How to avoid double taxation — 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: three mechanisms do the work: a treaty article that gives one country the exclusive right to tax, a credit for tax paid to the other country, or an exemption.
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.
Which return should I file first if two countries tax me?
That order has to be decided before either return is drafted, because one of them almost always depends on the other. Where the treaty gives one country the primary or exclusive right to tax an item of income, that country's return establishes the figure, and the other country's return either exempts the income or gives credit for the tax paid. Prepare them the other way round and you are guessing at a number you will later have to amend. Where two advisers in two countries are each waiting for the other, nothing gets filed at all, which is the more common failure.
Is a foreign tax credit the same as a treaty exemption?
No, and treating them as interchangeable is how relief goes unclaimed. Three different mechanisms do this work. An article may give one country the exclusive right to tax an item, in which case the other should not be taxing it at all. An exemption removes the income from the home country's charge. A credit leaves the income taxable at home but reduces the tax by what the other country properly charged. They produce different answers, and which one applies depends on the type of income, not on which is easiest to claim on the form.
I paid tax in both countries — can I just claim a credit at home?
Only if the other country was entitled to charge the tax in the first place. A credit relieves tax the treaty allowed the source country to impose. Where the treaty gave that country no taxing right over the income, or limited it to a lower rate, the excess is not creditable, and claiming it simply moves the problem: the home country disallows it and the double tax remains. The correct route there is a refund claim in the source country. Establishing which of those two situations you are in is the first piece of work, not the last.
Why was my foreign tax credit reduced or denied?
The usual reasons are structural rather than clerical. The credit is generally limited to the home country's own tax on that same income, so where the source country taxed more heavily the excess has nowhere to go. It can also be denied where the source country charged more than the treaty entitled it to charge, because a credit does not cure an over-collection abroad. And it can fail where the income has been described differently in the two returns, so the two administrations are not looking at the same item. Each of those has a different fix.
Does having a tax treaty mean I will not be taxed twice?
A treaty makes relief available; it does not apply itself. Relief has to be claimed, in the right country, in the right form, within that country's time limits, and supported by evidence that is usually about residence and about the character of the income. A treaty sitting in the background while both returns are filed on domestic rules produces double taxation just as reliably as no treaty at all. That is why the planning question is not whether a treaty exists between the two countries, but which of its mechanisms applies to each item of income you have.
Which types of income get an exemption rather than a credit?
It varies by treaty and by income type, which is exactly why the mapping has to be done item by item before anything is filed. Employment income, pensions, dividends, interest, royalties, business profits, government service and capital gains are dealt with under separate articles, and those articles do not all use the same relief mechanism. A single taxpayer with four income types can easily need three different treatments in one tax year. Working from how last year's return was prepared, or from how a colleague in the same situation was treated, is where the error usually enters.
What is a double tax treaty and what does it actually do?
It is an agreement between two countries that divides up the right to tax. Article by article it decides which country taxes employment income, dividends, interest, royalties, pensions, property and business profits — and where both may tax, it caps what the source country can withhold and tells the other to give credit. It also breaks residence ties and opens a government-to-government channel for disputes. What it never does is apply itself: a treaty position is claimed. See our treaty work.
Do I have to file in both countries?
Frequently yes, and the two filings do different jobs. The country where the income arises taxes it at source; the country where you are resident taxes your worldwide income and then gives credit for the tax already paid. Filing only one side is what leaves relief unclaimed — the credit has to be asked for on a return. We prepare both sides so the numbers agree. See dual filing.
