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.
What time zone do you book cross-border tax calls in?
Yours. The slot is set against your working day rather than ours, and the written confirmation states the time in your own zone and in Toronto, so there is no arithmetic left for you to do. If your papers sit in one country and you live in another, say so when you book: the call is placed where the person who can answer questions about the documents is awake, which is not always the client. Where a file has two people on it in different countries, the confirmation carries both of their times as well as ours.
I am in the Gulf and my accountant in Canada is asleep, how does that work?
The overlap between a Gulf working day and a Canadian one is narrow, so nothing is built on it. The call is placed in your morning or your evening, whichever suits the office you are sitting in, and the preparer who holds your file is the one on the call rather than a stand-in who is merely awake. Between calls, questions go back and forth in writing through the secure portal, so a query raised at your midday is answered and waiting when you next open it instead of costing a working day. Nothing is filed until you have approved it, and that approval can be given in your own hours.
Can my spouse join the consultation from another country?
Yes, and on cross-border files it is usually sensible. A joint return, a departure year or an estate normally has two people who each hold half the facts, and putting them on one call avoids a chain of relayed answers. Tell us where each person will be when you book, because the slot then has to work in two zones rather than one, and the confirmation gives the time in each. Where the second person cannot make the window, we take the call with one of you and send a written note of what was decided, so the other is not working from someone else's recollection.
Do daylight saving changes move my scheduled appointment?
They can, because the changes do not happen on the same date everywhere and some countries do not make them at all. A slot booked weeks ahead in Toronto and confirmed in your own zone can drift by an hour once one end has moved and the other has not. Any appointment that spans a change is re-confirmed, with both times restated in writing. If you are in a country whose offset is a half hour off the hour, read the minutes on the confirmation rather than assuming the hour; that half hour is the most common cause of a missed slot.
My documents are in India and I am in Canada, how do we go through them together?
Documents are uploaded to the secure portal before the call rather than produced on the day, which means the person you speak to has already read them. On the call we work from the same numbered list, so you can say item four and be understood without either of us hunting. Where a paper only exists at a relative's house in another city, send a photograph; a legible photograph is enough to price an engagement and often enough to prepare from. Anything you approve or sign is handled electronically, so no original has to travel and nothing waits on the post.
Does the time difference slow down my filing?
Not in the way people expect. What takes time on a cross-border file is the review cycle, a question asked, a document found, an answer approved, and the scheduling is built around that cycle so a query does not sit unread for a working day at one end. Filing dates are set by the tax authority in each country and they do not move for the clock. The practical risk is not the difference itself but a client who is asleep at the moment a final approval is needed, which is why approval windows are put in your own hours.
I work remotely from another country for a company back home — who taxes me?
Usually the country you are physically in, because employment income is generally sourced where the work is done, with your residence country taxing it as well if you are resident there and giving credit. Three things follow: your employer may acquire withholding and social security obligations where you sit, a treaty tie-breaker may be needed if both countries call you resident, and a short trip that becomes a long stay can cross a residence threshold nobody was watching. See remote workers and digital nomads.
How do families with assets in two countries handle inheritance?
With paperwork built for both systems rather than one. In practice that means wills that work where each asset actually sits, an executor with authority a foreign bank or land registry will accept, clearance certificates before the estate distributes so the executor is not left personally exposed, and an estate tax exposure calculation done while the person is alive and can still act on it. Doing it afterwards costs more and forecloses most of the options. See cross-border wills and trusts.
