What makes offshore vessel crew different from an ordinary filing?
Offshore installations frequently sit outside the ships-and-aircraft article and inside special offshore-activities provisions or the ordinary business-profits rules, so the answer for a supply vessel is not the answer for a rig. 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.
Do offshore rig workers get the same treaty treatment as ships' crew?
Often not. The article that deals with ships and aircraft is written around international transport, and an installation fixed over a field is not engaged in transport at all. Many treaties therefore push offshore activity into a separate offshore-activities article, and where no such article exists the ordinary business-profits and employment rules apply instead. The practical consequence is that two people working the same field, one on a supply vessel and one on the rig it serves, can fall under different articles and owe tax in different places. We read the specific treaty and the contract before deciding which one applies to you.
My crewing agency deducts no tax at all, is that correct?
It may be, and it may simply mean nobody has looked. An agency in a third country often has no obligation to operate host-country payroll, and its silence is not a ruling that no tax is due. Where the work is performed on an installation in another country's waters, that country may still tax the earnings and expect a return from you directly. The country you remain resident in usually taxes the same earnings as well, subject to whatever relief the treaty gives. A nil deduction is a reason to check the position, not evidence that there is nothing to file.
Half my roster is transit and half on the platform, does that matter?
It can decide the whole answer. Time spent moving to and from a field, time aboard a vessel under way and time on the installation itself may sit under different articles, because the offshore provisions are generally written around activity connected with the seabed rather than around your job title. A roster that looks like one continuous tour to your employer may therefore be two or three distinct periods for tax purposes. We ask for the movement record, the vessel's log, the crew change dates and the field name, and build the split from documents rather than from the shift pattern printed on your contract.
Which country do I file in if I work in foreign waters?
Usually both, in sequence. The country whose waters or continental shelf the work relates to may tax the earnings arising there; the country you are resident in taxes your worldwide income and then gives relief for what the other took. Which of the two is settled first matters, because relief in the second return is calculated from the liability assessed in the first. Where residency itself is unclear, and rotations make it unclear often, the treaty tie-breaker decides, and that has to be resolved before either return is prepared. We fix residency first, then file in the order that lets the relief actually land.
I have three years of unfiled offshore returns, what now?
Bring them in together rather than one at a time. Filing a single year in isolation sets a position on residency and on where the earnings arose that the other years then have to follow, and if that position is wrong you have repeated the error twice more. We reconstruct the rotations across the whole period first, settle the residency question once, and prepare the years as one set so that they agree with each other. Where a voluntary disclosure route is open in either country, going in through it is normally better than waiting to be asked.
Does it matter whether I am on a supply vessel or a rig?
Yes, more than most crew expect. A supply vessel is a ship, and depending on the treaty its crew may be dealt with under the article covering people working aboard ships in international traffic. A drilling or production installation is not a ship in that sense, and the crew on it are commonly dealt with under an offshore-activities article or under the general employment rules. Crew who move between the two during a year can have both treatments in one tax year. The contract, the unit's classification and where it was working are what we look at, not the employer's payroll code.
Which countries have a tax treaty with the United States?
Around sixty, including Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Australia and most of western Europe — but the list matters less than the terms, because each treaty caps rates and allocates income differently. Two countries with treaties can produce opposite answers on the same pension or the same royalty. What decides your position is the specific article covering your income type. See our country guides.
Do I pay tax when I inherit property abroad?
The inheritance itself is often not income to you, but three other things can create tax: the estate may owe tax where the deceased or the property was situated, some countries tax the recipient directly, and the gain from the date you inherit to the date you sell is yours. Reporting obligations can also attach to holding the asset. See inheriting property abroad.
