What makes management consultants different from an ordinary filing?
Consultants furnishing services in a country for an extended period can create a service permanent establishment for their firm, and several treaties — India's among them — apply that test at a low threshold. 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.
What determines the fee for a consultant's engagement?
Scope is driven by how many jurisdictions your work actually touched over the year, how many client engagements need to be separated out, and whether any equity or partnership income adds a layer of reconciliation. A consultant who worked one contract in one host country is a simpler scope than one who moved through several client sites over the year. We ask about your assignment pattern before quoting, rather than pricing every cross-border return the same way.
Does a heavier travel schedule change what I'll be quoted?
Yes, because each additional country you worked in over the year generally means another jurisdiction's rules to apply, another set of source documents to reconcile, and sometimes another local filing. A consultant who split the year between two client countries takes more work to file correctly than one who stayed in a single location, and the quote reflects that difference rather than treating every consulting file as the same size.
Do you agree on the fee before starting the engagement?
Yes. We review your assignment details and agree the fee in writing before any work begins, so there is no surprise once the return is underway. If something changes mid-engagement — an additional country gets added to your work pattern, for example — we discuss the change and adjust the scope together before proceeding, rather than changing it unilaterally afterward.
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.
How does the treaty tie-breaker work when both countries say I am resident?
As a sequence, stopping at the first test that gives an answer: where you have a permanent home available; if in both or neither, where your centre of vital interests is; then habitual abode; then nationality; and if all of those tie, the two tax authorities decide by agreement. It is evidential rather than elective — you do not choose your treaty residence, you demonstrate it, which makes the record of homes, family and time the substance of the claim. See tie-breaking dual residency.
