Cross-Border Tax Planning

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.

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.

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