Budget-friendly Departure planning timelines

Departure planning is a calendar, not a memo. Budget-friendly departure planning timelines with a fixed fee agreed in writing before any work starts. Call the 24-hour helpline on +1 (416) 619-0068, or request a written quote today.

  • 15+Years of cross-border experience
  • 18,000+Clients served
  • 5.0Google rating
  • 4Global offices — India, USA, Canada & UAE

Secure a fixed quote

Send what you have. We price the engagement from your own documents, in writing, before any work starts.

24-hour helpline: +1 (416) 619-0068
  • 15+ years of cross-border experience
  • Fixed fee agreed before work starts
  • Google rating 5.0 out of 5
The short answer

Departure planning is a calendar, not a memo. Working backwards from the intended departure date sets the order: valuations and elections first, asset restructuring next, then the departure-year return and its property schedules.

Whether this is your situation

  • You moved country — in either direction — during the year
  • You kept a home, a spouse or dependants in the country you left
  • Two countries both consider you resident for the same period
  • Your day count in one country is close to a threshold you have never measured
  • You hold appreciated property and a move is planned within the next year

One of those is usually enough to make this worth a conversation. If none of them fits, say so on the call and we will find the page that does.

Two of the firm’s advisers at a desk in the Delhi office

Fixed fees for departure planning timelines, agreed up front

Departure planning timelines are priced on how much calendar is left and how many asset classes sit in the way: coming a year ahead leaves room to sequence valuations, elections and restructuring, while coming in the departure month narrows the work to what can still be done before residency ends. Quoted in writing first.

Corporate cross-border filing

From $999

fixed, quoted before work starts

Returns for companies with foreign subsidiaries, foreign income or foreign shareholders, and the schedules each of those triggers.
See the fee schedule

Individual tax filing

From $349

fixed, quoted before work starts

One engagement for a personal return that touches more than one country: the income, the assets held abroad and the relief claimed against them.
See the fee schedule

Transfer pricing documentation

From $2,500

fixed, quoted before work starts

Intercompany pricing documented before it is questioned — the functional analysis, the benchmarking and the files that support it.
See the fee schedule

Foreign asset & information reporting

From $349

fixed, quoted before work starts

The reporting obligations that attach to owning something abroad, worked out from your holdings rather than from the tax return alone.
See the fee schedule

Non-resident & departure filings

From $349

fixed, quoted before work starts

For anyone taxed by a country they do not live in — rent, pensions and investment income reaching across a border after the move.
See the fee schedule

Catch-up & voluntary disclosure

From $349

fixed, quoted before work starts

Voluntary disclosure handled as one piece of work, from the review of what is outstanding to the returns that close it.
See the fee schedule

Payroll & mobility setup

From $999

fixed, quoted before work starts

Employer registration and withholding for staff on assignment, arranged before the first pay run rather than corrected after it.
See the fee schedule

Estate & trust filing

From $799

fixed, quoted before work starts

Trust and estate filings that reach across a border, including the reporting a foreign beneficiary or a foreign asset creates.
See the fee schedule

All published fees on one page — the whole fee schedule in one place, with no from-to bands to decode.

How the rule actually works

Departure planning is a calendar, not a memo. Almost every lever — realising losses, crystallising exemptions, closing accounts, timing the move — expires on the day residency ends.

Working backwards from the intended departure date sets the order: valuations and elections first, asset restructuring next, then the departure-year return and its property schedules. Steps taken after the date are simply taxed.

Two things follow from that. The first is that the outcome is decided by facts you can arrange and evidence you can keep, rather than by how the return is completed at the end of the year. The second is that sequence matters: the same steps taken in a different order can produce a materially different result, which is why the first conversation is about dates and documents rather than forms.

Thresholds and rates move, and summaries written for last year are not evidence about this one. So each figure in your file is sourced to the issuing authority for the specific year; anything we cannot source, we describe as a mechanism and leave unquantified until it can be confirmed. See also Indian company setting up in the US and non-resident with Canadian employment income.

What we actually file

  • Change-of-use elections where a home became a rental or the reverse
  • Treaty tie-breaker positions, documented and where required disclosed
  • Prorated credit computations for the part-year period
  • Arrival or departure valuations for anything not publicly quoted
  • The transition-year return with its residency schedule

A worked example

Worked through with figures, the mechanism looks like this.

A deemed disposition on the day residency ends

A portfolio bought for C$383,000 is worth C$666,420 on the departure day. Nothing is sold. Assume half the gain enters income and assume a 36% marginal rate on it.

A deemed disposition on the day residency ends
ItemAmount
Cost of the propertyC$383,000
Value on the departure dayC$666,420
Accrued gain treated as realisedC$283,420
Amount assumed to enter incomeC$141,710
Tax at an assumed 36%C$51,016

C$51,016 becomes payable in a year with no sale and no cash. That is what makes the departure date a planning variable: losses realised before it, an election to defer payment against security, and defensible valuations for anything private all change this number. We run this on your actual numbers before advising anything, because the conclusion can invert with a modest change in inputs.

Treat these numbers as a worked example rather than advice — they exist to make the mechanics visible, and the rates and thresholds are assumed for the illustration. For a real filing, we verify each figure with the authority that publishes it, for your year.

How the engagement runs

  1. 1A short call to work out what actually applies to you and what does not
  2. 2A written quote against a defined scope, with nothing billed by the hour
  3. 3We prepare, a named reviewer checks it, and you see it before it goes
  4. 4You approve, we file, and only then do you pay

What you pay, and when

Fees for departure planning timelines are quoted as a fixed amount for a defined scope. There is no hourly meter and no surprise on the invoice: the number is agreed in writing before anything starts. Comparable engagements and their fixed fees are set out on the pricing pages.

  • A named reviewer signs off every statutory filing.
  • 18,000+ clients served across 4 global offices: India, the USA, Canada and the UAE.
  • Documents move through an access-controlled portal rather than email.

Where to go from here

Ask before the move rather than after it, because most of the useful options expire on the date. Start with the dates. Arrival, departure, transaction, notice — whichever applies. Once those are fixed, the filing set and the fee follow quickly, and you will know both before committing to anything.

Checked and signed off for the 2025 and 2026 filing seasons by Udit Gupta, Cross-Border Tax Expert, Legal Quotient Consultants. General information, not advice for your circumstances — call our 24-hour helpline to discuss your own position.

International tax planning — what this page covers

Readers arrive here searching for international tax planning, and departure planning timelines is what the page is about. Below: who it catches, what has to be filed, and what it costs — quoted in writing, before anything is done.

People also search for: tax planning international · us exit tax · exit tax · tax on corporate · exit tax green card.

Departure planning is a calendar, not a memo.

The four phases of the work

  1. Send what you already have

    Slips, statements, prior returns — in any order. We list what is still needed after reading them.

  2. A fee agreed in writing

    Quoted from those documents, before the work starts, and it does not move once you accept it.

  3. Each side drafted against the other

    The returns are built together rather than in sequence, so relief is claimed once and in the right country.

  4. You approve before it is filed

    The finished return comes to you first. Nothing is submitted on your behalf unseen.

How departure planning timelines is handled here

Factor Legal Quotient Hourly billing model
Pricing A fixed fee, agreed in writing before work starts Hourly, billed as incurred
Experience 15+ years of cross-border work, 18,000+ clients Varies by file
Both sides of the border Prepared together by one team, so relief is claimed exactly once One country at a time, reconciled later
Who reviews it A named practitioner, published on the page Whoever the queue reaches
Where the work happens Our offices in India, the USA, Canada and the UAE Whichever single office you can travel to

The vocabulary this page leans on

Subpart F income
Categories of a controlled foreign corporation's income taxed currently to its US shareholders, regardless of distribution.
Input tax credit
Recovery of tax paid on business inputs. Whether a non-resident can recover at all depends on which registration route it took.
Form 926
The US return reporting a transfer of property to a foreign corporation — including capitalising the company you just formed.
Domicile
A concept of permanent home used by several systems alongside residence. Domicile is stickier than residence and can survive years of living elsewhere.
departure planning timelines: Our analysis

Working backwards from the intended departure date sets the order: valuations and elections first, asset restructuring next, then the departure-year return and its property schedules.

Whichever way the facts cut, you keep the same footing: a fee agreed in writing beforehand, a named practitioner reviewing the file, and nothing filed until the work is delivered and approved.

Departure planning timelines — what the published fees look like

The count of accounts, properties and private holdings sets the rest. Each needs a departure-day value and a decision on whether it moves before the date, and a file carrying pension entitlements or an owned company takes longer to order than one with a single brokerage account.

Individual tax filing

$349fixed, before work starts

Covers: A personal filing built from your own documents — employment, investment and rental income across borders, with the treaty position set out.

See this fee page

Transfer pricing documentation

$2,500fixed, before work starts

Covers: Intercompany pricing documented before it is questioned — the functional analysis, the benchmarking and the files that support it.

See this fee page

The difference a dedicated cross-border team makes

We say early if it is not our work

If a file needs something this practice does not do, you hear that at the start rather than after a bill.

Both sides prepared together

Two returns built against each other by one team, so relief is claimed exactly once and nothing falls between the two systems.

The reporting penalties get named early

The heaviest exposure on a cross-border file is usually a disclosure form, not the tax. We identify which ones apply before a deadline turns into a penalty.

Every figure on a page is traceable

Where a rate or a threshold appears in our writing it names the tax year it belongs to. Where it could not be confirmed, the page describes the mechanism and quotes no number.

The team reviewing a file together at a desk

Departure planning timelines — the four phases

Step 1

Establishing the facts

A call to our 24-hour helpline to establish the facts and the dates that matter

Step 2

Agreeing the fee

A written scope and a fixed fee before any work starts

Step 3

Drafting and review

Preparation, then a named reviewer's sign-off before anything is filed

Step 4

Filing and follow-up

Filing, then payment — after you have seen and approved the result

The team at work in the open-plan office

From first document to filed return

  • Step 1: Share your documents – A secure upload link arrives after the first call — send files in any state.
  • Step 2: A written fixed fee – The quote is fixed from what you send; it does not move once accepted.
  • Step 3: Preparation, both sides at once – The returns are drafted together, reconciled line against line.
  • Step 4: Approve, then file – Nothing is filed until you have seen it and approved it.

Quoted up front, in writing.

Contact Us 24-hour helpline +1 (416) 619-0068

Keep reading, sideways

Each of these carries its own guide, pricing pointers and FAQ.

The work we do for clients like this

Form 8975 — country-by-country report Its own page: form 8975 country by country report — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
TNMM in practice Everything on TNMM in practice, at the same depth as this page.
International tax planning International tax planning — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
Form 1118 — foreign tax credit (corporate) The full guide to form 1118 corporate foreign tax credit, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
CRA residency determination review Its own page: CRA residency determination review — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
Indian ESOPs held after leaving India Everything on Indian ESOPs held after leaving India, at the same depth as this page.
Paying dividends to a foreign parent Paying dividends to a foreign parent — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
Form 15CA — remitter declaration (India) The full guide to form 15ca India, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
Form NR4 Summary — the return filed with the slips Its own page: NR4 summary return — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.

Clients who arrive with this exact page

Individuals & families abroad cross-border tax Its own page: individuals & families abroad cross border tax — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
Law firms cross-border tax Everything on law firms cross border tax, at the same depth as this page.
Nurses working abroad — your filing calendar Nurses working abroad your filing calendar — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
Tax for corporate & charter pilots The full guide to corporate & charter pilots tax, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
Airline pilots — relief you're probably missing Its own page: airline pilots relief you're probably missing — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
Crypto traders — your filing calendar Everything on crypto traders your filing calendar, at the same depth as this page.
Professors & lecturers — relief you're probably missing Professors & lecturers relief you're probably missing — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
Tax for physiotherapists & allied health The full guide to physiotherapists & allied health tax, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
Tax for postdocs & researchers Its own page: postdocs & researchers tax — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.

The corridors we work every week

Nigeria tax for expats — country guide Its own page: Nigeria tax for expats — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
Spain tax for expats — country guide Everything on Spain tax for expats, at the same depth as this page.
Saudi Arabia tax for expats — country guide Saudi Arabia tax for expats — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
US–Spain tax corridor The full guide to US Spain tax, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
China tax for expats — country guide Its own page: China tax for expats — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
Taiwan tax for expats — country guide Everything on Taiwan tax for expats, at the same depth as this page.
Slovenia tax for expats — country guide Slovenia tax for expats — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
Uganda tax for expats — country guide The full guide to uganda tax for expats, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
Uzbekistan tax for expats — country guide Its own page: uzbekistan tax for expats — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.

The people on your file

Five named practitioners, each with the part of a cross-border file they carry. Every page on this site says who reviewed it, and the reviewer is one of these people rather than an unnamed team.

Udit Gupta

Udit Gupta

Cross-Border Tax Expert

CA (ICAI), In-Depth Tax Trained

Reviews and signs off the practice's cross-border positions, and carries final responsibility for the treaty analysis on every file that leaves the office.

Abhinav Gupta

Abhinav Gupta

Canada Tax / International Tax

Canada Tax, International Tax, Cross-Border Tax, Transfer Pricing

Canadian returns with foreign income, non-resident filings, and the transfer-pricing documentation that runs alongside intercompany work.

Raghav Gupta

Raghav Gupta

International Tax

International Tax, Transfer Pricing Specialist

Benchmarking, method selection and the local-file and master-file sets that support a group's pricing policy under examination.

Anmol Mittal

Anmol Mittal

Canada and US tax

CPA Canada, CPA USA, CA (ICAI)

Files that have to be right on both sides of the border at once — dual filings, streamlined catch-ups, and the foreign tax credit reconciliation between them.

Vinayak Indolia

Vinayak Indolia

CFO advisory

CPA, CA. Fractional CFO and Senior Advisory Specialist

Groups that need the tax position and the finance function to agree: structure reviews, intercompany policy, and the reporting a board can act on.

Meet the whole team

Files that look like this one

Case study 1

Two Wills, Two Jurisdictions, One Estate

A will drawn for one country can revoke another or fail to reach assets held abroad. The review checks how each instrument interacts with the other and where probate will actually be required.

Read how this one runs
Case study 2

Leaving Canada — the Bill You Get for Assets You Still Own

Emigrating triggers a deemed disposition of most holdings, which produces tax on gains never realised in cash. The file values the property, identifies what is excluded, and looks at whether security can be posted rather than the tax paid outright.

Read how this one runs
Case study 3

Treaty Rate Refused Because the Paperwork Was Missing

A reduced rate under a treaty is available only where the payer is satisfied the recipient is resident in the treaty country. The certificate and the withholding form are what make the rate available at source instead of recoverable a year later.

Read how this one runs
Case study 4

Indian Transfer Pricing Certification With a Hard Deadline

An Indian entity with international related-party transactions needs an accountant's report filed by a date of its own, ahead of the return. The work is reconciling the transactions to the books first, because the report is only as defensible as that reconciliation.

Read how this one runs
Case study 5

An Indian Company Paying a Foreign Supplier

Payments abroad carry deduction at source and a certification filed before the money moves. Whether the treaty reduces the rate depends on what is being bought, and the classification is the decision the whole filing rests on.

Read how this one runs
Case study 6

A Residency Determination Review After Leaving the Country

Residence is decided on ties, not on a form, and the review asks for evidence of every one of them. The file assembles the ties that were severed and the ones that remained, and answers the questionnaire against the treaty rather than around it.

Read how this one runs
Case study 7

Canadian Dividends and Interest Paid to a Non-Resident

Flat withholding applies at source whether or not a return would produce the same figure. The engagement establishes treaty entitlement, files what is needed to claim the reduced rate, and recovers what went out at the domestic rate.

Read how this one runs
Case study 8

The Deemed Sale That Happens on Death

Canada treats most capital property as sold at fair market value on death, so a terminal return can carry tax on gains nobody realised. Valuations and the order of the returns are what decide the figure.

Read how this one runs

All case studies — every published engagement in one place.

Core International & Cross-Border Tax Services

International Tax Planning & Advisory

Strategy and compliance for income, assets and families spread across borders.

One coordinating team: filings on every side of the border are sequenced so treaty relief and foreign tax credits are claimed once — and in the right country.

U.S. & Cross-Border Tax Returns

Dual filers: U.S. citizens in Canada and Canadians with U.S. income run two parallel systems — we prepare both, in the right order, every year.

Expat & Emigration Tax

The move year is its own project: the elections and valuations filed that year decide the next decade of both countries’ returns.

Non-Resident Canadian Tax

Default withholding is 25% of gross: elective returns routinely turn over-withheld rent and pensions into refunds.

Transfer Pricing & BEPS

Documentation prepared with the return is the cheapest insurance in international tax; reconstructing it during an audit is the most expensive.

Cross-Border Estates & Trusts

Wills drafted for one country routinely misfire in the other — deemed disposition here, estate tax there, credits in between.

Cross-Border Corporate Tax

Expansion raises the same four questions every time — entity, PE, repatriation, payroll. We answer them before the tax authorities do.

India Tax for NRIs & Returning Residents

The deduction is taken on the sale price, not the gain — which is why an NRI property sale strands cash unless the certificate is applied for before closing.

Canadian Tax with a Foreign Element

Residency is decided on facts, not on a form — and the year you arrive or leave is the one where the largest amounts turn on the smallest details.

UAE Tax for Expats & Their Home Country

A zero-tax country is only half the answer — the question that decides the bill is whether the country you came from still treats you as resident.

Industries & Client Types We Serve Worldwide

Global E-commerce & Marketplaces
Technology & SaaS
Professional Services Firms
Cross-Border Real Estate
Importers, Exporters & Manufacturers
Athletes, Artists & Entertainers
Remote Workers & Digital Nomads
Investment Funds & Holding Companies

Global E-commerce & Marketplaces

  • Foreign VAT / GST / sales tax registrations
  • Marketplace withholding reviews
  • Inventory nexus & PE analysis
  • Multi-currency books reconciled
Explore E-commerce & Marketplaces

Technology & SaaS

  • Cross-border revenue sourcing & withholding
  • IP structuring with real substance
  • Equity for cross-border teams
  • U.S. expansion: entity & PE setup
Explore Technology & SaaS

Importers, Exporters & Manufacturers

  • Transfer pricing documentation (s.247)
  • Customs value vs transfer price
  • Foreign affiliate reporting (T1134)
  • Country-by-country reporting
Explore Trade & Manufacturing

Athletes, Artists & Entertainers

  • Reg 105 & U.S. CWA agreements
  • Multi-state & country calendars
  • Touring income allocation
  • Royalty & image-rights withholding
Explore Athletes & Entertainers

Remote Workers & Digital Nomads

  • Residency analysis before moving
  • Employer payroll exposure
  • Totalization & social security
  • Foreign tax credits
Explore Remote Workers

Investment Funds & Holding Companies

Holding structures live or die on treaty access, beneficial ownership and substance — the MLI's principal-purpose test now sits over every arrangement.

A holding structure is only as good as its reporting. Foreign affiliates, accrued passive income and distributions each carry their own return, and the penalties on those attach to the form rather than to any tax being owed — so a structure that saves tax can still cost money if the information returns are late.

  • Treaty access & PPT reviews
  • FAPI & surplus computations
  • Withholding-efficient routing
  • Governance & substance
Explore Funds & Holdcos

Departure planning timelines — questions we are asked

Departure planning timelines — is this a do-it-yourself job?

Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: working backwards from the intended departure date sets the order: valuations and elections first, asset restructuring next, then the departure-year return and its property schedules.

What if I have already filed and got it wrong?

That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.

How long will it take?

It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.

How do I know whether I am a covered expatriate?

Three tests, and one is enough. Net worth of $2,000,000 or more on the day you expatriate. Average annual net income tax above an inflation-adjusted figure for the five preceding years — $206,000 for 2025. Or failure to certify on Form 8854 that you complied with all federal tax obligations for those five years. The third catches people the first two never would, which is why compliance history is the thing to fix before, not after. See covered expatriate testing.

Is there an exit tax when a green card holder leaves the United States?

Only for long-term residents — those who held the green card for long enough to be inside the expatriation regime — and then only if one of the covered expatriate tests is met. The step people skip is the formal one: the status has to be properly ended for tax purposes, and until it is, worldwide filing continues no matter where you live. Abandoning the card and forgetting the tax filing is the common, expensive sequence. See giving up a green card.

What is the US exit tax?

A charge that applies when a US citizen renounces or a long-term permanent resident gives up their status and meets one of the covered-expatriate tests — an income test, a net-worth test, or a failure to certify five years of compliance. A covered expatriate is treated as having sold worldwide assets on the day before expatriation, and Form 8854 is what reports the position. The tests turn on figures that are indexed, so they are read for the year of expatriation. See Form 8854.

Do you sign the return as preparer?

Where the filing requires a preparer identification, yes. The named reviewer appears on the advice either way, so you always know who stands behind the position.

Will this trigger an audit?

Filing correctly does not create risk; a pattern of missing filings does. Where a disclosure route is involved we set out what the authority will see and in what order before you commit to it.

A named reviewer on every filing

Talk to us about departure planning timelines

We scope it on a call, quote it in writing, and you see the result before anything is filed.

  • A named reviewer signs off every filing
  • 18,000+ clients served
  • 24-hour helpline, +1 (416) 619-0068

Our practitioners are alumni of leading accounting and tax institutions

Where our partners studied — CPA Canada (In-Depth Tax Program), AICPA, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.

Request a Quote +1 (416) 619-0068