Cross-border tax advice fails in a predictable way: the adviser is asked to bless a plan, and the facts arrive later, in a different shape. A review worth paying for starts with a pack. You can assemble most of it without knowing the answer.
People first
For each adult: citizenships, where they live, where they work, days in the countries that might care, and any home they can use. Children and a spouse are not footnotes if their residence differs or if they own something. A single ‘we moved in June’ is not this pack.
Income, assets and entities
List income by type and by the country it comes from: salary, rent, dividends, business profits. List the companies, partnerships and trusts, where they are incorporated, and where decisions are taken. An organisation chart on one page saves an hour of archaeology. Include pensions and life policies. They are often forgotten until they are the point.
Agree the scope
Ask which countries the reviewer will consider, which taxes, and what they will not do — immigration, for example, or a formal opinion on a treaty article. Ask what would change the advice if a fact moved. A review that pretends to cover ‘everything international’ is a review that will miss the thing you did not mention.
Arrive with facts, and leave with a list of what is still unknown
A useful cross-border review starts from a timeline and a list of assets, not from a hope that a country is ‘tax free’. Prepare a year-by-year note of where you lived, worked and kept a home. List accounts, property, pensions, companies and trusts, and the country connected to each. List income by type. Then let the adviser tell you which facts matter. Correcting a wrong fact in the meeting is a success. Hiding one because it complicates the story is how the advice fails later.
Ask the adviser which taxes they are and are not covering. Income tax, capital gains, inheritance or estate tax, social security and local property taxes are different engagements. Ask which countries they are qualified to speak about, and who will speak about the other one. A review that is silent on the country you left is not finished.
What to send before the meeting
Send the day count, addresses, contracts, valuations and the last returns you filed, with enough time for them to be read. If you have a letter from a previous adviser, send that too, and say whether you followed it. If you did not, say that. The new adviser cannot see a departure from advice unless you tell them.
Leave with notes of what will be filed, by whom, and what you must not do in the meantime — for example encash a portfolio or transfer a pension — until a point they have named. Those instructions are the valuable part of the meeting. File them with the documents you brought. If the advice is that your position is uncertain, that uncertainty is a result. It is better than a confident sentence nobody will sign.
Before you act
After the meeting, send a short note of what you think was decided and ask the adviser to correct it. Misunderstandings about which country will be filed in, and which decisions are on hold, are cheaper to fix in that note than in a return. Ask what would change the advice: a home you have not yet sold, a spouse with a different day count, a company you direct. If one of those is likely, say so now. Keep the note with the documents you sent. If a bank or a platform later asks you to certify your tax residence, use the advice rather than a faster answer in an online form. Where the advice says the position is uncertain, repeat that uncertainty rather than tidying it.
A practical checklist
- Citizenships and residence facts per person.
- Day record.
- Income list by source country.
- Entity chart with where decisions are taken.
- Asset list: property, portfolios, pensions, policies.
- Last returns you have filed, and where.
Questions to ask
- Which taxes and which years are in scope?
- What facts would change your view?
- Do you need a lawyer in the other country for any piece?
- What should I stop doing until you have looked?
- What records should I start keeping now?
Common mistakes
- Asking for confirmation of a structure you have already signed.
- Forgetting a company you ‘barely use’.
- One person’s days for the whole family.
- Hiding a fact because it complicates the story.
- Treating the meeting as a filing service.
WiT Access provides general information and comparison resources. Nothing on this website constitutes financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Always consider obtaining advice from an appropriately qualified professional.
