What makes software developers different from an ordinary filing?
A developer working remotely for a foreign employer can create a taxable presence for that employer in the country where the code is written — which turns a personal arrangement into the employer's problem. 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.
Which country's tax return should I file first?
Ordinarily the one whose tax you will be claiming credit for, because a credit claim is evidenced by the other country's assessment. If you file the residence return first you are estimating the foreign tax, and you will often be amending later. The practical sequence is: establish residence status, file where the income is sourced and the tax is withheld, obtain the assessment, then file at home and claim credit against it. Where the two filing seasons make that impossible, file on the figures available and plan for an adjustment rather than leaving a return unfiled.
Do I still file at home if I paid all my tax abroad?
Almost certainly yes. Paying tax abroad discharges the foreign liability; it does not remove a residence country's requirement to report worldwide income. In most systems the relief for foreign tax is a claim made on that very return, so not filing is precisely what forfeits it. There may also be separate reporting for foreign accounts, holdings or employer benefits that no foreign filing satisfies. The question to answer first is whether you are still resident at home, because everything else follows from it.
What if the two countries' tax years don't line up?
They often do not, and it is a scheduling problem rather than a legal one. Income earned in a single foreign year will straddle two of your home tax years, or the reverse, so the figures have to be re-cut rather than copied across. Foreign tax paid must also be matched to the income it relates to, not to the year in which it happened to be paid. Keep the underlying records by month: monthly payslips and monthly withholding can be re-cut to any year boundary, while an annual summary cannot.
Can I claim a foreign tax credit before the other country assesses me?
You can usually claim on the return, but the claim must reflect the tax finally payable rather than what was provisionally withheld. Withholding is an estimate; the assessment is the fact. If you claim on withholding and the foreign country later repays part of it, your home return is now wrong and you are obliged to correct it. Where an assessment cannot arrive in time, the ordinary course is to file with the figure available at the time and amend once the assessment issues, keeping the evidence of both.
I've missed several years of cross-border filings — where do I start?
Start by fixing the residence position for each year, because it decides which returns were due at all. Then work forward chronologically rather than filing the most recent year first: each year's carried amounts and credits feed the next, and filing out of order creates inconsistencies you will have to unpick afterwards. Before anything is submitted, establish whether a formal disclosure route is open, since the relief those routes offer is generally lost once the tax authority makes contact first.
Do I have to pay instalments in both countries?
Possibly. Instalment obligations usually arise where tax is not collected at source, so a person with foreign salary that no local payroll withholds on is a typical candidate, even though nothing is owed until the return is assessed. The two systems calculate instalments independently and neither takes account of the other's, so someone who ends up relieved by credit at home can still be required to pay there and reclaim on assessment. It is worth modelling the cash flow for a full cycle before the first one falls due.
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.
Branch or subsidiary — which should we use to expand?
A branch keeps one taxpayer: results consolidate at home, losses are usable sooner, and the exposure is that the branch is a permanent establishment whose profit the host country taxes, sometimes with a branch tax on repatriation. A subsidiary is a separate taxpayer with limited liability and local rates, at the cost of withholding on dividends home and transfer pricing on everything between them. The deciding facts are usually expected losses, liability and exit plans. See branch against subsidiary.
