BorderlessWealth CPA

cross border tax planning

Canada & US Cross-Border Tax Planning

What is Cross-Border Tax Planning?

Cross-Border Tax Planning is our premier niche service for delivering ROI to:

  • Canadian Technology start-ups contemplating setting up US operations, attracting capital from US investors, hiring US-based talent, re-locating IP, issuing equity to cross-border employees, etc.
  • US Technology start-ups contemplating Canadian expansion, hiring Canadian talent, and accessing generous Canadian R&D tax credits.
  • Canadian eCommerce business with growing sales into the US and internationally.
  • Online entrepreneurs, digital nomads, and service-based businesses who are currently operating in a borderless environment.

Our Process

Follow These Steps
Free Consultation Call

This is a discovery call where we discuss your current cross-border tax and accounting situation, needs, and objectives. This is also a chance for you to learn about us. If there is a potential for us to add value your business, we will proceed with the next step.

Gathering Information

We will also prepare a questionnaire for you to answer and request you to send us the financials, tax returns, organizational chart, projections, and other relevant information to be determined. The goal at this stage is to understand your business so that the right cross-border tax strategy is implemented.

Presentation of Findings & Proposal

If we discover there are opportunities to minimize tax, improve cash flow, and ROI, we will provide you with proposal and a fee-quote. If you want to move forward, we will formalize the engagement and execute a services agreement.


Design of Tax Plan

This is where we present the customized cross-border tax plan in detail (which may include various options and associated step plan) along with the tax implications, cash flow implications, ROI estimation, corporate/operational considerations, and other relevant matters which need to be addressed.

Implementation Assistance

Working with founders, Management, employees, and external advisors to execute the tax plan. This step would include reviewing any legal agreements from a tax perspective; advising on any intercompany accounting matters; tax registration/setup of new entities created; set-up of accounting processes for new entities; assisting with re-designing operational processes if required.

Outsourced Accounting & Tax Support

After implementation, we offer full-service Outsourced Accounting Services to provide on-going support in tax planning, tax compliance, accounting, and payroll for both Canadian and US entities.

Frequently Asked Questions​

If your business already involves operations and personnel located in Canada, the U.S. and other countries, but you have never received any cross-border tax advice, we can assess whether or not there can be cross-border tax planning opportunities to improve your cash flow, ROI, and identify/resolve unforeseen tax risks.

For growing e-commerce businesses and online entrepreneurs, sales to US consumers will comprise of a large portion of total sales given the size of the US market. It is prudent to seek advice from a cross-border tax specialist so that their US and global expansion is conducted tax-efficiently, while staying compliant and mitigating tax risks.

For Canadian Technology start-ups contemplating raising capital from US investors, participate in US incubators/accelerator programs, setting up US operations, hiring US-based talent, and re-locating IP, etc, cross-border tax planning will be critical to accommodate future growth and exit.

Canadian Technology start-ups contemplating setting up US operations, attracting capital from US investors, hiring US-based talent, re-locating IP, issuing equity to cross-border employees, etc.

US Technology start-ups contemplating Canadian expansion, hiring Canadian talent, and accessing generous Canadian R&D tax credits.

Canadian eCommerce business with growing sales into the US and internationally.

Online entrepreneurs, digital nomads, and service-based businesses who are currently operating in a borderless environment.

 

Based on your current circumstances and goals for the future, we will determine the most appropriate strategies for your situation, which may include, but are not limited to:

  1. US entity choice (C-Corp, limited partnership, LLC, etc) for Canadian companies expanding into the US.
  2. Canadian companies setting up subsidiaries in foreign jurisdictions and establishing substance/operations therein.
  3. Funding strategies of foreign entity (loan vs. equity).
  4. Intercompany charges (royalties, management fees, and other service fees).
  5. Intellectual property (IP) licensing or transfer.
  6. Repatriation of cash and profits from foreign subsidiaries back to home country (dividends, return of capital, loans, repayment of intercompany charges).
  7. Cross-border equity compensation (stock options, restricted stocks, restricted stock units (RSU’s), etc).
  8. Domestic tax planning (US and Canada).
  9. Hiring remote employees and contactors across the world.

Other than Continuing Professional Education hour requirements (both in US and Canada), we have professional research software and subscriptions that provide the latest updates on changes to the Income Tax Act (Canada), and the Internal Revenue Code (US).

Definitely. We found that a majority of our clients have not received adequate cross-border tax advice or planning from their former CPA’s or tax advisors. This is generally the case especially in the internet age where it is easy for Canadians to incorporate online. If a Canadian founder incorporated a US LLC to do business without seeking any tax advice, they will be a costly mistake if not rectified sooner or later.

A critical part of our cross-border tax planning process onboarding process (for new clients) will involve in-depth assessment of at least the prior two years of tax returns and financial statements (if available) for potential errors and opportunities.

If any errors or opportunities are discovered, you will be made aware of their implications, and the options you have to fix them. We will design a step-by-step plan to fix the problems and/or maximize the opportunities.

We constantly hear this as a pain point for our clients.

In recognition of this, we have a 48 hour email response policy. If any client email involve complex questions requiring additional time, we will ensure our clients are given a heads up within 48 hours that we are looking into the question.

We take pride in being very responsive (as shown on our Google reviews).

The cost will dependent on many factors including the complexity of your situation, your objectives, scope, cash saving opportunities identified, availability of information, etc.

During the free consultation and initial assessment stage, we will be able to understand your needs and the scope so that a fee quote will be provided to you.

As a boutique independent CPA firm, we want to make cross-border tax planning more accessible to small to medium online businesses.

We have helped online businesses save over $200k in annual cash flow which yielded a ROI (3 year horizon) of 15x their investment in our cross-border tax strategies.
 
In certain cases, our review of clients’ current cross-border tax structures have enabled us to identify risks and contingent liabilities. While this may not provide a return in the form of additional cash flow, this will still benefit the client because the liabilities can be addressed in a timely manner. This will add significant value when you are seeking funding from investors/banks or an exit. Third party investors, banks, and potential acquirers will conduct due diligence on your financials and tax structure before making an investment. If they identify significant contingent liabilities from a tax perspective, it could hurt the valuation of your business and adversely affect the growth and exit potential of your company.
 
In other cases, some of our clients have said that simply gaining clarity and peace of mind that they are not missing out on any major tax savings opportunities (and/or no errors identified) have made the investment in our services worthwhile.
Yes, we do. We offer accounting system setup (QBO) and on-going monthly full-cycle bookkeeping, accounting, intercompany accounting, payroll and financial statement preparation for our US and Canadian clients.  However, at the moment, the service is generally only available to our cross-border tax-planning clients who find value in our Outsourced Accounting Services monthly packages.  We are understand the ins and outs of intercompany accounting and consolidation accounting for a corporate group involving entities in multiple jurisdictions.  Not only that we include on-going US, Canada, and cross-border tax planning and compliance services so that the right structure is implemented concurrent with your company’s life cycle.  

When transferring data to and from clients we use Google Suite. This platform meets SOC 2 compliance requirements, a framework designed by the AICPA to safeguard the storage and transfer of customer data in the cloud.

SOC 2 opinions are issued by independent third-party auditors covering the principles of Security, Availability, Confidentiality, and Privacy.

To get started please visit our Get Started webpage  If you fit the our client profile and is contemplating (or already have) cross-border activities, please fill out the webform and include as much detail about your tax and financial situation as possible.  Once the webform is submitted, you will be able to book a call directly in my calendar.  The more details you can provide, the more informative our call will be.