What makes dev & design agencies different from an ordinary filing?
An agency with staff or long-term contractors in a client's country risks creating a taxable presence there, and the client's withholding on the agency fee is a separate exposure again. 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.
Why does our biggest client withhold tax from our invoices?
Because many countries require a payer to withhold on fees for services sourced there, whether or not the supplier has any presence in the country. The withholding is applied to the invoice value, not to your margin, so on a project with subcontractor costs or contractor pay inside it the sum held back can exceed the profit on the work. The client is not choosing to do this and usually cannot stop unilaterally. What can change the rate is a treaty claim, made with the documentation the payer's country requires, before the invoice is paid. Doing it afterwards means recovering rather than preventing, which takes longer.
Can we get back the tax a foreign client has already withheld?
There are two routes and they are not equivalent. The first is relief at home: the tax withheld abroad is credited against your own liability on the same income, which works if you have enough tax at home to absorb it and the right evidence of what was withheld. The second is a refund claim in the client's country, where the withholding exceeded what the treaty permits. That route has its own deadlines and usually requires a certificate of residence for the year concerned. Which is open to you depends on your own tax position, so we establish that before promising a recovery.
Does having a developer in another country make us taxable there?
It might, and the test is not about headcount. What generally matters is whether there is a fixed place in that country through which your business is carried on, or a person there habitually playing the principal role leading to the conclusion of contracts on your behalf. A developer writing code from their own home may be neither. A person who sells, negotiates or signs in that country is a different matter, as is an office you pay for. The answer turns on what the people actually do, which is why we ask for job descriptions and contracts rather than an org chart.
A foreign authority says our contractor is really our employee — what now?
Reclassification usually brings three things at once: employer withholding and social contributions on what has already been paid, penalties for not having operated them, and a question about whether that person's activity also gave your agency a taxable presence in the country. The last is the expensive one and is often overlooked while attention goes to the payroll bill. The defence, where there is one, lies in the substance of the arrangement rather than in the wording of the contract: who directs the work, who bears the risk, whether the person works for others. We assemble that evidence first, then deal with the payroll exposure.
Do we have to tell anyone that our staff work from other countries?
Often, yes, and to more than one authority. The country the person is working in may expect payroll withholding and social contributions from the employer for work performed there. Your own country may still require withholding at the same time, with relief claimed afterwards rather than applied automatically. Social security is a separate system again, with its own coordination rules and certificates. None of this follows from where the contract says the person is based. It follows from where the work is physically done, so the first thing we ask for is a map of who was where, and for how long.
Should we set up a company abroad before signing a big foreign client?
Not automatically. A local company solves some problems and creates others: it has its own filings, its own year-end, and a transfer pricing question about what the home company charges it for the work it does. Sometimes the client's withholding and the presence question can both be addressed without incorporating anything, through a treaty claim and a clear division of where the work is performed. Sometimes the client's own procurement rules make a local entity unavoidable. The order we prefer is to settle the withholding and presence positions on the contract as drafted, then decide whether an entity earns its keep.
Can an accountant in one country file my return in another?
Yes, where they are authorised to represent you with that tax authority and the filing is done electronically. What matters is not where the adviser sits but whether they can lawfully act for you and are competent in both systems — a return prepared with no knowledge of the other country is where the relief gets missed. We file on both sides, from offices in India, the USA, Canada and the UAE. See how we work.
Do I get credit for all of the foreign tax I paid?
Only up to your own country's tax on that same income, and only for tax you were legally obliged to pay. Two consequences follow. Living somewhere that taxes you more heavily than your residence country does leaves an excess that becomes a carryover rather than a refund. And withholding suffered above the treaty rate is not creditable — the route back to that money is a refund claim in the country that took it. See claiming the credit.
