Budget-friendly IT contractors: what you owe in each country

For it contractors: the cross-border filings, the treaty relief and the disclosures, handled end to end on a written fixed fee. Ask us about budget-friendly IT contractors: what you owe in each country: call the 24-hour helpline on +1 (416) 619-0068, or request a written fixed quote today.

  • 15+Years of cross-border experience
  • 18,000+Clients served
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  • 4Global offices — India, USA, Canada & UAE

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First we read your documents, then you get the price in writing, and only then does the work begin.

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  • Offices in India, the USA, Canada and the UAE
  • 24-hour helpline: +1 (416) 619-0068
  • Fixed fee agreed before work starts
In short

An independent IT contractor abroad is running a business, which raises the permanent-establishment question about the contractor's own company and, in some systems, the personal-services-business rules that deny it ordinary treatment.

Further down: the governing rule, the first-call questions, two completed files with figures, the way the work runs, and where the fee is published.

The rule that applies to this group and not the one next to it

An independent IT contractor abroad is running a business, which raises the permanent-establishment question about the contractor's own company and, in some systems, the personal-services-business rules that deny it ordinary treatment.

The rule underneath it looks like this. The general rules are the same for everyone; the provision that changes the answer is not. That is why a general adviser applies the default and stops, and why the relief written for this group goes unclaimed year after year.

Two of the firm’s advisers and the team in the open-plan office

Transparent, fixed pricing for it contractors what you owe in each country

Working out what an IT contractor owes in each country is priced by how many of them are involved and what sits in each: the country the clients are in, the country of residence, and the country the invoicing company was formed in can be three different answers on one file.

Individual tax filing

From $349

fixed, quoted before work starts

Individual returns where salary, investments or property sit outside the country of residence, prepared so relief is claimed once and in the right place.
See the fee schedule

Corporate cross-border filing

From $999

fixed, quoted before work starts

The corporate return and its cross-border schedules as one engagement, so the group files a consistent position everywhere.
See the fee schedule

Non-resident & departure filings

From $349

fixed, quoted before work starts

The filings that follow a move: the departure year, the arrival year, and the income that keeps arriving from the country behind you.
See the fee schedule

Payroll & mobility setup

From $999

fixed, quoted before work starts

Employer registration and withholding for staff on assignment, arranged before the first pay run rather than corrected after it.
See the fee schedule

Transfer pricing documentation

From $2,500

fixed, quoted before work starts

Local file, master file and benchmarking for groups trading across borders, documented to the standard the authority expects.
See the fee schedule

Foreign asset & information reporting

From $349

fixed, quoted before work starts

The reporting obligations that attach to owning something abroad, worked out from your holdings rather than from the tax return alone.
See the fee schedule

Catch-up & voluntary disclosure

From $349

fixed, quoted before work starts

Voluntary disclosure handled as one piece of work, from the review of what is outstanding to the returns that close it.
See the fee schedule

Estate & trust filing

From $799

fixed, quoted before work starts

The returns an estate or trust owes on each side, prepared together so relief for tax paid abroad is actually claimed.
See the fee schedule

All published fees on one page — the whole fee schedule in one place, with no from-to bands to decode.

Three things we hear on the first call

  • My clients are in one country, I live in another, and I invoice through a company in a third.
  • One client insists on withholding tax I should not be paying.
  • My own corporation may be a personal services business, which nobody warned me about.

None of those is unusual and none of them is a reason to be embarrassed. They are the normal consequence of a system that asks an individual to reconcile two sets of rules that were never designed to fit together. See also global mobility calendar & day tracking.

The arithmetic, worked through

Worked through with figures, the mechanism looks like this.

Equity that vests after the move

A grant worth C$54,000 at vest, over a 43-month vesting period, 19 months of which were worked in the first country and 24 in the second.

Equity that vests after the move
ItemAmount
Value at vestC$54,000
Vesting period (months)43
Months worked in the first country19
Months worked in the second country24
Apportioned to the first countryC$23,860
Apportioned to the second countryC$30,140

Two countries tax slices of one gain: C$23,860 and C$30,140 on this apportionment. Where their taxing points differ — grant, vest, exercise or sale — the credit can arrive in a year the other country is no longer taxing, which is the mismatch to plan around. The interesting question is where your own figures fall relative to that, which is a computation rather than an opinion.

These amounts illustrate the mechanism only. The rates and thresholds are assumptions of the example, not your numbers: each is checked against the issuing authority for your specific tax year before any return is filed.

The numbers, end to end

This is what the rule produces when you put figures through it.

Credit relief on one stream of income

Take C$93,000 of income taxed in both countries. Assume the other country charged 20% on it and the home country would charge 39% on the same amount.

Credit relief on one stream of income
ItemAmount
Income taxed in both countriesC$93,000
Tax paid abroad (assumed 20%)C$18,600
Home tax on the same income (assumed 39%)C$36,270
Credit available (lesser of the two)C$18,600
Home tax still payableC$17,670

The credit absorbs C$18,600 and leaves C$17,670 payable at home, because the home rate on this income is the higher of the two. The balance is real cash and it is due on the home timetable, which is why instalments get raised in the first meeting. The shape of that result holds; the size of it depends entirely on your own numbers and dates.

Treat these numbers as a worked example rather than advice — they exist to make the mechanics visible, and the rates and thresholds are assumed for the illustration. For a real filing, we verify each figure with the authority that publishes it, for your year.

What working with us looks like

  1. 1We start with the chronology: dates, countries, and what has already been filed
  2. 2You get the scope and the fee in writing before we touch anything
  3. 3The work is prepared and reviewed by a named person, not a queue
  4. 4Nothing is filed until you have read it
  • Nothing is filed until you have read it.
  • A change of scope is re-quoted before the work, never added to the invoice after it.
  • Consultations scheduled to your working day rather than ours.

How to get this moving

Describe the situation in your own words; translating it into forms is our job.

Reviewed against current guidance for the 2025 and 2026 filing seasons by Udit Gupta, Cross-Border Tax Expert, Legal Quotient Consultants. General information, not advice for your circumstances — call our 24-hour helpline to discuss your own position.

International tax accountant, in practice

Most readers of this page are looking for international tax accountant. What follows sets out how it works for IT contractors: what you owe in each country: who is caught by it, what has to be filed, and what the work costs, agreed before it begins.

The four phases of the work

  1. Start with a conversation about the facts

    Dates, residence, where the income arose. Fifteen minutes is usually enough to know what applies.

  2. Scope and price, both written down

    You get the scope and the fixed fee together, so there is no question later about what was included.

  3. Prepared by one team, reviewed by a named practitioner

    The same people see both sides of the file, and the reviewer signs their name to it.

  4. Filed, then followed through

    Submission is not the end of the engagement — the queries that arrive afterwards are part of it.

What you are actually buying with it contractors what you owe in each country

Factor Legal Quotient Hourly billing model
Pricing A fixed fee, agreed in writing before work starts Hourly, billed as incurred
Experience 15+ years of cross-border work, 18,000+ clients Varies by file
Both sides of the border Prepared together by one team, so relief is claimed exactly once One country at a time, reconciled later
Who reviews it A named practitioner, published on the page Whoever the queue reaches
Where the work happens Our offices in India, the USA, Canada and the UAE Whichever single office you can travel to

Four terms worth pinning down

Reassessment period
The window during which a tax authority may reassess a year. It differs by taxpayer type and can be extended in defined circumstances.
Interquartile range
The middle half of a set of comparable results, commonly used as the acceptable range in a transfer-pricing analysis.
OIDAR
India's regime for online information and database access services, taxing a foreign supplier on sales to Indian consumers.
Lower deduction certificate
An Indian certificate authorising deduction at a reduced rate, applied for before the payment and the practical answer to a deduction computed on gross consideration.

Fixed fees around it contractors what you owe in each country

The split between them is settled by evidence, and gathering it is part of the cost: days spent in each place, where the contracts were performed, where the company is actually managed. Contractors who have kept that record are quicker to price than those rebuilding it from invoices and travel history.

Corporate cross-border filing

$999fixed, before work starts

Covers: Corporate compliance for a group that trades or holds assets in more than one country, prepared on both sides together.

See this fee page

Non-resident & departure filings

$349fixed, before work starts

Covers: The filings that follow a move: the departure year, the arrival year, and the income that keeps arriving from the country behind you.

See this fee page

Why clients bring it contractors what you owe in each country to us

The quote comes from your documents

Nothing is priced from a phone call. We read what you have first, then the fee is set — so the scope and the number are agreed on the same evidence.

The order of filing is planned, not improvised

Which return goes first decides whether relief can be claimed at all. That sequence is worked out before anything is submitted.

Every figure on a page is traceable

Where a rate or a threshold appears in our writing it names the tax year it belongs to. Where it could not be confirmed, the page describes the mechanism and quotes no number.

You deal with the person who did the work

The practitioner who prepared and reviewed your file is the one who answers the question about it.

Two of the firm’s advisers at the glass desk in the Delhi office

How the engagement runs, phase by phase

Step 1

The opening call

A call to our 24-hour helpline to establish the facts and the dates that matter

Step 2

Scope in writing

A written scope and a fixed fee before any work starts

Step 3

Prepared and checked

Preparation, then a named reviewer's sign-off before anything is filed

Step 4

Filed, then supported

Filing, then payment — after you have seen and approved the result

Two of the firm’s advisers at a desk in the Delhi office

From first document to filed return

  • Step 1: Send what you already have – Slips, statements, prior returns — in any order. We list what is still needed after reading them.
  • Step 2: A fee agreed in writing – Quoted from those documents, before the work starts, and it does not move once you accept it.
  • Step 3: Each side drafted against the other – The returns are built together rather than in sequence, so relief is claimed once and in the right country.
  • Step 4: You approve before it is filed – The finished return comes to you first. Nothing is submitted on your behalf unseen.

Quoted up front, in writing.

Contact Us 24-hour helpline +1 (416) 619-0068

Keep reading, sideways

Every link below is a full page of its own — the same depth as this one, for its own subject.

Services these clients use most

Interest on NRO deposits — withholding and refunds Everything on interest on NRO deposits — withholding and refunds, at the same depth as this page.
Form T3 — trust return with foreign income T3 trust return foreign — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
TP audit defence file The full guide to tp audit defence file, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
Corporate emigration from Canada Its own page: corporate emigration from Canada — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
Returning to Canada after years abroad Everything on returning to Canada after years abroad tax, at the same depth as this page.
Alter ego & joint partner trusts Alter ego & joint partner trusts — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
Holding company across borders The full guide to holding company across borders, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
Terminal return & clearance certificate Its own page: terminal return & clearance certificate — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
IRS streamlined domestic offshore Everything on IRS streamlined domestic offshore, at the same depth as this page.

Who we help

Tax for travel nurses (us contracts) Everything on travel nurses (US contracts) tax, at the same depth as this page.
Non-resident landlords — what we charge Non-resident landlords what we charge — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
IT contractors — your filing calendar The full guide to it contractors your filing calendar, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
Day traders — your filing calendar Its own page: day traders your filing calendar — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
Medical & dental practices cross-border tax Everything on medical & dental practices cross border tax, at the same depth as this page.
Tax for physicians & surgeons Physicians & surgeons tax — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
Tax for youtubers The full guide to youtubers tax, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
Professors & lecturers — your filing calendar Its own page: professors & lecturers your filing calendar — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
Tax for defence contractors Everything on defence contractors tax, at the same depth as this page.

Where our clients live and work

Colombia tax for expats — country guide Everything on Colombia tax for expats, at the same depth as this page.
US–UAE tax corridor US UAE tax — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
Canada–Australia tax corridor The full guide to Canada Australia tax, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
Moldova tax for expats — country guide Its own page: moldova tax for expats — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
Nigeria tax for expats — country guide Everything on Nigeria tax for expats, at the same depth as this page.
Lithuania tax for expats — country guide Lithuania tax for expats — the guide, the FAQ and the fixed fee.
Brazil tax for expats — country guide The full guide to Brazil tax for expats, with the fee fixed before any work starts.
Morocco tax for expats — country guide Its own page: morocco tax for expats — mechanism, deadlines and published fees.
China tax for expats — country guide Everything on China tax for expats, at the same depth as this page.

The people on your file

Five named practitioners, each with the part of a cross-border file they carry. Every page on this site says who reviewed it, and the reviewer is one of these people rather than an unnamed team.

Udit Gupta

Udit Gupta

Cross-Border Tax Expert

CA (ICAI), In-Depth Tax Trained

Reviews and signs off the practice's cross-border positions, and carries final responsibility for the treaty analysis on every file that leaves the office.

Abhinav Gupta

Abhinav Gupta

Canada Tax / International Tax

Canada Tax, International Tax, Cross-Border Tax, Transfer Pricing

Canadian returns with foreign income, non-resident filings, and the transfer-pricing documentation that runs alongside intercompany work.

Raghav Gupta

Raghav Gupta

International Tax

International Tax, Transfer Pricing Specialist

Benchmarking, method selection and the local-file and master-file sets that support a group's pricing policy under examination.

Anmol Mittal

Anmol Mittal

Canada and US tax

CPA Canada, CPA USA, CA (ICAI)

Files that have to be right on both sides of the border at once — dual filings, streamlined catch-ups, and the foreign tax credit reconciliation between them.

Vinayak Indolia

Vinayak Indolia

CFO advisory

CPA, CA. Fractional CFO and Senior Advisory Specialist

Groups that need the tax position and the finance function to agree: structure reviews, intercompany policy, and the reporting a board can act on.

Meet the whole team

Cross-border situations we are engaged for

Case study 1

A US Citizen Settled in India, Filing on Both Sides

Residence in India and citizenship in the United States produce two annual returns for one income. The order decides the credit, and the Indian financial year and the US calendar year have to be reconciled before either is prepared.

Read how this one runs
Case study 2

Social Security Contributions Owed in Two Countries at Once

A totalization agreement assigns contributions to one system and exempts the other, but only against a certificate obtained in advance. Without it both sets come out of the same salary and neither is straightforward to recover.

Read how this one runs
Case study 3

Canadian Pension Paid Abroad and Taxed at the Flat Rate

Pension and annuity payments to a non-resident carry a flat withholding that often exceeds what a return would produce. The alternative filing is elective, and whether it helps depends on the total income for the year rather than on the payment alone.

Read how this one runs
Case study 4

First Canadian Return After Arriving Mid-Year

The arrival date splits the year and sets the cost base of what you brought with you. Getting that date and those values right is what determines whether a later sale is taxed on the whole gain or only on the part that accrued after landing.

Read how this one runs
Case study 5

A US Filer Married to Someone Outside the System

Electing to treat a non-resident spouse as a US filer buys joint rates and brings that spouse's worldwide income and foreign accounts into the return. The election is easy to make and hard to revoke, so both positions are modelled first.

Read how this one runs
Case study 6

An NRI Selling Indian Property With Tax Withheld on the Price

Withholding on a sale by a non-resident is applied to the sale value rather than to the gain, so it routinely exceeds the tax due. A lower-deduction certificate obtained before completion avoids locking the difference up until a return is assessed.

Read how this one runs
Case study 7

Residency Changed Mid-Year and Both Returns Assumed a Full One

A move part-way through a year produces two part-year positions, not two full ones. The engagement establishes the date residence actually changed, allocates income either side of it, and amends whichever return was filed on the wrong footing.

Read how this one runs
Case study 8

A Non-Resident Estate Holding US Assets

US situs assets sit inside the US estate tax net regardless of where the owner lived, and the exemption available to a non-resident is not the resident one. The file establishes situs asset by asset before any relief is claimed.

Read how this one runs

All case studies — every published engagement in one place.

Core International & Cross-Border Tax Services

International Tax Planning & Advisory

Strategy and compliance for income, assets and families spread across borders.

One coordinating team: filings on every side of the border are sequenced so treaty relief and foreign tax credits are claimed once — and in the right country.

U.S. & Cross-Border Tax Returns

Dual filers: U.S. citizens in Canada and Canadians with U.S. income run two parallel systems — we prepare both, in the right order, every year.

Expat & Emigration Tax

The move year is its own project: the elections and valuations filed that year decide the next decade of both countries’ returns.

Non-Resident Canadian Tax

Default withholding is 25% of gross: elective returns routinely turn over-withheld rent and pensions into refunds.

Transfer Pricing & BEPS

Documentation prepared with the return is the cheapest insurance in international tax; reconstructing it during an audit is the most expensive.

Cross-Border Estates & Trusts

Wills drafted for one country routinely misfire in the other — deemed disposition here, estate tax there, credits in between.

Cross-Border Corporate Tax

Expansion raises the same four questions every time — entity, PE, repatriation, payroll. We answer them before the tax authorities do.

India Tax for NRIs & Returning Residents

The deduction is taken on the sale price, not the gain — which is why an NRI property sale strands cash unless the certificate is applied for before closing.

Canadian Tax with a Foreign Element

Residency is decided on facts, not on a form — and the year you arrive or leave is the one where the largest amounts turn on the smallest details.

UAE Tax for Expats & Their Home Country

A zero-tax country is only half the answer — the question that decides the bill is whether the country you came from still treats you as resident.

Industries & Client Types We Serve Worldwide

Global E-commerce & Marketplaces
Technology & SaaS
Professional Services Firms
Cross-Border Real Estate
Importers, Exporters & Manufacturers
Athletes, Artists & Entertainers
Remote Workers & Digital Nomads
Investment Funds & Holding Companies

Global E-commerce & Marketplaces

Cross-border tax for sellers shipping worldwide: marketplace withholding, foreign registrations and inventory nexus handled before they become audits.

Marketplaces withhold, remit and report in their own right, so the tax position of a single sale is decided by where the stock sat, where the buyer was and which platform collected — not by where the company is registered. We reconcile the platform's own filings against the returns before either is submitted.

  • Foreign VAT / GST / sales tax registrations
  • Marketplace withholding reviews
  • Inventory nexus & PE analysis
  • Multi-currency books reconciled
Explore E-commerce & Marketplaces

Technology & SaaS

  • Cross-border revenue sourcing & withholding
  • IP structuring with real substance
  • Equity for cross-border teams
  • U.S. expansion: entity & PE setup
Explore Technology & SaaS

Importers, Exporters & Manufacturers

  • Transfer pricing documentation (s.247)
  • Customs value vs transfer price
  • Foreign affiliate reporting (T1134)
  • Country-by-country reporting
Explore Trade & Manufacturing

Athletes, Artists & Entertainers

  • Reg 105 & U.S. CWA agreements
  • Multi-state & country calendars
  • Touring income allocation
  • Royalty & image-rights withholding
Explore Athletes & Entertainers

Remote Workers & Digital Nomads

  • Residency analysis before moving
  • Employer payroll exposure
  • Totalization & social security
  • Foreign tax credits
Explore Remote Workers

Investment Funds & Holding Companies

  • Treaty access & PPT reviews
  • FAPI & surplus computations
  • Withholding-efficient routing
  • Governance & substance
Explore Funds & Holdcos

IT contractors — what you owe in each country — questions we are asked

What makes it contractors different from an ordinary filing?

An independent IT contractor abroad is running a business, which raises the permanent-establishment question about the contractor's own company and, in some systems, the personal-services-business rules that deny it ordinary treatment. An ordinary preparer applies the general rule and stops there, which is how the relief in the specific provision goes unclaimed.

Can you work with my existing accountant?

That is how most of these engagements run. They keep the domestic file, we take the cross-border piece, and the boundary is agreed in writing so nothing is done twice or missed.

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.

How much foreign income is tax-free in Canada?

None of it is tax-free for being foreign. A Canadian resident is taxed on worldwide income, so foreign salary, interest, dividends, rent and gains all go on the return, converted to Canadian dollars. What genuinely reduces the bill is the basic personal amount, the credit for foreign tax already paid, and any treaty article that exempts a specific type of income. The reporting thresholds people have in mind — the foreign property statement, for one — govern reporting, not exemption. See the foreign tax credit.

What happens after the filing?

You get the filed copies and a note of anything due next year, with the dates. Where an authority responds, that correspondence comes to us if the authorisation is in place.

How do you handle my documents?

Through an access-controlled portal rather than email attachments, with retention limits. Tax records are the most sensitive papers most people own and they are treated that way.

Meet us in person at any of our offices

Let us take it contractors filing off your desk

We scope it on a call, quote it in writing, and you see the result before anything is filed.

  • A named reviewer signs off every filing
  • Your existing accountant keeps the domestic file
  • 24-hour helpline, +1 (416) 619-0068

Our practitioners are alumni of leading accounting and tax institutions

Where our partners studied — CPA Canada (In-Depth Tax Program), AICPA, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.

Request a Quote +1 (416) 619-0068