tax-law
Having two bank accounts in two countries
<p>Let us say that I have two residences, one in Belgium and the other one in France.
Let us also say that I have in each country a bank account opened with a document issued in that country.
If I receive a salary in each country for some part-time jobs while I split my life between the countries, what would the tax implications be?
Would I be liable to pay French taxes from my French Salary and Belgian taxes from my Belgian salary (I assume everything withdrawn from the source already) or would I have to do something else?
And, not willing to circumvent any law, but could the fiscal authority of each country get to realise that I have a bank account in the other country and tell me something about it?</p>
<p>I'm assuming at the moment that nothing would be wrong as long as I pay French taxes from my French salary and Belgian taxes from my Belgian salary, so no fraud or theft.</p>
<p>And if they get to realise that I have an other bank account, what could potentially trigger that?</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I'm not willing to commit any offense whatoever, I'm simply asking whether to keep everything separate in each country is possible</p>

<p>The place where you keep your bank accounts has virtually nothing to do with your tax liability.</p>
<p>Your tax liability arises from what the taxing country says is subject to taxation. Generally, this must be disclosed in a tax return in which you affirm that you are telling the taxing jurisdiction everything that is relevant to their tax obligations.</p>
<p>Usually, your obligation to report your income to taxing authorities is backed up by a system of information reporting (by people other than or in addition to banks) under which people who make payments that are likely to be subject to taxation have to report making those payment to taxing authorities in some fashion or another.</p>
<p>While you do almost surely owe French taxes on a salary earned in France, and you do almost surely owe Belgian taxes on your Belgian income, this isn't the end of the story. Sometimes taxes are imposes on income other than salary, and sometimes taxes are imposed on extraterritorial salary. Often, even if extraterritorial income isn't taxed, it at least is relevant to determining what tax bracket you are in for your domestic income.</p>
<p>Tax laws are so varied from country to country that it is not meaningfully possible to analyze the question in the general case. You really need to know which taxing jurisdictions are involved, what kind of income you have, and other additional information relevant in any of those countries to your tax obligations.</p>
