HOW WOULD A BUSINESS CO-OWNED BY A US CITIZEN AND A CANADIAN CITIZEN FILE TAXES?

I am meditative of combining the LLC or Corp with the Canadian collegue of mine, though the bit confused about taxation time. To have counts some-more complicated, this is an internet commercial operation scored equally to the bank comment in the US.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

dave s August 20, 2010 at 7:38 pm

Well, if it is an LLC, then I believe that the tax liability of the owners is not really relevent, but it is where the LLC is registered. I know that there are certain exceptions such as an S type corp

A N August 20, 2010 at 7:46 pm

Where is teh buisness incorporated or registered? This will answer the question.

TaxMan August 20, 2010 at 8:33 pm

You have lots of tax implications to consider. I have listed a few of them below and then offer a suggestion for your consideration.

1) If the LLC or Corp does business in both Canada and the US, you will need to file both Canadian (federal and provincial) and US (federal and state) income tax returns. If you pay salaries, you will also need to file Canadian and US payroll tax returns (and withhold and remit taxes).

2) The simple presence of computer equipment or software on a third-party’s computer could also require you to register, collect and remit the federal Goods & Services Tax (GST) and the provincial Sales Tax (PST or QST). On the positive side, GST paid is refundable.

3) If you use a US LLC or S-Corporation, then you must determine how much of the profit is related to the US activity and pay over to the US 35% of the US profit earned related to the Canadian citizen’s share of the LLC income, whether or not dividends are paid.

4) If you use a regular US Corporation, you will have both a corporate tax and the shareholder will have tax on corporate dividends received. You will need to file a corporate form 1120 and a form 5472 showing information about the Canadian citizen pwner.

5) Usually, the U.S.-Canada income tax treaty reduces the rate of tax on payments from one country to the other. However, Canada does not accept this to be the case with US LLCs, and so payments from Canada to the US LLC could be at withholding tax rates as high as 30%.

6) I can go on and on with the complexities of your situation, but let me offer a suggestion:

To simplify matters, you may want to consider a single-owner U.S. LLC with an independent contractor compensation agreement with the Canadian citizen based on profits that the LLC earns. This way, payments by the LLC to the Canadian citizen are not subject to U.S. withholding and helps you avoid establishing a taxable Canadian presence requiring you to file Canadian tax returns of all types. A single owner LLC is a “disregarded entity” meaning that you do not need to file U.S. income tax returns for the LLC. Instead, you include the income on Schedule C filed with your Form 1040.

Good luck on your venture!

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