# Self-employed, would like to consider relocation to Canada



## TCat (May 26, 2011)

Not sure if this is the correct forum, but I'm wondering if someone out there was in a similar situation. I am fortunate enough to be able to make a living without having to go to a specific office or location and can work from home, doing most of my work over the internet. I would like to leave the US and go to Canada, preferably a smaller town and not a major city. 

If my US-based business makes money in the US, would I have to pay taxes to Canada also? Are there ways to structure entities such that my tax situation makes sense?

Note, I found this link titled "Self-Employed Work: Canadian Visa Bureau" (but am not allowed to post the link here because of posting restrictions."

I could buy a small farm outright to satisfy visa requirements and put a home on it, but I'm not sure how much revenue/profit I would have to produce in order to qualify for this visa. I'm willing to explore options to gain residency. I'm interested more in semi-rural living, about an hour away from a somewhat sizable city -- decent internet access is a must for my business.

When I looked at buying a home in Canada, the realtor told me that it was fine for me to go there as a visitor, but that once every 6 months, I had to return back to the US unless I had some better immigration arrangement. To me, the ideal situation would be to have some kind of dual citizenship type arrangement -- but without excessive tax headaches.

The second issue is that my fiancée is NOT self-employed. What is the correct course of action to enable her to seek employment in Canada given my situation?

I have several reasons for wanting to relocate, but the biggest draw for me is just that I think our neighbor to the north has less people, more space, and is just naturally beautiful.

Any advice would be helpful.


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## Auld Yin (Mar 10, 2009)

TCat said:


> Not sure if this is the correct forum, but I'm wondering if someone out there was in a similar situation. I am fortunate enough to be able to make a living without having to go to a specific office or location and can work from home, doing most of my work over the internet. I would like to leave the US and go to Canada, preferably a smaller town and not a major city.
> 
> If my US-based business makes money in the US, would I have to pay taxes to Canada also? Are there ways to structure entities such that my tax situation makes sense?
> If you are a legal Canadian resident you are required to declare all your world-wide income to Canadian government. If you paid tax in USA it will be offset by Canada and vice versa.
> ...


Good Luck.


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## TCat (May 26, 2011)

Auld Yin said:


> Good Luck.


With regard to these offsets, if my taxes are lower in the US and Canadian taxes are higher, do I end up paying the difference to Canada? Do I end up paying the higher of the two either way?


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## Auld Yin (Mar 10, 2009)

TCat said:


> With regard to these offsets, if my taxes are lower in the US and Canadian taxes are higher, do I end up paying the difference to Canada? Do I end up paying the higher of the two either way?


IIRC, US taxes are due by April 15th. each year whereas Canada it is by April 30th. If you paid US taxes then filed Canadian taxes, they would be reduced by the US amount.


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