What makes physicians & surgeons different from an ordinary filing?
Physicians moving between systems carry a professional corporation or practice that does not travel with them: the entity remains taxable where it was resident, while the doctor becomes taxable where they now work. 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 doctor cost?
There is no single figure, and anyone who quotes one before reading your papers is guessing. What moves the price for a doctor is how many countries have a claim on the income, whether a professional corporation sits behind the practice, how many years are open, and whether treaty relief has to be built or simply claimed. We read what you send, decide the scope, and put the fee in writing before any work begins. It does not change afterwards unless the scope does, and a change of scope is something we agree with you first.
Do you charge separately for my professional corporation and personal return?
They are separate filings, so they are separately priced, but they are quoted together because they are one problem. The corporation remains taxable where it is resident even after you begin practising elsewhere, and what it pays you — salary, dividend, or a shareholder balance left outstanding — lands on your personal return in the country where you now live. Pricing them apart and preparing them apart is how the two ends stop matching. You receive one written quote showing each element, and you can instruct us on the corporate side alone if that is all you need.
Will my fee go up if you find unfiled years?
Not without your agreement. An unfiled year sits outside the scope you were quoted for, so we come back to you with what we have found, what filing it would involve, and a separate written price for it before touching it. You are free to leave it, though we will say plainly what that carries. Doctors reach us with unfiled years more often than most groups, usually because the professional corporation kept filing while the individual assumed that payroll deductions abroad settled everything. Finding those years yourself is a better position than having a revenue authority find them.
Can I get a price before sending my full practice records?
Yes. The quote is built from whatever you already hold — last year's returns from each country, the corporation's financial statements, a hospital or clinic contract, a payslip, the licensing correspondence that started the question. We read those, tell you what the engagement actually involves, and price it. Full practice records come later, and only for the parts of the file that need them. If what you send is not enough to scope the work honestly, we say so and name the document that would settle it, rather than quoting a number and revising it once you have committed.
Is treaty relief work quoted separately from the returns themselves?
It depends on how contested it is. Where relief follows from the facts and simply has to be claimed on the return, it is part of that return's price. Where the position has to be built — a professional corporation whose residence is in question, a partnership share both countries want to tax, a claim that will be examined — it becomes its own piece of work with its own written fee, because it is research and correspondence rather than form filling. We tell you which of the two your file is before you commit to anything.
Why is a locum doctor's return priced higher than a salaried one?
Because there are more characterisation questions inside it. A salaried hospital post produces one stream, withheld at source, reported in one place. Locum work produces several, often through different payers, sometimes in different countries, sometimes through your own corporation and sometimes in your own name — and each has to be characterised separately before anything can be allocated between countries. The price reflects the reading and the reconciling, not the typing. If your locum work is all within one country and all through one entity, say so when you send your papers and the quote will show it.
Is the sale of foreign property taxable where I live?
For a resident, yes — worldwide gains are taxable, and the gain is computed in your own currency, so the exchange rate at purchase and at sale changes the number even when the local-currency price did not move. The country where the property sits usually taxes it too, often with a withholding or clearance step before closing, and that tax becomes a credit. A principal residence relief may apply to a home abroad on the same terms as one at home. See principal residence and foreign property.
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.
