What is included in the fee for newcomer first return?
The first Canadian return as a part-year return, with credits prorated correctly and the arrival-day cost base documented for everything brought in.
What would make newcomer first return cost more than the standard tier?
Pre-arrival assets. Establishing and evidencing arrival-day values is the work; without it the shelter for pre-arrival growth cannot be proven years later.
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.
Do I need to file a Canadian tax return for my arrival year?
If you became a resident during the year, the first return is a part-year return covering the period from the day residency began. Filing is usually worth doing even where little tax is payable, because it is what starts the benefit and credit entitlements that depend on a return being on file, and it puts the date residency began on record. The return also carries information that matters much later, most importantly the value of what you owned on arrival, which sets the cost base used when you eventually sell. Getting that recorded in year one saves an argument in year ten.
Do I have to report income I earned before I moved to Canada?
Canada taxes your worldwide income from the day you become a resident, not before. Income earned while you were still resident elsewhere is generally outside the Canadian charge. It is not irrelevant, though. It is disclosed on the return because several credits are measured by reference to the part of the year you were resident and to income from all sources, and an understated figure there produces a credit claim that will not hold up. So the pre-arrival period is reported for measurement rather than taxed. The distinction is worth being clear about before you sign the return.
Why are my tax credits smaller in my first year in Canada?
Because several of them are prorated for the part of the year you were resident. Someone arriving late in the year receives a correspondingly smaller portion of the credits that are scaled that way, which is why the first year's result often looks worse than a full year at the same income. Not every credit is prorated, and some are not restricted at all where your income for the non-resident part of the year is largely Canadian-sourced. Working out which category each credit falls into is most of the work in a newcomer return, and it is where prepared software commonly goes wrong.
What is my cost base for property I owned before moving to Canada?
You are generally treated as having acquired what you owned at its value on the day you became a resident. That matters, because Canada then taxes only the growth accruing after arrival, so a property or a share portfolio that had already appreciated abroad does not carry that earlier growth into the Canadian charge. The practical problem is evidence. Nobody keeps a valuation for a day they did not know would matter, and reconstructing one a decade later is far harder than documenting it at the time. We record the arrival-day values in the first-year file for exactly that reason.
How much do you charge for a newcomer's first Canadian return?
A fixed fee, agreed in writing before the work starts. A standard newcomer engagement is one year, one country pair, records in order. It becomes a different piece of work where there is property to value as at arrival, an information return to file, a departure position in the country you left, or several years to bring current at once. We look at what you have before quoting, so the figure you are given is the figure you pay. If something turns up that changes the scope, we stop and re-quote it rather than adding it to the invoice at the end.
Do I have to report my overseas bank accounts and property?
There is an information return for foreign property held above a reporting threshold, and it is separate from reporting the income those assets produce. The relief newcomers are often unaware of is that this return is not required for the year in which you first become a resident of Canada. It starts from the year after. That is a common source of unnecessary worry in the first year and, more seriously, a common source of a missed filing in the second, when people assume the exemption carries on. We flag the year it begins in the first-year file.
How do you avoid double taxation?
You claim relief once, in the right country, in the right order. Usually the source country taxes first, the residence country then gives a credit for that tax against its own charge on the same income, and a treaty caps the source-country rate. Getting the order wrong is what produces a double charge you then have to unwind. The mechanism differs by income type, which is why we map the whole position before filing either return. See how to avoid double taxation.
Do NRIs pay tax on money sent to India?
Sending your own funds to India is a transfer of capital, not income, so the remittance itself is not taxed. What is taxable is income the money then earns in India — interest, rent, capital gains — under the rules for the account type it sits in. Sending money out of India is the direction that needs certification before the bank will act. See NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts.
