Real estate holding structures — how much of this can I do myself?
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: local rules often tax property income and gains at source regardless of the holder, while the holder's home country taxes again with credit.
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.
Should I buy property abroad personally or through a company?
There is no answer that holds across countries, because the three consequences that matter pull in different directions. A company may reduce the rate on rental income and may not. It often changes the treatment of the eventual gain. And it usually changes what happens on death, sometimes decisively. Meanwhile your home country taxes the income again and gives credit, and credit is easier to obtain for tax you paid than for tax a company paid. The order to decide in is this: what the local system does to income and gains regardless of the holder, then what your own system does with the result, then what happens on succession.
Will I be taxed twice on rent from a property overseas?
Usually the income is taxed where the property sits, and taxed again where you live, with a credit for the first against the second. So the combined cost tends towards the higher of the two rates rather than the sum, provided the credit is genuinely claimable. It is the provisos that cause the trouble. Credit generally requires that the tax was properly due, that it was paid by the same person who is claiming it, and that the income is measured the same way in both places. Different depreciation or expense rules on each side can leave part of the foreign tax stranded.
What happens to my foreign property when I die?
Often more than owners expect, and it is frequently the deciding factor in how the property should be held. Many countries assert estate, inheritance or succession tax over land inside their borders whoever owns it and wherever they live, and some apply forced heirship rules that override a will. The practical consequences are a local probate or succession process, a charge in a currency and a system your executors do not know, and an asset that cannot be sold until both are resolved. Holding the property through an entity can change which of those applies. The question belongs at the purchase, not at the estate.
Why is the buyer holding back part of my sale proceeds?
Because the local system is protecting itself against a seller who leaves. Where a non-resident sells land, many countries require the purchaser to withhold a portion of the price and remit it, releasing it only when the tax authority issues a certificate confirming the seller's position. The important feature is that withholding is applied to the sale price rather than to the gain, so it routinely exceeds the tax actually due. The money comes back, but through a filing and a certificate rather than automatically. Start that process before completion where you can. Afterwards it becomes a refund claim with its own timetable.
Does a trust stop foreign inheritance tax on my property?
Sometimes, and sometimes it creates a second problem. A trust can change who is treated as owning the land for succession purposes, which is the point of using one. But it also introduces its own taxation of income and gains, its own reporting in your home country, and a question about whether the local system recognises the arrangement at all. Several countries that tax land on death do not recognise trusts, so the structure adds cost without achieving the objective. The test is whether the law of the country where the land sits gives the trust the effect you are paying for.
I only declare the rent in one country, is that wrong?
Almost certainly, and it is among the most common things we are asked to correct. Reporting where the property sits and not at home is the usual version, on an assumption that the foreign tax settles the matter. It does not: the home country generally taxes worldwide income and relieves double taxation by credit, which has to be claimed on a return that includes the income. The reverse happens too, where rent is declared at home while the source country is never told. Correcting it is ordinary work, and the position is better dealt with by you than raised by an authority comparing information it already receives.
Is a gift from abroad taxable in Canada?
Not to the person receiving it — Canada does not tax gifts in the recipient's hands, whatever the amount. The tax questions sit elsewhere. A gift of property rather than cash is a disposition for the giver, at market value. Attribution rules can send the income the gift later earns back to the giver where the recipient is a spouse or a minor. And a gift large enough to be noticed should be documented, because "it was a gift" is a claim that gets tested. See a Canadian receiving a foreign gift.
Does GILTI apply to individuals?
Yes, and it lands harder on them. An individual US shareholder of a controlled foreign corporation has the same inclusion a corporate shareholder does, but without an election gets neither the corporate-level deduction nor credit for the foreign corporate tax already paid — so foreign profit can be taxed at individual rates with no relief for tax the company paid abroad. An election to be taxed as though through a domestic corporation is usually the first thing to model. See Form 5471 and CFCs.
