Digital nomad with no fixed residence — 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: residence ends when ties end, and treaty tie-breakers only operate between two countries that both claim you.
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.
If I live in no country, do I pay tax anywhere?
Almost always yes, and usually to the last country you were clearly resident in. Residence does not end because you stopped being present. It ends when the ties that created it end, and until something displaces it the old residence persists, so a year of continuous travel is generally taxed there rather than nowhere. Treating statelessness as a plan tends to produce the worst version of both systems: the old country still has its claim, and you have none of the treaty protection a genuine new residence would give you against a second one.
How long do I have to be away to stop being a Canadian resident?
There is no period of absence that ends it by itself. Residence turns on ties, on where your home is, where your family is, and where the ordinary business of your life happens, so a person can be away for years and remain resident, or leave within a month and cease to be. Day counts matter in some countries as a way of creating residence there, not as a way of ending Canadian residence. The question to work through is which ties still exist, which have genuinely ended, and what evidence you hold for each.
Can a treaty help me if only one country claims me?
No, and this is the part that surprises people. A tie-breaker is a mechanism for allocating residence between two countries that both assert a claim over the same period. If nobody else claims you, there is nothing to break and the domestic rules of the country that does claim you simply apply. That is why continuous travel is a weak position rather than a strong one. The protection people expect from a treaty only becomes available once you are genuinely resident somewhere else and that country treats you as such.
My bank wants me to certify my tax residence, what do I say?
Whatever is true, which means working it out first rather than at the keyboard. These certifications are exchanged between tax administrations, so an answer given casually becomes a statement on record that later filings have to be consistent with. The two common errors are naming the country you happen to be in that month, and naming none at all. Neither is likely to match the analysis. Establish where you are resident under the rules, hold the evidence for it, and answer on that basis. If the answer is the country you left, that is worth knowing now.
Does keeping my house back home make me still resident?
It is one of the heaviest ties, and what matters is the arrangement rather than the address. A home kept empty and available to you weighs differently from one let on ordinary commercial terms to an unrelated tenant for a fixed period. Furniture in storage, a lease you can end at short notice, a room kept in a family property: these sit in between and are weighed as facts. No single tie decides the question, but a home that is still yours to return to is the one that most often keeps residence alive.
I have not filed since I started travelling, what happens now?
The years do not go away, and the position is usually easier to fix than it feels. The first step is establishing whether residence actually ended and when, because that determines what should have been filed rather than whether anything should have been. Where residence continued, the returns are ordinary resident returns that happen to be late. Where it ended, there is a departure year and a different set of obligations after it. Work out which of those is true before filing anything, because filing on the wrong assumption creates a record you then have to unwind.
How do I file US taxes when I am married to a foreign spouse?
Three routes. File separately, listing your spouse as a non-resident alien — which needs either an identification number for them or the accepted notation where none exists. Elect to treat them as a resident and file jointly, gaining the joint brackets and accepting their worldwide income. Or file as head of household if you have a qualifying dependant, which some Americans abroad can do while married. The right answer turns on their income and their assets. See a US person with a non-resident spouse.
What is a foreign tax credit?
A credit against your home-country tax for income tax you already paid to another country on the same income, so the same amount is not taxed twice at full rates. It is capped: you cannot credit more than your home country would have charged on that income, which is why a higher foreign rate leaves an unused balance rather than a refund. In the US it is claimed on Form 1116, in Canada on the T2209 and T2036, in India on Form 67. See Form 1116.
