Advertising across the border. Canada and USA edition.
November 5, 2017 6:19 PM   Subscribe

My partner has started a small print publication in the Pacific NW, and a Canadian company would like to advertise in it. She's concerned about the legality and tax implication of this. YANAL, but does anyone know about cross border print advertising?

Oh, and a bonus caveat: she's a Canadian national, but a US resident. Hence the concern here - she doesn't want to do anything that messes with Canadian tax law or her residency status.

Thanks in advance for any advice!
posted by juice boo to Law & Government (2 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: If you're concerned about legality and tax then you really should find a tax firm experienced with cross-border scenarios. The fact you've left really basic information out of your questions leads me to believe this is not an ideal venue for your answer. Here's an attempt at an answer and note that there's actually 3 questions with different answers/scenarios: sales tax, reported/income tax, and immigration status.

Sales tax:
Presuming the print publication is US-based. In practice, if the foreign component of the business is under $30k CAD/year, no Canadian tax needs to be charged and does not need to be reported on the Canada-side. Depending on prouct and manner of export, some states may require you to charge local tax, but it is unlikely for an intangible service with no shipping.

Income tax:
Per above assumptions, unless you're already filing income tax in Canada, you do not need to start doing so. You should count this income in your standard local US income tax filing (with appropriate currency conversion to USD).

Immigration status:
When you say US resident to you mean US Permanent Resident or Citizen? If so this is fine. Or do they have some other immigrant visa status? This doesn't have to do with cross-border transactions but if their status does not allow them to work in the US (or with restrictions) then they should not be collecting revenue for a business. Beyond that, the status of the individuals is not relevant to the question - it's where the 2 business entities (publication and client business) are based that is of concern.
posted by artificialard at 11:56 AM on November 6, 2017 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thanks artificialard - the next step would definitely be to find a tax firm with cross-border experience. And yeah, this is definitely a non-ideal venue for the question, but actually your answer was very helpful!

The publication is indeed US based. I thought I implied that with Pacific NW, brilliantly forgetting that BC is the PacNW. And yes, she is a US Permanent Resident.

Better phrased (and better understood now), the questions are: as a Canadian, if her US based company takes money from a Canadian company, does she have to file any Canadian taxes? Either individually or as a company? (Which it sounds like: no).

Apologies that these questions are so difficult to put in the right words. Thanks for helping us find them, though.
posted by juice boo at 7:35 PM on November 6, 2017


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