What makes postdocs & researchers different from an ordinary filing?
Fellowship and grant income is characterised differently from salary in most systems, and the student-or-trainee articles that exempt it run on a clock from arrival rather than from the start of the grant. 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.
Is my postdoc fellowship taxed as salary or as a grant?
It depends on how the payment is characterised, not on what the university calls it. A stipend paid through payroll looks like employment income to a withholding system, but the underlying award may be a fellowship or grant, which most systems treat under a separate heading with its own rules and its own treaty article. The practical consequence is that the wrong characterisation is usually applied by default at source, and it is corrected on the return rather than by the payroll office. We look at the award letter and the terms attached to the money before deciding which heading it belongs under.
Does the student and trainee treaty exemption run from arrival or from my grant start?
Where a treaty carries a student-or-trainee article, the exempt period generally runs on a clock that starts when you arrive in the country, not when the particular grant begins. That distinction catches people who arrived on one visa, spent time on something else, and then started the funded appointment. By the time the fellowship money begins, part of the clock has already run down. The first thing to establish in any file like this is the arrival date the article keys to, and what evidence supports it.
My third postdoc contract has started, is the exemption gone?
Very possibly. The exempt period under a student-or-trainee article is measured from arrival and runs continuously; consecutive short contracts do not each restart it, and a gap between appointments does not usually reset the clock either. What that means in practice is that the first contract may have been exempt, the second partly so, and the third fully taxable, while the payroll treatment stayed identical throughout. The result is an underpayment that surfaces later. We work out where the clock actually stands and file on that basis.
Do my days on a research visa count towards residency?
Some systems allow certain days to be excluded from a residency day count where the person is present under a specific category of visa and files a statement saying so. The exclusion is not automatic. It depends on the statement being filed for the year in question, and where nobody has ever filed it, the days count in full and the return that follows is prepared on the wrong residency basis. This is one of the most common gaps we find in a researcher’s file, and it usually goes back several years.
Can I claim back tax withheld on a stipend I was told was exempt?
If tax was withheld at source on income a treaty article exempts, the way to recover it is generally to file a return for that year claiming the treaty position and asking for the excess back. Withholding is applied by a payroll system that does not assess treaty eligibility; the return is where the claim is actually made. What decides the outcome is whether the exemption genuinely applied for that year, which turns on the arrival clock and the nature of the award. Call +1 (416) 619-0068 and we will look at the years still open.
I moved labs to another country mid-year, who taxes my fellowship?
Usually both countries have a claim on part of the year, and the question is how the year is split and which country gives relief for the other’s tax. Residency may change during the year, the award may be paid by an institution in one country while the work is done in another, and a student-or-trainee exemption may run in one and not the other. Each of those points is decided separately. We prepare the two returns together so the split adopted in one is the split reported in the other.
Can I avoid capital gains tax on a foreign property?
Not by virtue of it being foreign — there is no exemption for that, and the "keep it offshore" advice you may have read is how people acquire penalties rather than savings. What genuinely reduces the gain is ordinary and legitimate: principal residence relief where the property qualifies and the designation is made correctly, a properly built cost base including acquisition costs and capital improvements, the timing of the disposition, the treaty rules for real property, and credit for the foreign tax paid. See principal residence and foreign property.
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.
