What is included in the fee for Canadian return with foreign income?
The Canadian return with foreign income, foreign tax credits computed by category and country, and the foreign property reporting that usually accompanies them.
What would make Canadian return with foreign income cost more than the standard tier?
The number of countries. One foreign employer is a straightforward credit; income and tax from three countries means three separate credit computations with their own limits.
Is the fee really fixed?
Yes, for the scope quoted. If the scope changes — another year appears, an entity turns up, a certificate becomes necessary — we re-quote before doing the work, so there is never an invoice you have not already agreed to.
How much does a Canadian return with foreign income cost?
It is quoted in writing before the work starts, and what moves the figure is the shape of the foreign income rather than its size. One salary from one country, with a payslip summary behind it, is a straightforward engagement. Income in several categories from several countries is not, because the credit has to be worked out separately for each category and each country rather than as a single total. Foreign property reporting, where it applies, is quoted with the return that carries it. Send us the foreign documents and the quote will reflect what is actually in them.
Do I still declare foreign income if it was taxed abroad?
Yes. A Canadian resident reports income from everywhere, whatever tax the source country has already taken from it. Relief for that foreign tax comes afterwards, as a credit computed by category and by country, and it is not automatic: it depends on what the foreign tax was, what income it was charged on, and what the treaty says about which country may tax what. Leaving the income off the return does not avoid the tax and does make the filing wrong. In many cases the credit removes the double charge, but only where it is claimed on the right income.
Why is the foreign tax credit calculated country by country?
Because the credit is limited by reference to the Canadian tax on that particular income, so lumping countries together would let tax paid in a high-rate country shelter income from a low-rate one. The calculation is done for each country, and separately for the business and non-business categories, which is why a return with income from three countries carries several credit computations rather than one. It is also where most of the errors we see live: the right total, claimed in the wrong column, produces a credit that will not survive a query.
Is foreign property reporting included in the return fee?
It is quoted with the return rather than hidden inside it. The foreign property information return is a separate filing with its own rules about what has to be listed, and whether you need one turns on what you hold and how it is held, not on whether the income has been reported. Plenty of people report the income correctly and miss the report entirely, which is the more expensive half of that mistake. We check the position before quoting, and the written scope says whether the report is in it.
What exchange rate do you use for my foreign income?
Whichever is right for the item, applied consistently. Some amounts are converted at the rate for the day the income arose, and some may properly use an average for the year; the choice is not free, and it has to be applied the same way to the income and to the tax credited against it. Where a broker statement arrives already converted, we check what rate it used before accepting the figure. Documenting the convention is part of the work, because a return that cannot explain its own conversions is hard to defend afterwards.
Can you fix earlier returns where I left foreign income out?
Yes, and it is quoted as its own engagement rather than folded into the current year. Correcting a past year is different work: the figures have to be rebuilt from whatever the foreign institution can still produce, the credit recomputed on the corrected income, and the route for the correction chosen, an ordinary adjustment request or a disclosure, depending on what was left out and why. We look at that before quoting, because the two routes carry very different consequences and the choice should never be made by default.
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.
How much foreign income is tax-free in Canada?
None of it is tax-free for being foreign. A Canadian resident is taxed on worldwide income, so foreign salary, interest, dividends, rent and gains all go on the return, converted to Canadian dollars. What genuinely reduces the bill is the basic personal amount, the credit for foreign tax already paid, and any treaty article that exempts a specific type of income. The reporting thresholds people have in mind — the foreign property statement, for one — govern reporting, not exemption. See the foreign tax credit.
