Income Tax - How much trouble am I in

Ok, first of all, please no lectures after I explain my situation. I would like only advice and solutions, hopefully that's not too much to ask.


I've been in HK for almost 3 years. When I first arrived, I obtained a dependent visa (through my wife) which permitted me to work automatically, and so I figure no worries, I can keep working for my canadian company as a consultant, and pay HK taxes in a year or so.


I never received any letter from HK tax dept, and of course it was my duty to take action, but due to my own disorganzation (and lapses in my wife's visa between contracts, and the incredibly long processing times of immigration), I then had a lapse of a few months before renewing my dependent visa, and discovered that this one said "not permitted to work". The rules had changed, whee!! By the time my wife had yet another contract and I had yet another dependent visa, I finally again had permission to work (there was a period of >1 year that this permission was not stated with a valid visa).


My problem is simple, it is this: I would like to file my income tax going back for the past 3 years. I would like to fully pay, including the time that I was not 'valid', because unless I'm mistaken, anything less is tax evasion and I do not want to go there. However, am I stuck given that I did not have a valid working visa for the whole 3 years? Will the IRD look closely at my visa situation? Is my situation complicated by the fact that my income is derived from overseas? What should my first step be in filing my taxes?


One more added complication - I haven't done a thing about MPF yet. Any comments on the implications of that appreciated.


In addition to casual advice, can someone give me contact information for a tax advisor who may be able to help me sort through this mess?


flopsy1234@hotmail.com


Thank you, and I hope this provided some form of entertainment, or perhaps I made people feel good about their own problems, since perhaps most of you are a lot less screwed than I may be.

Call Weir & Associates in the Landmark o fellow canuck and let them advise you and do your return.

Foth,


I am now permitted to work again because I expressly applied for that permission to get added to the default dependent visa, which as you say, no longer permits work. My request was approved after a fairly lengthy processing delay.


So I am officially permitted at the moment, and also when I first was here (before July 2003)- just a lapse in the middle that I'm trying to figure out if it's an issue or not.


DaHKGKid, thanks, I think I will contact Weir + Associates. Have they done a good job for you?

I can see no problem here as you are dealing with two different government departments, there is no co-ordination between them.I have been in a similar situation with both departments, just dealt with each one separately.The right hand often doesn't know what the left hand is doing.

Flipper, I had a very similar experience many years ago concenrning tax returns and validity of visa's etc. I called the IRD and their attitude was that they were grateful I had contacted them in the first place. They provided the forms for the finacial years involved and then gave me one big tax bill to cover it all, with the provisional portion based on the most recent years earnings. Whilst they can levy fines etc, it is something they rarely do if you are up front and honest with them.

Wow, thanks so much everyone for the advice. I suppose at the moment I am leaning towards just contacting IRD instead of paying the thousands of dollars that it would take to get advice that maybe I don't need.


I am still a bit nervous to do this, but I think what I hear makes a lot of sense.


Thanks again

am trying to do my husband and my Canadian taxes. We also pay HK taxes. Did you ever contact Shane Weir, the tax expert? Was he any help?

Sorry to bother you, but we need help.

Hi it's me flipper!


I just couldn't bring myself to pay the amount that the accountant wanted - I think he wanted $3500 or something.


So I obtained the forms, filled them out with my yearly income, and things went great. The forms are dead simple, only a few categories of deductions, not much work for a fancy educated accountant to do if you ask me.


I received tax bills for each of my tax years after a few weeks of filing (with due dates varying between a couple of weeks and a few months after filing date), I paid them, and I'm good to go! No penalty, no extra charges for me being late.