Often, yes, and the failure is rarely in either return on its own. Each can be correct in isolation while the pair contradict each other, typically on which country taxes an item first, which year a credit belongs to, or what a residence date was taken to be. Neither preparer sees the mismatch because neither sees both files. Where we act on both sides the computations are reconciled before either is filed. Where you prefer to keep an existing adviser on one side, we will work to their figures and flag in writing anything that does not agree.
Do American citizens living abroad have to pay taxes?
American expats and green card holders need to file US returns for life, and many of them pay little or no US tax once the relief is applied — but the filing is what unlocks the relief, so the two questions have different answers. The exclusion for foreign earned income, the credit for foreign tax already paid and the treaty between the two countries between them usually leave the total at roughly the higher of the two countries' tax rather than the sum. Skip the return and none of it applies. See Americans abroad.
I have not filed for several years while living abroad — what are my options?
Both countries have routes back, and using one before they contact you is what preserves the relief. On the US side there are procedures aimed at taxpayers whose failure was not wilful, including one designed for people living outside the country, and separate procedures for late account reports and information returns alone. Canada has its voluntary disclosures programme and taxpayer relief for penalties and interest. Filing quietly and hoping is the one approach with no protection attached to it. See catch-up filing.
