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 handle just the US part and leave my accountant the rest?
That is the usual arrangement rather than the exception. Your accountant keeps the domestic file they already know, we take the cross-border piece, and the boundary between the two is written down before either of us starts: which return, which schedules, which year, and who owes whom which figures. In practice most of the friction in a split file comes from an unstated assumption rather than a technical disagreement, so the scope note is the first document produced. The fixed fee covers our side of that line and is agreed in writing before work begins.
Will you contact my accountant without telling me first?
No. Nothing goes to your existing accountant unless you ask for it, and in most cases it is better if the first approach comes from you, because the request is yours to make. Where you would rather we made it, we send a short note setting out what we have been asked to do and what we need from them, usually a copy of the last filed return and the working papers behind it, and you are copied on it. Accountants are used to this. A clear note describing a defined piece of work is far easier to answer than a vague request for the file.
Who signs the return if two firms work on my file?
Whoever prepared it. If your accountant prepares the domestic return, they sign as its preparer; if we prepare the cross-border return or the schedules that travel with it, we sign ours. You authorise each filing yourself, and nothing goes out until you have reviewed it. Where the two returns share a figure, a foreign income amount, or a credit claimed on one side for tax paid on the other, that figure is agreed between the firms in writing before either return is finalised, so neither of you is left explaining a discrepancy that came from a scheduling accident rather than a considered position.
My bookkeeper does the corporate return, can you do only the cross-border schedules?
Yes, and it is often the sensible split, because the schedules depend on the ledger and your bookkeeper knows the ledger. What we need is the trial balance and the underlying agreements rather than a finished return, since the cross-border position usually has to be settled before the domestic return is closed rather than bolted on after it. The order of work is written down at the start: what we need from them, by when, and what goes back. Where a figure we produce changes something on their return, they are told at the point it changes, not at the end.
Do I have to move my whole file to get cross-border advice?
No. A great many clients keep one firm for everything domestic and come to us for a single defined question, a treaty position, a departure year, a foreign reporting schedule, and then go back. There is no requirement to transfer records, to change authorisations beyond what the specific filing needs, or to tell your accountant you are dissatisfied, since usually you are not. The engagement covers the question you brought and stops there, priced in writing before it starts. If the question reaches further into the file than expected, we re-quote before continuing rather than carry on.
What if you and my accountant disagree about a treaty position?
It happens, and it is better handled openly than by each firm quietly filing its own view. We set the position out in writing: what the facts are, what the treaty provision relied on requires, and what the alternative reading would mean in practice. Your accountant then responds to that rather than to a bare conclusion. Most disagreements turn out to be about facts rather than law, what the contract actually said, where the work was actually done, who actually bore the cost. Where a genuine difference of view remains it is yours to resolve, and you should have both positions in writing before you do.
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.
How does a remittance actually work, and is it taxed?
A remittance is a transfer of money, not a category of income, and moving your own funds between your own accounts is not what creates tax. What can create tax is the income behind the money and the rules of the country it leaves. India, for instance, collects tax at source when a resident individual remits abroad under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, and requires certification before certain payments leave. The transfer is the trigger for paperwork rather than for tax. See the LRS and tax collected at source.
