Work permit holders — 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: residency follows ties and day-counts, treaty exemptions depend on the employment article's conditions, and payroll withholding starts with the work regardless.
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.
Am I a tax resident from the day my work permit starts?
Not automatically. A permit gives you the right to work. It says nothing about tax residency, which is decided on your ties and your presence rather than on your immigration status. Someone on a permit can be resident from arrival, resident for part of the year, or not resident at all, depending on where their home and family are and how the year actually runs. Employers and payroll providers often assume the permit settles it, which is how withholding ends up applied on one basis and the return filed on another. Establish the residency position before the first payroll run if you can.
My family arrives months after me, so when does residency start?
It may start when they do, or it may have started when you did. Residency follows where your significant ties are. A spouse and children still living abroad in a home you kept is a strong tie to that country, while a lease and a family in the new one points the other way. Where the family moves in stages, the date becomes a question of evidence: flights, leases, school enrolment, and when the former home was let or sold. Keep that evidence as it is created. Reconstructing it two years later, for a return already filed, is much harder.
Do I still have to file at home after moving for work?
Usually, for at least one more year, and sometimes for longer. Leaving a country does not end its filing obligations on the day you board the plane. There is normally a final or part-year return, there may be obligations attached to assets or income you left behind, and if your former residence was never formally ended you may still be filing there as a resident without knowing it. Deal with both countries in the same exercise. The relief you claim in one is usually supported by what is reported in the other, and filing them separately is how the two positions drift apart.
Payroll withheld tax but the treaty says I am exempt, so what now?
Those two things coexist more often than people expect. Withholding obligations attach to the work being performed and start regardless of any treaty claim, while a treaty exemption under the employment article applies only if its conditions are met. Those conditions usually concern how long you are in the country, who employs you, and who ultimately bears the cost of your salary. Many claims fail on the last of them, because the host entity is recharged for the employee. The return is where the two are reconciled. If the exemption holds, the withheld tax is recovered through the filing. If it does not, the withholding was right.
I am here on a permit for under a year, so am I non-resident?
Not necessarily, and treating a short assignment as automatically non-resident is a common and expensive assumption. Residency turns on the ties you form, not on the length written on the permit. Renting a family home, moving a spouse and children, and giving up the home abroad can make you resident quickly even on a short posting. Someone who keeps their household abroad and commutes may not be resident at all over a longer period. The permit is evidence of intention, not a conclusion. Model the position against how the year is actually going to be lived.
What do I need to report on my first return after moving?
More than the local salary, usually. A first-year return has to establish the residency position and then report on that basis, which means identifying the point in the year from which worldwide income becomes reportable, claiming relief for tax already withheld or paid elsewhere on the same income, and disclosing assets or accounts held abroad where the rules require it. It is also the return on which any treaty position is stated for the first time. Gather the foreign payslips, the former country's filings and the arrival evidence before you start, because the return is assembled from all three.
What is a permanent establishment, and how easily do we create one?
A taxable presence in another country under the treaty — typically a fixed place of business such as an office, branch, factory or workshop, or a dependent agent habitually concluding contracts on your behalf. Some treaties add a services test measured in days. Purely preparatory or auxiliary activity is excluded, but that carve-out is narrower than it sounds: one senior employee working from home in the other country, with authority, has been enough. See business profits and permanent establishment.
Is double taxation legal?
Yes. Nothing prevents two countries from taxing the same income under their own domestic law — each is exercising its own jurisdiction. What treaties and credit systems do is relieve the outcome rather than prohibit the charge, and relief is generally something you must claim on a return or a form, not something applied automatically. Miss the claim and the double charge stands. Double taxation explains the mechanism.
