India ↔ Australia — DTAA: 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: articles allocate rights over employment, property, gains and pensions, and cap withholding on passive income.
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.
Is my Australian superannuation taxed in India if I move back?
It is the question asked most often on this agreement and the one that depends most on the precise article. Whether a superannuation payment is taxed in India, in Australia or in both turns on how the agreement characterises it, which is not always how the fund itself describes it, and on whether it is taken as a lump sum or as a stream. The general rule for pensions in a treaty is not automatically the rule for every retirement product. The answer comes from reading the relevant article against the fund's own documentation, rather than from the label on the statement.
I live in Australia and rent out a flat in India — who taxes the rent?
India taxes it first, because the agreement gives the country where the property stands the right to tax income from that property, and an Indian tenant or agent may be required to deduct at source. Australia then brings the same rent into your Australian assessment as a resident and relieves the Indian tax. The two computations are not identical, since each country allows different deductions against gross rent, so the taxable amount differs even though the rent received is one figure. For that reason both returns should be prepared together rather than months apart.
Does the agreement cap the tax India deducts on my interest?
The agreement caps withholding on passive income, which includes interest, but the cap is only applied at source if the deductor holds the documents India requires before the payment is made. Without them the domestic rate is applied and the difference has to be reclaimed on an Indian return afterwards. In practice the choice is between preparing the documents in advance for each period in which interest arises, or accepting the cash flow cost of reclaiming. For recurring deposits the first is nearly always worth doing once and then renewing.
How is my Australian salary treated in the year I move to India?
Employment income is allocated by the agreement primarily to the country where the work is performed, with exceptions that depend on where the employer is and on how long the employee is present. A year of arrival or departure usually splits: work done in Australia before the move and work done in India after it are not treated the same way. The complication is that the two countries run different tax years, so a single Australian payment summary rarely lines up with one Indian year. The mapping has to be done by date from the payroll records.
Who taxes the gain when I sell an Indian property from Australia?
Gains on immovable property are dealt with by their own article, which generally allows the country where the property is situated to tax them, and India commonly secures collection by requiring the buyer to withhold from the sale proceeds. Withholding of that kind is applied to the price rather than to the gain, so it routinely exceeds the tax actually due and the excess has to be reclaimed on an Indian return. Australia then assesses the same disposal on you as a resident and relieves the Indian tax. The Indian position should be settled before the Australian claim is finalised.
Are Australian pensions and superannuation treated the same under the agreement?
Not necessarily, and that is the trap. A pensions article covers payments of a described kind, and a retirement product may or may not fall within that description depending on how it is paid and what it is paid from. Government service pensions are usually dealt with separately again. So three questions have to be answered in order: what the payment is under the agreement, which country the relevant article allows to tax it, and how the other country relieves any resulting double charge. Answering only the last of the three is the common mistake.
How do I claim the foreign tax credit?
You report the foreign income, the foreign tax paid on it and the category it falls into, then compute the limit — the credit cannot exceed your own country's tax on that same income. You need evidence the foreign tax was actually paid or accrued, not merely withheld on paper. The form differs by country: Form 1116 in the US, T2209 and T2036 in Canada, Form 67 in India, and the Indian form must be filed before the return. See Form 1116.
How do I actually stop being taxed twice?
In this order. Fix your residence under each country's own rules, and if both claim you, apply the treaty tie-breaker. Identify where each type of income is sourced. Read the article that covers that income type, because it decides who taxes and at what maximum rate. Then claim the relief on the residence-country return, with proof of the foreign tax. Most of the tax people lose to double taxation is lost at the last step, not the first. See how double taxation is relieved.
