I am an engineer who has been working from home as a F/T employee with benefits and want to move to Toronto and continue working for that US-based company. Is that possible? What steps do I need to take?
You’ll need to ask your company if they’re willing to let you work remotely.
Make sure you work out your tax situation with your company as well. The simplest situation would be if your company has a Canadian entity and can pay you via that, it’s slightly more complex ( but definitely feasible ) if they only have a US entity and the US entity pays you.
Hi Karthik,
I am also wondering about this. My employer will let me work remotely for sure but they dont have Canadian entity so do you know what are the complexities involved in such a scenario?
You can form your own LLC in Canada (costs a few hundred CAD) and work as contractor for your company or the company can set up a subsidiary for you in Canada and pay through that (might be more complex). I’m not sure how the US taxes will work in either scenario, but you will definitely have to pay Canadian taxes.
@vik might know about this.
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I was typing up the tax situation being the most complex issue with regard to this Work from Home scenario.
Based on the way I understand this, if you are paid via the US entity you would have to pay taxes to US Govt. Now you will be working in Canada so you would have to pay local taxes as well.
I’m no tax expert, but I think if your company is willing to let you work from home in Canada, when time comes it would be wise to see if the company has any employers that have done this in the past. Also see if they have done this process in the past.
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Whatever @vignesh.pr said. Also, if I were you I’d spend some $$ consulting a professional so that you avoid headaches in the future.
Thanks a lot @vignesh.pr and @avj for your responses. There are few employees who are working remotely but they are working from India. Nobody is working from Canada so this is what I need to check. And yes I will take professional help if needed.
Check which entity the people in India are getting paid from, that will be the key question.
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There are no LLC’s in Canada it’s either a Corporation, Firm or self employed. Also an individual or a company in Canada is allowed to receive payments from almost anywhere in the world (for the most part). Taxes obviously apply. Also there is a treaty between the US and Canada to prevent double taxation, easy to Google it up.
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Hi All,
I found this PEO link: https://canadianpayrollservices.com/us-employers-with-h1b-employees/
and I got a bit confused. They claim that they would be able to act as payroll for US employer, more like you being their employee working for your US employer and they would be able to convert that into a valid job offer which can be used to get more points for express entry. This is an exact statement in their article " A Canadian-based PEO agency with the commitment of the US employer can provide the H-1B worker with a Canadian job offer for his/her Canada Express Entry application." I would like to know from folks here if this is possible. Since many US employers do allow their employees to work remotely.
Sounds something like a consultancy would do. What’s their cut?
Hi @rjtbansal by any chance you were able to know more on this. This would be very helpful for my situation to know if I can have additional points from Canadian entity committing to US employer
Not as of now and I am a bit apprehensive to bring this up with my employer at this stage since I havent started my express entry process yet. Will update here when I get to know how exactly this will work.
Hi, I am in the same boat now and trying to figure out the best way to do so. What did you finally end up doing?
Anybody have more info on this topic? Living in Canada Working remotely for US Employee?
@ChinC You can work for a US employer through a PEO agency - they basically run your payroll and take care of insurance (dental, etc…). You will be paid in CAD. I’m sure there are other options - set up a corporation in Canada and work as a contractor for a US employer which I haven’t explored.