5 ms·

Can someone knowledgeable about this issue comment about legal / tax feasibility of getting a remote job with a US company and living in Canada or elsewhere abr

Can someone knowledgeable about this issue comment about legal / tax feasibility of getting a remote job with a US company and living in Canada or elsewhere abroad?

dleslie 6y ago
I work for an American company and live in Metro Vancouver. In fact, around half the team lives here. We own shares in the American company and are paid through a Canadian subsidiary. That compensation scheme avoids burdening the employees with the difficulty of declaring foreign earnings come tax time. So for the most part it's the same as working for a Canadian company, but the pay is better.
- tfleming 6y ago
  Awesome! That's like the ideal situation right there. I'm an American that moved to Canada back in 2002 and worked as a contractor for my US employer for more than 4 years. The yearly tax stuff drove me insane.
  - dleslie 6y ago
    It's not so much ideal as a nice compromise. I'm still earning much less than I would with similar experience doing similar work in _Seattle_, but I get to stay in Canada and earn more than I could easily manage working for a local company.
jimgo84 6y ago
Do you have any specific questions? I am a Canadian, living in Canada, working remotely for a bay area company. Non-us based employees at the company are technically contractors where I work. It's pretty easy come tax time. You need to pay the full cpp amount, as opposed to half if you were working for a Canadian company, and I find the tax writeoffs to be quite meager, but I don't have any complaints in general.
- Caylio 6y ago
  Do you get payed exactly the same as your US coworkers? If not, is they pay still better than at canadian companies?
  - jimgo84 6y ago
    Yes and yes.
bawolff 6y ago
I used to work for a US company as a remote employee (contractor). I'm a canadian citizen, so it will be different if you dont have the right to work here, but for me its pretty easy. You're basically considered self-employeed and have to declare your income. You also have to register for a GST number (you don't have to charge gst, but you do have to report charging $0. Its weird). The tax forms are easy enough you can definitely just print them out and fill out yourself, or hire a tax person to do them for you. (Disclaimer: not an accountant, hire a real one if you want real tax advice). I have no idea how it works if your not a citizen. In general i think work visas are fairly easy to get if you are a skilled worker like a software engineer, especially coming from a NAFTA country.

Can someone knowledgeable about this issue comment about legal / tax feasibility of getting a remote job with a US company and living in Canada or elsewhere abroad?

dleslie 6y ago

I work for an American company and live in Metro Vancouver. In fact, around half the team lives here. We own shares in the American company and are paid through a Canadian subsidiary. That compensation scheme avoids burdening the employees with the difficulty of declaring foreign earnings come tax time. So for the most part it's the same as working for a Canadian company, but the pay is better.

tfleming 6y ago
Awesome! That's like the ideal situation right there. I'm an American that moved to Canada back in 2002 and worked as a contractor for my US employer for more than 4 years. The yearly tax stuff drove me insane.
- dleslie 6y ago
  It's not so much ideal as a nice compromise. I'm still earning much less than I would with similar experience doing similar work in _Seattle_, but I get to stay in Canada and earn more than I could easily manage working for a local company.

jimgo84 6y ago

Do you have any specific questions? I am a Canadian, living in Canada, working remotely for a bay area company. Non-us based employees at the company are technically contractors where I work. It's pretty easy come tax time. You need to pay the full cpp amount, as opposed to half if you were working for a Canadian company, and I find the tax writeoffs to be quite meager, but I don't have any complaints in general.

Caylio 6y ago
Do you get payed exactly the same as your US coworkers? If not, is they pay still better than at canadian companies?
- jimgo84 6y ago
  Yes and yes.

bawolff 6y ago

I used to work for a US company as a remote employee (contractor). I'm a canadian citizen, so it will be different if you dont have the right to work here, but for me its pretty easy. You're basically considered self-employeed and have to declare your income. You also have to register for a GST number (you don't have to charge gst, but you do have to report charging $0. Its weird). The tax forms are easy enough you can definitely just print them out and fill out yourself, or hire a tax person to do them for you. (Disclaimer: not an accountant, hire a real one if you want real tax advice). I have no idea how it works if your not a citizen. In general i think work visas are fairly easy to get if you are a skilled worker like a software engineer, especially coming from a NAFTA country.