What makes nurses working abroad different from an ordinary filing?
Nursing contracts abroad are usually genuine employment in the host country, which means the host taxes from the first day worked while the home country may still tax the whole year — and licensing and agency structures decide who the employer actually is. 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 much does a cross-border tax return for a nurse cost?
We do not price from a menu, because two nurses off the same ward can have very different files: a single placement or several, one host country or two, current years or a back-filing exercise, benefits paid by the agency or plain salary. What we do is read the documents you already hold, work out exactly which returns and schedules each year needs, and put a fixed fee for that scope in writing before any work starts. The price does not move because the file took longer than we expected. If the scope itself changes, because a year nobody knew about appears, we price that addition in writing too.
What do you need from me before you can quote?
Whatever you have is enough to begin: the contract or offer letter, the payslips or the host annual statement, anything the agency sent about accommodation or flights, and the last return you filed at home. If something is missing we will tell you how to get it rather than guess at it. From those we can see which countries are involved, whether residence is in question, how many years are open, and whether anything already filed needs correcting. The quote follows in writing, with the scope described so you can see what is included and what is not.
Do I pay separately for the host return and the home return?
The quote sets out each return separately and then the total, so you can see what each part of the work costs. They are priced as one engagement because they are one piece of work: the host position has to be settled before the home relief can be computed, and preparing them in the wrong order is how relief gets missed. If you already have a preparer in one country we can work to their output instead and price only our half, provided their figures are final rather than provisional.
Will the fee go up if my agency paperwork is a mess?
No. The fee is agreed in writing before the work starts and it is set by the scope, not by the hours the file turns out to take. Untangling agency statements, chasing a payroll breakdown and reconciling net pay back to gross is ordinary work on a nursing file, and it is in the price. What does change a fee is a change of scope: another year, another country, a correction to a return prepared elsewhere. When one of those appears we tell you, price it in writing, and wait for you to agree before doing it.
Is there a charge for the years I never filed?
Each year is scoped and priced, and we tell you before you commit which of them actually need a return. That assessment often reduces the work rather than adding to it: where residence had genuinely ended, several years may need nothing at all, and there is no sense paying for returns that should not be filed. Where a correction route is involved, the fee covers the preparation and the covering submission that goes with it. You see the full set of years and the total in writing first, and you decide how much of it to instruct.
What happens if the tax authority asks questions after you file?
Routine follow-up on a return we prepared, such as a query about a figure or a request for the host assessment behind a relief claim, is part of the engagement and we answer it. A full examination, or a dispute that goes beyond confirming what we filed, is separate work; we scope and price it in writing at the time, the same way as the original return. We keep the working papers and the memorandum behind every position we take, which is what makes answering a query quick rather than a reconstruction from scratch.
Does my foreign spouse have to pay US tax?
Not unless something connects them to the US system: they are a citizen or green card holder, they meet the substantial presence test, they have US-source income, or you elect to treat them as a US resident so you can file jointly. That election is the one people make without weighing it, because it reaches their foreign salary, their foreign investments and their foreign accounts, not just their name on the form. See a US person with a non-resident spouse.
Is foreign pension income taxable in Canada?
Yes. A Canadian resident reports foreign pension income in Canadian dollars like any other income, and foreign tax withheld on it becomes a credit rather than a reduction of the amount reported. Where a treaty exempts part or all of it — some social security pensions are treated this way — the relief is claimed as a deduction on the return, not by leaving the pension off. Omitting it and claiming it was exempt are two very different filing positions. See the pensions and annuities article.
