Cross Border Tax Consultants

Canada is a top immigration destination for people across the world; both from developing and developed countries. There are many positive sides to immigrating to Canada. One of the areas where all the new immigrants dread while coming to Canada is “Income Taxes”! Yes, individual income taxes or personal income taxes, are extremely high in Canada as compared to the neighbouring United States. This is even higher for those coming from the middle eastern countries with no income taxes at all. So if you are moving from a country where there are no income taxes such as the United Arab Emirates or other gulf countries, you must prepare yourself to start paying income taxes. You can take a couple of steps before immigrating to Canada such as: 1. Establish your date of change of residency. Tax residency and immigration residency are two different things. 2. Try to realize Capital gains before the date of immigration. If not, arrange for the fair market value of all of your assets as of...

As per the income tax laws and rules in Canada, tax residents of Canada must report their worldwide income. Often, taxpayers miss reporting their income or assets. Such non-compliance can be either intentional or unintentional. Taxpayers who have not reported their income in Canada when they should have, are always on the hook for penalties. If the amounts involved are not substantial, normal penalties apply. However, when the tax omissions cross certain thresholds or are intentional, there are gross negligence penalties and even criminal prosecution.     CRA Voluntary Disclosure Program Luckily, CRA runs a program called the Voluntary Disclosure Program a.k.a. VDP. Under the voluntary disclosure program, taxpayers are granted relief from the penalties and the criminal prosecution. In some cases, interest amounts are reduced as well. VDP Application Requirements For an application to qualify under the CRA VDP program, it must meet the following five conditions. 1. The app...

Since the taxation system of Canada and U.S. are different it needs careful planning and consideration when Canadian Businesses want to expand into the United States. If you are a Canadian business want to operate in the US, you need to adopt any one of the four business structures: • U.S. Branch of a Canadian Corporation • U.S. Subsidiary of a Canadian Corporation • U.S. Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) • U.S. Limited Partnership (LP) Picking the right structure is a critical decision which can cost dearly if made wrong. Canada US tax Treaty overrides many provisions of Internal Revenue Code (IRC) in the United States and Income Tax Act (ITA) in Canada. For example, even if you have an effectively connected income for your business, the net business profits might be exempt from US taxes if the Canadian business does not have a permanent establishment as defined in treaty. If certain income is exempted from US taxes, it does not exempt Canadian business from reporting. General...

The first part of your business plan that a potential customer will want to check out is the executive summary. It is a brief glance at the vital elements of the whole plan – and it is critical. To help you, here we have listed 5 useful tips on how to pen down a professional-looking executive summary. So, let’s get started! Keep it brief but interesting: Your executive summary must explain the main highlights of your business plan, and leaves out less critical issues & factors. Though it is tough for many entrepreneurs to summarize the whole plan into a few words, it certainly can be accomplished by considering a few things: Consider your summary as an elevator pitch • Use it as a selling tool • Steer clear of jargons or explanations • No need to include graphs, charts, or figure • Add key metrics that ascertain your capabilities & performance Talk about market opportunities: Your business opportunities should be crystal clear in your executive summary. Make the reader aw...