Non-resident with Canadian employment income — 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: payroll withholding applies to Canadian workdays, and a treaty may exempt the income where presence and remuneration stay within the article's limits.
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.
I flew to Canada for a short project — do I owe tax there?
Probably something is due, at least initially. Work physically performed in Canada is taxable in Canada regardless of who pays for it, where the contract was signed, or which bank account received the money. The starting position is therefore that your Canadian workdays carry Canadian tax, collected by payroll withholding. A treaty may exempt the income where your presence and your remuneration stay within the limits its employment article sets, but that exemption is not automatic — it has to be claimed, either in advance through a waiver or afterwards through a return.
My employer is not Canadian and pays me abroad — why is Canada involved?
Because the charge follows the place the work was done, not the place the employer sits or the currency the salary arrived in. A foreign employer with someone working Canadian days is inside the Canadian payroll rules for those days, which regularly surprises employers who have no Canadian entity and no Canadian bank account. The obligation is the employer's as well as yours: withholding on the Canadian workdays, and reporting of the remuneration attributable to them. Treaty relief, where it is available, is applied on top of that starting point rather than instead of it.
Can I be paid without Canadian tax being deducted?
Sometimes, by obtaining a waiver before the remuneration is paid. Where the treaty's employment article does exempt the income, a waiver tells the payer not to withhold, and the money arrives whole. Without it the payer must withhold even where you are ultimately exempt, and the exemption then has to be claimed back by filing a Canadian return after the year ends — a long wait for money that need never have left. The timing is the whole point: the waiver must be in hand before payment, not before filing.
Why was the same salary taxed in Canada and at home?
Because two countries can each have a claim on employment income, and they resolve it by treaty and by credit rather than by one of them standing aside automatically. Canada taxes the days worked on its soil; your country of residence generally taxes your worldwide employment income, including the days you worked in Canada. The double charge is meant to be relieved — either by the treaty exempting the Canadian days at source, or by your home return giving credit for the Canadian tax. Both routes need the Canadian position settled and documented first.
How do I prove which days I worked in Canada?
With a contemporaneous record, supported by evidence created for some other purpose. Calendars, travel bookings, boarding passes, hotel invoices, border records and expense claims are all more persuasive than a schedule written from memory after the fact. Keep a simple day log as the project runs and store the underlying documents alongside it. Day counts decide whether a treaty exemption applies and how much of your remuneration is attributable to Canada, so a reconstruction that cannot be evidenced is the weakest part of an otherwise sound position.
My treaty says I am exempt, so why was tax still withheld?
Because withholding and liability are separate things. The payer is obliged to deduct on Canadian workdays unless it holds authority not to, that authority being a waiver obtained before payment. An exemption you are entitled to does not, by itself, relieve the payer of its duty. So a claim that is perfectly good can still sit behind a year's withholding, recovered only when the return is filed and assessed. If the work is recurring, deal with the waiver for next time at the same moment you file for this one.
What is a dual-status alien?
Someone who is a US tax resident for part of a year and a non-resident for the rest of it — almost always the year of arrival or the year of departure. You file one return covering both periods, with worldwide income and ordinary deductions for the resident part and US-source income under the non-resident rules for the other. Several ordinary reliefs, including joint filing, are restricted for the year. See dual-status alien.
How would a foreign tax authority know I am resident there?
Mostly from information you or your bank already provided. Account-opening forms ask you to self-certify tax residence, and that certification is reported between authorities under the Common Reporting Standard or, for US accounts, under the FATCA framework. Beyond that: employer and payroll filings, property registries, immigration records and the tax filings of anyone who paid you. The realistic planning assumption is that the data arrives. See FATCA and information reporting.
